A new nonprofit that has set its sights on gun control in Tennessee is run by wealthy Republican and Democrat political insiders, The Tennessee Star has found.
Voices for a Safer Tennessee pitches itself as an upstart group comprised of both Democrats and Republicans that spontaneously formed in the wake of The Covenant School shooting in Nashville on March 27.
According to the group’s website:
Safer TN began as two groups. The first group formed in the halls of the State Capitol when several moms who knew each other happened to be in the same place at the same time with the same purpose in mind: doing something to make Tennessee safer. They decided to host a meeting to share information and ideas with like-minded people. More than 35 attended, and it kept growing.
The second group started when two neighbors, also moms, agreed they needed to do something but weren’t sure where to begin. Being in the South, they started with food and fellowship, inviting their friends to lunch to discuss what they could all do together. Again, more than 35 women showed up.
The site says Voices for a Safer Tennessee grew rapidly and boasts more than 1,000 members statewide.
But a brief analysis of the organization’s Board of Directors reveals that those in charge of the group are not grassroots activists but experienced political operatives.
Todd Cruse is the organization’s chairman.
His biography on Voices for a Safer Tennessee’s website says he “began his career in politics by serving in the administration of a Tennessee governor in the late 1990s.” That governor was Gov. Don Sundquist, a Republican.
Cruse (pictured above) was the executive vice president and president of Care Group for DentaQuest until the end of 2022, a company official told The Star.
According to the Voices for a Safer Tennessee website, Cruse “has spent the last 20 years in healthcare, where he most recently led one of the nation’s largest dental delivery systems, in addition to directing the activities of a multi-state Political Action Committee.”
A political action committee dubbed “DentaQuest PAC,” according to OpenSecrets, gave $77,000 to a state Republican training organization called GOPAC during the 2022 election cycle.
Federal Election Commission records show Todd Cruse as the Treasurer for DentaQuest PAC in the 2022 filings.
The DentaQuest spokesperson confirmed Cruse was a member of the DentaQuest PAC committee, “but was not individually responsible for any contributions made.”
GOPAC’s tagline is “Educating and Electing a New Generation of Republican Leaders.”
Records show that DentaQuest PAC also donated $10,000 to the Democratic Lieutenant Governor’s Organization, and a sizable sum to the left-wing fundraising platform ActBlue.
The president of Voices for a Safer Tennessee is Nicole Smith.
Smith is the senior vice president of External Affairs for Tennesseans for Quality Early Education, a group that lobbies the General Assembly for various education causes.
“Following the Covenant School shooting, Nicole felt compelled to use her professional skills, along with her passion to create change, to help address the ongoing gun violence in her home state,” according to Voices for a Safer Tennessee’s website. “She is a founding board member of Voices for a Safer Tennessee and resides in Nashville with her husband and two young sons.”
Jill Talbert is a member of the group’s Board of Directors. She is a career lobbyist.
“Jill Talbert has been lobbying the Tennessee General Assembly since she graduated law school in 2005. In 2012, she launched her own lobbying firm, Talbert Government Relations LLC. She is proud to be one of Tennessee’s few female-founded, female-owned government relations firms,” according to her biography on the organization’s website.
The biography notes that she is “a gun owner and supporter of the 2nd Amendment,” but she “also sees a path for Tennessee to prevent such a senseless, devastating act from happening again.”
“Jill firmly believes that her respect for the 2nd Amendment and her gun ownership are not in conflict with her efforts to make all Tennesseans safer by advocating for responsible reforms,” the biography says. “The two are simply not mutually exclusive.”
Gov. Bill Lee (R) called a special session of the General Assembly, which will be held in August.
The explicit purpose of the special session is to address gun control.
Lee has called for red flag laws before the session, with the Republican-controlled General Assembly pushing back.
“Any red flag law is a non-starter for House Republicans,” the House majority party said on Twitter in mid-April. “Our caucus is focused on finding solutions that prevent dangerous individuals from harming the public and preserve the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. We have always been open to working with Governor Lee on measures that fit within that framework.”
The session is still planned to commence as scheduled.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
Photo “Todd Cruse” by Todd Cruse. Background Photo “Tennessee Capitol” by FaceMePLS. CC BY 2.0.
Editors note: This article has been updated to reflect Todd Cruse’s employment with DentaQuest came to a close at the end of 2022.
I am curious if Cruse, as part of the Sunquistadors, thought TennCare and the illegal alien (child rapist soccer coach) driver’s license were good ideas.
Also curious if his Dentaquest PAC donated to Bob Ramsey, who introduced legislation that would have allowed dentists to administer Covid-19 “vaccines” to children without parents’ knowledge or consent.
Excellent thoughts. The best defense against a crazed, bad guy with a gun is a sane, good guy with a gun. If it’s an SRO, fantastic, but they can’t be in every classroom, door and entrance. Let’s stop making our kids targets for mass killings with these “gun free zone” schools!
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. At this point in our nations history I wouldn’t trust anyone who claims to be a democrat. As to republicans who support “common sense gun control” you are a fool.
The two greatest impediments to the takeover of our nation by the globalist/socialists are President Donald Trump, and our right to own firearms, including AR-15 platform firearms.
ERPO laws are noting more than the first step to mandatory firearms registration, which will then lead to confiscation. If that doesn’t seem possible to you, I suggest you bone up on world history. The current administration is doing all it can legally (and illegally) to disarm America. Is this the ravings of of an insurrectionist? Certainly not. Anyone with a lick of sense can see where our Nation is being driven and it isn’t good.
“Jill Talbert has been lobbying the Tennessee General Assembly since she graduated law school in 2005.
The biography notes that she is *** “a gun owner and supporter of the 2nd Amendment,” but ***/she “also sees a path for Tennessee to prevent such a senseless, devastating act from happening again.”
ANOTHER “SECOND AMENDMENT BUT”TER
“Jill firmly believes that her respect for the 2nd Amendment and her gun ownership are not in conflict with her efforts to make all Tennesseans safer by advocating for responsible reforms,” the biography says. “The two are simply not mutually exclusive.” In 2012, she launched her own lobbying firm, Talbert Government Relations LLC. She is proud to be one of Tennessee’s few female-founded, female-owned government relations firms,” according to her biography on the organization’s website.
The Second Amendment states “the Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED”!
CLEAR, PLAIN, SIMPLE, UNAMBIGUOUS ENGLISH.
“Lobbying” = Another word for funneling money
“PAC” = Another word for funneling money
“Uniparty” = PAC’s who lobby congress…State or Fed
Translation: “So far, we haven’t been able to bribe enough politicians to get them to ignore the Second Amendment, but we’re working on it.”
Guns do not jump into peoples hands and commit crimes. It is not a matter of being able to take guns away from people, we already know who these people are. Stop allowing them access to the gun in the first place. Enforcement of existing laws and prevention through a mentally stable society solves this problem. When you normalize and excuse bad behavior and mental disorders you breakdown civil relationships.
Excellent investigative journalism! Thank you.
Article I, Section 26, of the Tennessee State Constitution:
That the citizens of this state have a right to keep and to bear arms for their common defense; but the Legislature shall have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms with a view to prevent crime.
During this special session, if it is actually called, the legislators will likely review codes:
Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-13xx
If any changes are made, they should make it EASIER for law abiding citizens to carry. Altering some of the subsection chapters can make this happen.
especially change -1309 (c)(1) to allow the carry of weapons, by non-students, on school grounds in an effort to dissuade the criminal element from thinking that a school is a gun free zone where there would be no resistance to violent malintent.
This could, perhaps, be joined with a program funding voluntary active shooter training for any school teacher and/or administrator who desires such training. This rarely needed skill set will buttress the defense against criminal intent of criminal gun use violence.
When coupled with the state offer to fund SROs (assuming it is utilized) this would most effectively stop any potential violent perpetrator from considering to attack vulnerable children.
perhaps – 1311,1359 and other subsections should be reviewed, as well.