Tag: Steve Gill

Steve Gill Analysis: Beware of Polls That Hide Key Details

Tennessee Star Staff

On the Wednesday edition of The Gill Report, broadcast on Knoxville’s 92.3 FM WETR, Steve Gill explained the perils of giving too much credence to polls that hide key details about their methodology. Case in point: A recent poll conducted by the Democratic polling firm PPP on the U.S. Senate race in Tennessee between Democrat Phil Bredesen and Republican Marsha Blackburn. “I mentioned at the outside of the show that PPP had done a new poll that is being reported across the state showing that former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, is leading Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, the front runner for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, 46 percent to 41 percent in a new poll that they’ve conducted,” Gill said. “I just wanted you to be aware of some of the problems that may be contained in that poll,” he added, noting: This particular polling company is a Democrat polling company, a left leaning polling company, that is paid to do a poll by a group that supports Obamacare. So they produce a poll that shows that Phil, ‘I Voted for Hillary’ Bredesen leads Marsha Blackburn by 5 points. Not surprisingly, their poll shows that Tennesseans oppose repeal…

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Steve Gill Commentary: When Will Trump Supporters Get Positions in Tennessee?

Tennessee Star Staff

President Donald Trump has filled key positions in his White House, as well as many top Cabinet positions, with political activists who didn’t support him in his presidential campaign. Some of those filling senior positions in the Trump Administration can even properly be classified as “Never Trumpers” who worked against him even after his nom-ination became inevitable. Adding to the problems facing the President as he seeks to implement his agenda are the huge number of Obama holdovers and career government bureaucrats who remain in positions where they work against his agenda while Trump political appointees languish in “holding” patterns. Unfortunately, the pattern of political appointments that do not reflect support for President Trump is not limited to Washington DC and the White House. The Presidential appointees nominated thus far from Tennessee are almost exclusively people who either actively opposed President Trump or are closely affiliated with those who aggressively sought to block him from office. The Trump base in Tennessee is sticking with him, with recent poling showing 86% approval for the President among Tennessee likely GOP primary voters. So, why is Trump not sticking to his base of supporters? Just this weekend, Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) engaged in…

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Bob Corker Takes Two Cheap Shots at President Trump, Conservatives in Tennessee Respond by Smacking Down Our Junior Senator

Tennessee Star Staff

Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) took another two cheap shots at President Trump this week, and this time conservatives in Tennessee responded by smacking down the junior senator who is up for re-election in 2018. On Monday, Corker joined several Democratic senators in undermining President Trump’s foreign policy on Russia. “Senior senators in both parties on Monday night reached a bipartisan deal to add new sanctions on Russia and allow Congress to disapprove of any attempt by President Donald Trump to ease penalties on Moscow, the most significant GOP-backed constraint on the White House so far this year,” Politico reported: Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) assured reporters earlier Monday that the Russia deal would provide for congressional review of any future rollbacks of Russia sanctions, a plan pushed by Schumer as well as Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). The review language would be structured “much like we did in other places,” such as the 2015 legislation that required former President Barack Obama to submit his administration’s nuclear pact with Iran to Congress, Corker said. . . Asked about the prospects of a veto threat from Trump, the Foreign Relations panel’s top Democrat, Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, told…

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Top Seven Reasons the Vanderbilt Poll Is Fatally Flawed

Tennessee Star Staff

  There are at least seven reasons why the Vanderbilt Poll-Tennessee released on Tuesday by the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, co-directed by Vanderbilt Professor John Geer, is fatally flawed. Those flaws come as no surprise to conservatives across the state. “The Vanderbilt Poll has notoriously leaned left for many years in the eyes of most Tennessee conservatives,” The Tennessee Star reported on an earlier Vanderbilt Poll released back in April, and the latest poll is no different, local conservatives say. Among its counter-intuitive findings was this cleverly worded claim: Support for a path to citizenship for undocumented employees is the highest it has been since the poll’s inception: up to 56 percent. And that figure is not just driven by Democrats—40 percent of Republicans favor it too. An additional 20 percent favor the establishment of a guest worker program. Even stronger is support for helping teens of undocumented parents raised in Tennessee and who attend a Tennessee public university. Two-thirds of Tennesseans say they deserve to be eligible for in-state tuition at public colleges. “It is very obvious that Vanderbilt had the result they wanted and polled until they got it,” Tennessee conservative activist Judson Phillips, Founder of…

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The Tennessee Star Tops 1 Million Website Visits in Less Than 4 Months

Admin
Tennessee Star

  FRANKLIN, TENNESSEE (Tuesday, May 23) — Today The Tennessee Star announced its online news site has had ONE MILLION visits since its launch February 6. “The Tennessee Star is the only consistently conservative media outlet in the state of Tennessee. This is a conservative state, and Tennesseans have wanted a fact-based news site with a conservative perspective for many years. That’s what we offer, and that’s why we’ve seen such tremendous traffic,” said Managing Editor Christina Botteri. “People are smart and they want to be informed and not preached at or dictated to, and I believe that is a big part of why we are growing at such a substantial rate – especially compared to other area news outlets,” she said. Judson Phillips, a long-time conservative activist and Tea Party Nation founder agreed. “I am not shocked at the excellent performance of The Tennessee Star.  While the Gannett-owned papers read like newsletters for the Tennessee Democrat Party, The Star goes after important stories that the liberal media will not touch,” Phillips said. While the raw viewership of The Tennessee Star is remarkable, media experts also recognize the impact and influence the upstart news outlet is already having at Legislative Plaza. “Attracting one…

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Steve Gill Commentary: Gaming the System

Steve Gill
Tennessee Star

How the Teachers Union Has Manipulated the State into Subsidizing Political Action For over three decades the Tennessee Education Association (TEA) has held a privileged position in regard to payroll deduction of membership dues for Tennessee teachers. It is a virtual monopoly that is inherently unfair to both educators and taxpayers. The primary purpose is retaining political power rather than promoting professional growth for the members. Tennessee has clearly established that teachers should have the right to join the professional association of their choosing, so it follows that we should establish a process that makes the payment of their dues to their chosen organization fair, honest and simple. Many of the districts who currently offer payroll deductions to support the TEA are not allowing the choice of other organizations, or they impose barriers to equal access to the teachers in the system in order to create an almost insurmountable obstacle to competition. With the union’s unified dues structure, this means school districts are not only collecting local and TEA dues, but NATIONAL Education Association (NEA) dues as well. FUNDING POLITICAL ACTIVITIES Determining political activity has never been fully vetted or explained. In Tennessee the Attorney General confirmed last June (AG…

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Vanderbilt Poll: Nashville a Blue City in a Red State; Majority of City’s Residents Disapprove of President Trump

Tennessee Star Staff

  A new Vanderbilt Poll confirms what most Tennesseans have known for years: Nashville is a far left island of Democratic blue surrounded by a sea of conservative Republican red. The majority of those surveyed in Davidson County (Nashville) disapprove of President Trump, including 51 percent of white voters. Disapproval among black and Hispanic respondents tops more than 70 percent. President Trump crushed Hillary Clinton in Tennessee in the November 2016 general election, winning the state’s eleven electoral college votes in a 61 percent to 35 percent blowout over the former Secretary of State. In Davidson County (Nashville), it was an entirely different matter. Hillary Clinton defeated President Trump in the urban center of Middle Tennessee by a 60 percent to 34 percent margin. “When you’re polling registered voters rather than likely voters, your results are going to skew left because you are polling a lot of people who are not informed and engaged enough to actually vote,” former Nashville radio talk show host and media consultant Steve Gill tells The Tennessee Star. “Taking that into account, the Vanderbilt Poll essentially reflects the election day results,” he adds. “The Vanderbilt Poll has spent a lot of money to confirm what most everybody…

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Grover Norquist’s Endorsement of Gov. Haslam Gas Tax Increase Backfires

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

Gas tax increase supporters initially believed they had scored a great political coup on Monday when Washington insider Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), declared his support for the amended version of Gov. Haslam’s IMPROVE Act that passed the Senate Transportation Committee last week. That amended version reduced the proposed gas tax increase from 7 cents per gallon to 6 cents per gallon. But the fierce backlash from conservative opponents of the gas tax increase in Tennessee to the last minute attempt by supporters of the governor’s plan to bolster its chances by calling in a “celebrity ” who has never lived in the state and knows little of the intricacies of the bill or the state’s budget, spells more, rather than less, political trouble ahead for the governor and his allies. “The recent amendments made by the Senate, and supported by Gov. Haslam, have improved the bill to the extent that the bill is now a net tax decrease, and thus not a violation of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge…ATR scores the amended version of SB 1221 / HB 534 as a net tax cut and therefore Taxpayer Protection Pledge compliant,” Norquist wrote “in a memorandum to…

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High Noon: Steve Gill and Ralph Bristol Debate the Gas Tax on WWTN Tomorrow

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

Steve Gill and Ralph Bristol will debate the merits of Gov. Haslam’s proposed gas tax increase on 99.7 FM WWTN’s Dan Mandis Show tomorrow (Wednesday) at noon. Gill, the former Nashville talk radio host who led the successful opposition to Gov. Sundquist’s proposed state income tax in 2000-2002, is opposed to Haslam’s proposal to increase the gas tax by 7 cents per gallon as well as any other kind of tax increase. Bristol, the host of Nashville’s Morning News on 99.7 FM WWTN, said in testimony before the State Senate Transportation Committee on Februrary 27, “It is my humble, but considered opinion that Governor Haslam has almost presented a thoughtful, responsible plan that preserves the integrity of an admirable and enviable tax system . . . and that his plan adequately addresses a real need that has always been considered so sacred that it deserved special protection, even from economic downturns that affect the rest of the people’s purse.” “I do not support the Governor’s plan, as is, because I don’t believe it is the revenue neutral plan it advertises itself to be,” Bristol  stated in his testimony But the bottom line for Bristol, he concluded in his testimony,  is that “Governor Haslam’s…

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Fifty Leading Tennessee Conservatives Send Open Letter to State Legislature Opposing Gas Tax Increase

Tennessee Star Staff

Fifty leading Tennessee conservatives have sent an open letter to the Tennessee General Assembly opposing Gov. Haslam’s proposed IMPROVE Act, which includes a 7 cents per gallon gas tax increase and a 12 cents per gallon diesel tax increase. The letter was released Tuesday morning, on the same day the House Transportation Committee is scheduled to vote on the IMPROVE Act. Conservative political strategist Steve Gill noted: “The names on this letter should raise concerns among Republican legislators. These are the exact types of conservative political activists who run in Republican primaries, recruit others to run in Republican primaries, and help those who run in Republican primaries.” Gill said that a gas tax increase, if passed, will likely be THE issue in 2018 Republican primary races. “Voters will essentially have a referendum to repeal the tax by replacing those who voted for it with those who will vote to repeal the tax increase,” Gill noted. “The mail pieces and radio adds against the tax increasers almost write themselves.” Another Republican political consultant pointed out the ideological impact of the current internal policy battles in the Republican Party at the state and national level. “The Ryan Obamacare-lite plan may expand the…

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Steve Gill Encourages Conservatives to Take Action

Wendy Wilson

Nashville attorney and political commentator Steve Gill told the crowd at Saturday’s Spirit of America Rally that all Americans, regardless of political party, should be concerned about the progressive drift in the U.S. For starters, Gill would like to see more unity behind the push for no higher taxes. He said Gov. Haslam’s plan to raise the tax on gas to fund road improvements is something that should be stopped. Frustration with tax hikes like this one is something that should resonate across various political factions, he said. Gill devoted much of his speech to concerns about Christian influence on culture and politics, which he has become more involved in through efforts to increase evangelical turnout at the polls. He is national chairman of Lift the Vote, a non-profit organization founded to encourage more Christian engagement in politics. The group was influential in persuading Christians to get out and vote in the 2016 election. “Christians turned out and the made the difference in this election,” he said, referring to President Trump’s success among evangelicals. But Christians need to keep up the pressure on politicians to ensure that the Senate confirms conservative Supreme Court picks, Gill said. Gill said conservatives need…

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Steve Gill a Featured Speaker at Spirit of America Rally in Nashville Today

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

Spirit of America rally organizer Mark Skoda announced earlier this week that former talk show titan and current political analyst Steve Gill will join the all-star lineup at Legislative Plaza Saturday. “I’ve known Steve Gill since 2010 and when I heard he was available, I jumped at the chance to add him to the program,” Skoda said. “He is a conservative clarion that has helped to build the grassroots liberty movement here in Tennessee into the political powerhouse it is today.” The topic of Gill’s speech will be actions speak louder than words. “There are so many politicians in Tennessee and around the country who think that sounding conservative is good enough,” Gill pointed out. “Sadly those of the same so-called conservatives who quickly betray us  once they get past election day.” “Our founding fathers didn’t just sit on the sidelines saying ‘somebody ought to do something,’ Gill noted. “They went out and put everything they had at risk to put their principles into action. “They understood that what you do matters a lot more than what you say and we have all benefited from their commitment, courage, and ‘words put into action’ for over 200 years. “This is our time to…

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Nashville Talk Radio Led Opposition to Sundquist Income Tax But Is Split on Haslam Gas Tax

Christina Botteri
Tennessee Star - Steve Gill v Ralph Bristol

When former Gov. Don Sundquist proposed imposing a state income tax on residents of Tennessee in 1999, Nashville talk radio hosts Steve Gill and Phil Valentine led the horn-honking opposition that ultimately killed the unpopular proposal three years later in 2002. It is a different media landscape in 2017, as political controversy surrounds Gov. Haslam’s proposal to increase the gas tax to fund road construction. Like Sundquist, Haslam is a Republican. WLAC, 1510 am, is no longer in the local political talk business. 99.7 FM WWTN owns the local conservative talk market, with all local hosts,  beginning at 5 a.m. with Ralph Bristol, 9 a.m. with Michael Del Giorno, noon with Dan Mandis, and 3 to 7 p.m. with Phil Valentine. The day’s talk agenda is set by Nashville’s Morning News host Ralph Bristol, and he testified before the State Senate Transportation Committee in favor of Gov. Haslam’s plan, provided it is truly revenue neutral, which he says it currently is not. Former Nashville talk radio host Steve Gill, in contrast, came out guns a-blazing in opposition to the gas tax increase in a commentary posted today at The Tennessee Star. “17 years ago, talk radio lead the fight to stop…

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Commentary by Steve Gill: It’s Not About the Roads!

Steve Gill
Tennessee Star - Steve Gill

As Governor Bill Haslam continues to tout the need for a massive tax increase in order to fund road and bridge construction and maintenance in Tennessee it is increasingly clear that the well-funded and heavily lobbied campaign for higher taxes actually has nothing to do with roads. It is actually about spending billions in surplus and increased recurring revenue on everything EXCEPT roads! A good magician is a master of misdirection. While you are captivated by what they are doing with their right hand the real trick is happening in the left hand. Governor Haslam is using the same sort of misdirect move to hide the truth about his tax increase scheme. While Tennessee currently has a surplus of a billion dollars AND an extra billion dollars in recurring revenue the Governor is fighting against any an all efforts to spend ANY of that money on roads. He prefers to impose higher taxes on Tennessee drivers with a seven cent increase in the gasoline tax and a twelve cent increase in the diesel tax (plus additional fees and taxes) that will generate about $300 million a year more for state and local road projects. State Representative David Hawk has proposed…

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