Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Davidson County Republican Party Chairman Lonnie Spivak in studio to discuss their primary goals of voter registration, raising money, and pushing Republican candidates past the finish line.
Leahy: In studio with us, one longtime friend and one new friend Jackie Colbeth, who is a recent arrival here in Nashville. She’s on the executive board of the Davidson County Republican Party and Lonnie is the chairman of the Davidson County Republican Party. I think I’ve known you for what, 20 years? A long time.
Spivak: 20 years.
Leahy: We met when we were teenagers, right? Lonnie Spivak.
Spivak: Actually thinking back it was about 2009, I think when we first met.
Leahy: When you were running for Congress.
Spivak: Congress, yep. And during the early part of the Tea Party days.
Leahy: And of course, Lonnie was the only candidate running for the GOP nomination for Congress in 2010 who could list the 19 enumerated powers of Congress of the United States in the Constitution and probably still could, but I won’t test you on it this morning.
Spivak: Thank you. And it’s amazing how many congressmen we probably have today who can’t name it.
Leahy: Or Biden-nominated judges who don’t know things like do you know what a Brady motion is? No, sir. I don’t. Did you see that with the nominee?
Spivak: I saw the clip. Yeah.
Leahy: Can you define what a woman is? I won’t even go there. We have some simple definitions that could be used. Now let’s talk to us Lonnie, about the role of the Davis County Republican Party. If you look at Nashville, the Metro government has been a disaster since 1965 and getting worse.
This is a blue city in a red state. And there’s antipathy. Antipathy between the lunatic left-wing, Metro Nashville government, and the state legislature. They’re not all lunatics, but mostly they are.
But right now, I guess one of the big issues you can talk about is this bill that the state legislature passed that would limit the maximum size of Metro Nashville Council from 40 members to a maximum size of 20.
Spivak: First let me answer the first part of your question about what our role is. Everyone on the executive committee has a specific role and function. Mine is chairman. It is to register voters and raise money and be the voice and platform of the county party.
Jackie is a regional vice chair and her duty is to get involved in her community, help find poll watchers and precinct captains, and be engaged in her local district. And then also as part of our media relations team.
She’ll be speaking with the media and in the press at times when I can’t, or it’s inappropriate for me to do so. We all have our roles. My first vice chair role is going to be finding and developing candidates.
My second vice chair job is working with the committee structure, making sure that our committees are meeting properly, and that they’re getting their job done and on time. We all have our specific functions, but it’s all to really improve the functionality and the visibility of the Davidson County Republican Party.
Leahy: Registering voters.
Spivak: Registering voters and raising money is the biggest part of my job. We need both of those to win elections in this district. And, we are not, as you mentioned, sure what the council is going to look like this year or next. And so we’re focusing right now on the Mayor’s race. We’ve got two Republican candidates that I know of right now who have entered the race. We are going to do what we can to support those candidates. We are going to give them whatever assets we can and that they ask for, and that we can provide without playing favorites between the two candidates.
Leahy: And the candidates are Alice Gainer-Rolli and Natisha Brooks. And there’s another Independent candidate who’s not a Republican Fran Bush also.
Spivak: And, we love Fran, but we deal with Republicans here in the Republican party. And so that’s going to be our point.
Leahy: And there are six left-wing lunatic democrats, right?
Spivak: So far so far.
Leahy: And some of ’em have some money and some name id. And it’s an uphill challenge, I think for the two Republican candidates. I’m understating the situation there.
Spivak: I’m not going to speak to whether it’s an uphill battle or not. They have their work cut out for them, just as all the candidates do, and it’s gonna be our role to help push them across the top.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Lonnie Spivak” by Lonnie Spivak. Background Photo “Davidson County Courthouse” by Luckiewiki. CC BY-SA 4.0.
