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 Chair Lonnie Spivak and Nashville Republican Women’s Sheryl Longin in studio to discuss the removal of Justin Jones from Nashville’s District 52 and how that will play out in a special election.
Leahy: In studio, Lonnie Spivak and Sheryl Longin of the Davidson County Republican Party. Lonnie, you are the chairman, and you work with the Nashville Republican Women?
Longin: The Nashville Republican Women.
Leahy: Thanks so much for that, Sheryl, by the way, is it fun being in a studio on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee?
Longin: It is, and it got me up early.
Leahy: I’m delighted. Grateful; I’m delighted to do that. Just call me the early morning alarm clock here, Sheryl. Yesterday two Democrat members of the House of Representatives were expelled, and that means there will be a special election here in Nashville to replace somebody in that seat. It’s in the 52nd district. Tell us where that district is, Lonnie.
Spivak: It’s east of town. I’ll have to look at that map. I see it in my head. It’s east of Nashville and South of 65. There’s like a pie wedge that it covers.
Leahy: There are about 38,000 voters in that district?
Spivak: Thirty-eight thousand three hundred and change registered voters in that district.
Leahy: And in the last election, there was a primary election in which the city council member ran against Justin Jones. He’d not won anything before, but he won the primary of 1,900 votes to 1,600 votes. But in the general election, there was no Republican opponent.
Spivak: No.
Leahy: Is that going to be changed in this?
Spivak: We are actively looking for a Republican candidate to run for the 52nd district. We are asking if anybody’s in. Please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]. We are actively searching for a candidate to run for that district. Looking at the numbers from the people who voted last time, there are enough Republicans in that district to win.
And a lot of it’ll just depend on when that election is. Is it gonna be in the August election with the Metro elections? Will it be a special election held at a different time? A lot of that will depend on what the turnout is. Like everything else with Nashville politics right now, there’s a lot of turmoil and a lot of uncertainty.
Leahy: Sheryl, that is an understatement, wouldn’t you say? A lot of turmoil in Nashville Davidson County politics these days.
Longin: It’s a kind way of putting it.
Leahy: (Laughs) Now, I think if you look at the calendar, Metro Council may, according to the Tennessee Constitution, they may choose to appoint an interim successor. We don’t know who that’ll be, and they may try and put Justin Jones in.
I don’t think they’ll be able to do that under my reading of the Constitution, but there’ll be some back and forth on that. But there definitely has to be a special election.
I think the calendar, though, would suggest that I don’t see how you have a primary and a general election where you have the general special election as early as August. I think you’re going to have to have a primary before that.
Spivak: They are going to have to have a primary. But it’s really just one of those; we’re gonna have to just wait and see. And there’s a lot of that Nashville. We have so much uncertainty with our election in August.
Will there be Metro Council elections? Will there not be? Of course, we’ll have our Vice Mayor’s race, and now we’ll have a special election sometime in the fall for the vice mayor.
Leahy: Sheryl, what we know is that there will be the first Thursday in the first week of August; you’re rolling your eyes on this. The primary elections here are on the first Thursday of the first week of August.
When I moved here 32 years ago, I thought that was bizarre. Why do you have a primary in August and the first Thursday? They don’t do that in places where you lived before, right?
Longin: No, not at all.
Leahy: Not at all. But nonetheless, we’ve got we do have a mayor’s race coming.
Spivak: Yes, we will have a mayor’s race.
Leahy: And we may or may not have Metro Council races because Metro Council’s gone from 40 to 20.
Spivak: We may not have a Metro Council election.
Longin: I am a faithful listener, and I’m just wondering when will the carpet bagger candidates enter the race.
Leahy: Carpet baggers! We actually do have, in the mayoral race, we do have a carpet bagger. His last name is Gingrich. He’s lived here for fewer years than you have.
Longin: I’m old Rocky Top.
Leahy: That’s right. After four years, you qualify.
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 “Tennessee State Capitol” by Peggy Anderson. CC BY-SA 4.0.
