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 and Executive Board Member Jackie Colbeth in studio to discuss the reduction of Metro City Council and outreach efforts to blue state refugees.
Leahy: In studio with us, Lonnie Spivak, chairman of the Davidson County Republican Party, and Executive Board Member Jackie Colbeth. Jackie told me Colbeth is Scottish. It’s a version of Galbraith. I think I like Colbeth better than Galbraith because you don’t wanna be associated with John Kenneth Galbraith.
Colbeth: Yeah, not too closely.
Leahy: Not too closely. Alright. Lonnie. I want to talk about a couple of things in this segment. First I want you to talk about what’s gonna happen with Metro Council with the new law, limiting the size of Metro Council to 20.
And then Jackie, I want to talk about your outreach to all the blue state refugees that are here in Davidson County. But I’ll start with you, Lonnie. So the law is in effect, Metro Council, which had 40 members, now is going to have a maximum of 20. How’s that all gonna play out?
Spivak: The quick answer is we don’t know. Metro Council has until May 1st to pass something in order to have their Metro Council elections this year. They’ve been holding special meetings. There’ve been several proposals on how to structure the Metro Council. It’s been anything from 20 individual districts or 15 districts from five at-larges, 17 districts and three at-larges 16 districts or four super districts.
Leahy: My head’s spinning already.
Spivak: Right. And as we know, that’s one of the problems with a large council is it’s hard to come to a consensus. It’s a big task they’re taking on. I don’t begrudge them. I know they’re working hard to come to an answer to it, but they have to decide how they want Metro Council to be formed, and then the lines have to be drawn for the new districts. And then it needs to pass all its legal challenges through the state courts.
Leahy: And they’re challenging it. They’re gonna lose the challenge.
Spivak: I think so. It’s an ill-advised state legislature that has the ultimate authority here.
Leahy: In all local governments under our constitutional republic, there are two entities: a national federal government and there’s a state government. And the states authorize every local entity.
Spivak: The state, if they wanted to, could dissolve the net Metro charter and make it individual townships. Again, I’m not saying they are going to do that, but they could, it’s under their purview. I don’t think that there’ll be a successful challenge here and obviously with the speed and pace that Metro Council is working to get this done, they don’t think so either.
So really we were just in a wait-and-see pattern. They have until May 1st in order to pass something in order so we could have Metro Council elections this year. If not, they’ll be pushed off to next year and we’ll just have the mayoral elections.
Leahy: My guess is that they won’t get it done, and the elections won’t be until next year. That’s a guess.
Spivak: That’s my guess too. I know they’re working hard on it. I know that the council members, there are 19 who are term-limited, don’t necessarily want to serve another year. So we’ll see how it goes. It’s really just a wait-and-see.
Leahy: Yes. Right now, there are 35 districts in the county.
Spivak: And five at-larges serving currently.
Leahy: And four servings. Steve Glover resigned for health reasons, and we certainly wish him well, good friend of ours. And the law says a maximum of 20. They could make it less than 20, right?
Spivak: Yes, I think they are going to be six if they wanted to, but it makes sense for them to make it 20. There are 40 members currently, 19 or term-limited. A middle-of-the-road number is there for them. The most likely districts may overlap.
Leahy: I think the most likely outcome is three to five at large districts and then 15 to 17 districts.
Spivak: I’m still hearing that it’ll be 17 and three. But we’ll see what happens. Some of the things that’ll affect the Davidson County Republican Party is our regional vice chairs are set up based on councilmanic districts. We will most likely adjust our bylaws to reduce some of the number of regional vice chairs to reflect the region.
Leahy: More uncertainty here in Metro Nashville Davidson County. Jackie Colbeth, we want to talk to you now a little bit about what your role is. And you’re gonna go out and recruit all the new blue-state arrivals here?
Colbeth: That’s my target audience.
Leahy: What’s that been like?
Colbeth: Upon landing in Nashville, I’ve lost count of how many times when someone asks me where I’m from. Be sure not to California it here. I moved here from San Diego, and I would say I appreciate that you should have a bit of skepticism. That’s not unfounded.
However, there is an insane opportunity, I think for the first time in the Republican Party, to bring people in and have this be their home. They are motivated. They are driven by anger and fear, two great motivators. And they’re coming. They wanna be in a safe place.
Leahy: They wanna be in a safe place. So when you say they’re motivated by fear is that part of the reason they came here is because of the places where they come from…Let me just say the top places where they come from. By the way, our friend Roger Simon is writing a book about the movement, primarily of people from blue states to Tennessee.
If you look at this, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, Los Angeles, California, Chicago all overrun by homeless people. Overrun by crime. No enforcement of the law. Awful public schools. And so they are fearful. They were fearful for their lives there. They’ve moved here. But they still have some reason to be fearful here.
Colbeth: Sure. And I’ve been here a year, but what I’ve been able to gather in talking to people who’ve lived here decades is they have started to see, and this was before COVID, so it’s hard to blame it all on refugees or the ones who are not of our ilk. It’s okay to be skeptical, but at the same time, this is just a huge group of people whose lives are upended.
It’s not fun to move when you’ve had the state government with its boot on your neck for years, you’re going to want to come to a place where you have like-minded people and your motivation level is higher than it’s ever been.
Leahy: I have a sense, I don’t know if this is true. I actually do. You have experience in sales.
Colbeth: Big time. (Laughter)
Leahy: So what you’re selling here is the idea that to keep Nashville safe as a safe place, the best way to do that is to become engaged in politics and to become engaged in Davidson County Republican politics and activism.
Colbeth: Yes.
Spivak: And I’d like to say for all those people listening to us who are really connecting with what Jackie is saying, come to gopnashville.org and fill out your contact information.
Let us get in touch with you. Let us get you plugged into the party. We really need your energy. We need your specialties, and we need your motivation to help us win elections in Nashville.
     Visit gopnashville.org to sign up now.
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 euthman. CC BY-SA 2.0.
