Live from Music Row Thursday 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 all-star panelist Clint Brewer in-studio to discuss how the Davidson County Republican Party needs to get more candidates on its roster, also urging caller Joe to show up and vote Republican.
(Caller Joe)
Leahy:Â Clint, your thoughts?
Brewer: Well, now, Joe, you don’t want to run for Congress, do you?
Caller Joe: No, I don’t. (Laughs)Â
Brewer:Â Okay. All right. That was going to shape my advice to you if you wanted to. Apparently, they’re watching those things these days, I’ve heard.
Leahy:Â They are.
Brewer: Look, I would say to you, they’ve made these elections partisan. And if you are partisan, if you’re a Republican, vote Republican – I mean, participate in the system. Here’s the interesting thing: So, the thing that underperforms and doesn’t perform the most in Davidson County is the school system. It’s the single worst part of the Metropolitan government in the city, in terms of the results it gets, in terms of the job it does for children recently. I guess garbage collection might be up there, too.
But long term, the school system has failed repeatedly, for decades. They’ve made these partisan elections. So I say participate in them, and vote for Republicans. Really, you’re talking about school board members. They’re where the rubber meets the road. That’s the biggest problem the city has, is its public education system. So if Democrats are going to continue to control the public education system, then they’re going to now get the credit for the failure. Right? So if they win, then it’s on them to fix it as Democrats.
In the past, this has been kind of gray. We mentioned former Councilman Glover, he once sat on the school board. He was conservative, in air quotes, but he was not, on paper, a Republican. So now we’re going to be able to say, okay, well, Democrats, you’ve had control of the school board for two years, five years, 10 years. You haven’t made any progress. If we continue this process, maybe Republicans will get a turn. And so I’d say to you, vote in the Republican primary.
Leahy: And Joe, if you ask for my advice – and it’s so worth what you’re paying for it. (Chuckles) But I would say I agree with Clint on this, especially since there is a contested Board of Education seat there and you will have the opportunity to vote for a Republican in the primary. So I would say go ahead and vote in that primary. That’s very important.
But the second thing that I would say, I know what you’re hinting at, which is in all the other races, there’s no Republican candidate. There are a whole bunch of Democrats. They range from bad to very bad. And so you’re thinking, well, wouldn’t it be better to vote for bad versus very bad? I’m going to suggest an alternative for you, Joe.
And the failure here, let’s be blunt and honest, you can’t win a race if you don’t show up. And the Davidson County Republican Party has failed miserably, miserably by not mounting candidates, not getting candidates to run for this race. In particular, the most egregious example of that is the race for district attorney, where you have Glenn Funk, who I would say is center-left, let’s say. And then you have other candidates out there that are George Soros-backed. Left, Left, Left. Now, either one of those is bad.
It’s just a question of degree. But the worst problem, the worst problem, the worst dereliction of duty – and I’m just going to say this to our friends at the Davidson County Republican Party – where, by the way, I’m emceeing their debate in May of the TN-5 candidates – but they failed in finding good candidates to run for district attorney and virtually every other seat.
And that is a failure of the Davidson County Republican Party. So my suggestion to you, Joe, would be to vote in the Republican party and then go down the street and go to the very next Davidson County Republican Party committee and say, we’ve got to change this. We have got to run a full slate of candidates for every office in Metro elections. That would be my advice to you, Joe.
Caller Joe: Well, thank you very much, because actually when I called, I was really leaning towards voting Democratic because I thought it would have more impact, but given that explanation and the importance of the school board seat, I think I’ll … vote Republican.
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Leahy: All right, Joe, hey, thanks so much for thinking to call us on that important topic. I appreciate it.
Caller Joe:Â I appreciate it.
Brewer: I got to tell you, I think that’s a great point you made about the Davidson County Republican Party.
Leahy: Love them. We’re friends.
Brewer:Â It’s not been run well for a while.
Leahy: Well, you got to show up. You got to show up! Where are the candidates on the ballot? Where are they? And really, go out and – if you’re Jim Garrett, a friend of ours, the chairman of the party – but go out and find an attorney to run for district attorney. They should be on the ballot right now. And so I would say there’s a need for a vigorous engagement by the Davidson County Republican Party, and come to the debate and sign up and help them. That’s the debate that I’m going to be emceeing in May. Clint, what a delightful hour.
Brewer:Â Fun! Probably got me in a lot of trouble.
Leahy:Â This is what I live for. I love to get Clint Brewer in trouble with his friends.
Listen to the interview here:
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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.
