Live from Music Row, Wednesday 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 candidate for Davidson County Republican Party Chair, Lonnie Spivak in studio to further discuss his political experience and professional background.
Leahy: Now in studio, my good friend Lonnie Spivak, a candidate for the chairmanship of the Davidson County Republican Party, whom, by the way, if you’ve just tuned in, I have endorsed Lonnie for that position, and so far the only person to file for it.
The election will be on February 11, and if you want to go there, what’s it’s the website that people can go to sign up to vote on this?
Spivak: Gopnashville.com will bring you to a form, and then that form goes to the committee for the convention. They’ll vet you, and you’ll get in.
Leahy: Now, Lonnie, I want to take some time, this segment for you to tell people a little bit about your professional background because although you’re interested in politics, you make a living doing other things, and you’ve been engaged in a lot of interesting projects here in Middle Tennessee throughout your career. Tell us about your background.
Spivak: I’ve been in advertising and marketing my whole professional life. I got involved, really, in politics during the income tax debate.
Leahy: And now we’re going back to 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 when, in essence, basically talk radio Steve Gill and the late, great Phil Valentine organized the horn honkers. And then the Killer Bees, Diane Black, Marsha Blackburn, and Mae Beavers in the state legislature stopped the RINO Governor Don Sundquist, who broke a campaign promise and said, I want to have a state income tax.
The most important political decision in the history of Tennessee to stop the state income tax. And you are one of those horn honkers, weren’t you?
Spivak: Actually, I was in the Capitol building when that happened. I was watching legislators just about to have a heart attack. The pressure that they felt from the horn honkers that day was tremendous.
I was up there lobbying them, making sure that they were going to vote against the income tax. And, you know, I was one of those people that got locked in when they closed the doors. That was quite an experience.
Leahy: That whole saga began 24 years ago. So you have been engaged in conservative activism for two and a half decades at least in Middle Tennessee.
Spivak: Yes. It wasn’t long after that that I started getting involved with some campaigns. I made the decision in 2009 to run for the Fifth Congressional District. What a great experience.
Leahy: When that was the old district that was kind of hopeless for a Republican. That year was weird, though.
Spivak: Barack Obama was President and it was the first midterm, and, you know, Republicans were popping out of the woodwork to run for office, and I was one of those.
Leahy: Net gain of 63 seats. Republicans took over the House back in 2010. It was the Tea Party election way back when.
Spivak: I attended the first Tea Party convention. I got to meet Governor Palin at that time.
Leahy: That was the one that our good friend Judson Phillips organized, Tea Party Nation. It was here. And I think the late, great Andrew Breitbart was there. I think maybe Steve Bannon was there.
Spivak: I sat on the board meetings a couple of times with Judson as they were planning that. (Leahy chuckles) I’d hate to say that I had a lot to do with it…
Leahy: But you were there.
Spivak: I was treated like a VIP when I was there. I met Judge Moore at the time. It was really something special. I served on the executive committee as a regional vice chair after that ran for Metro Council. I was the president of the Stop Amp Group that killed the first crazy transit deal.
Leahy: That was this weird idea that one of the VP ignominious former mayors put together to put what?
Spivak: Dedicated bus lanes down the middle of the street.
Leahy: And is there a stupider idea? And you really you were the key guy that helped stop that.
Spivak: It was me that really helped plan the legislative attack on that, to treat it as a state highway that it is, which gave state authority, and we were able to stop that.
Leahy: Congratulations on that.
Spivak: Thank you.
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.Â
