Davidson County Republican Party Chairman Lonnie Spivak joins The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy in-studio Friday to invite Nashville to the big annual GOP picnic being held at Percy Warner Park.
TRANSCRIPT
Michael Patrick Leahy: 6:06 AM; broadcasting live from our studios on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee.
We’ll be joined by the original all-star panelist, Crom Carmichael in-studio at 6:30 AM.
Right now, in-studio, very good friend for many years, now the chairman of the Davidson County Republican Party, Lonnie Spivak.
Lonnie, how do people find you on the web?
Lonnie Spivak: You can look me up on Facebook, @theLonnieSpivak; I’m on Twitter @lonniespivak, and you can find me on the Davison County Republican website gopnashville.org. Go to the “about us” and the executive committee and you’ll see me, my picture and I’ll link to my email and socials.
Michael Patrick Leahy: GOPNASHVILLE.org.
Now you, we’ve got this picnic coming up a week from tomorrow.
Lonnie Spivak: It’s a week from tomorrow.
It will be at Percy Warner Park Shelter six. We’ll kick the picnic off at 10:00 AM and it’ll go till two o’clock-ish. As we mentioned in the previous segment, we have some great entertainment from Baste Records.
We will have the Wonderful Honey Fire barbecue. We’ll have a Kona Ice truck there, I believe. We’ll be doing straw polls for the mayoral race and an early, early presidential straw poll. And you can bring your family down and feed four people for 25 bucks.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Pretty good.
Lonnie Spivak: Yeah. You’ll get two tickets for the straw polls. You’ll get to meet a bunch of the candidates – maybe a couple of our congressmen. And it’s really just gonna be a great time.
If you’re new to town, I really encourage you to come out. It’s a great way to kind of meet some of your like-minded neighbors and just kind of get plugged in with what’s happening with the Republican Party here in Nashville.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Now, you know, I moved to Nashville in 1991. And I recall the very best way to learn about this, and I did. I think I’ve told everybody how I started learning about Tennessee politics by listening to the original All Star panelists, Crom Carmichael.
Lonnie Spivak: Crom, if you’re listening, I’m keeping your seat warm.
Michael Patrick Leahy: There was a program, the Teddy Bart Show, on another radio station in the morning, the Teddy Bart round table. Yep. Which was kinda legendary, I think, for political junkies here in town.
Lonnie Spivak: And I remember listening to that show as a kid. When I would stay home from school from time to time.
Michael Patrick Leahy: So Teddy Bart’s round table, and it was Teddy Bart and Karlen Evins. And then they’d have two or three, you know, regulars, and then they’d bring in a guest and then was the, token conservative, I guess, on it.
And he was so funny, you know, kind of pushing back against the liberals.
And so I began to understand Tennessee and Tennessee politics by listening to Crom. He was so interesting.
I called him up one day and said, ‘Hey, I wanna have lunch.’ And we had, of course, barbecue.
It was probably the summer of ’91 when I first met Crom.
And, but my point is all this is: so you’re new to town, or you haven’t been engaged that much politically.
It’s really great to just come in and meet everybody.
This is something distinctive about Tennessee. You can meet with political figures in Tennessee easily.
It’s not like, you know, California or New York where political figures are very, very distant.
Here, no. Come and have barbecue.
Lonnie Spivak: And this is one of those events. We’re not gonna be asking you to do anything. We’re not gonna be really asking you to do anything other than pay for your ticket for food, and then you just get to come and have a good time.
It’s in a beautiful setting in Percy Warner Park.
We’re right by a creek. There’s gonna be some great music. And you can, you can get tickets for the event. It’s $10 per person, or $25 for a family of four. GOPNashville.org, just scroll down.
Oh, we launched a new webpage on July 1st. It’s real easy to find. Right on the homepage you’ll see an events tab.
With the picnic, just click on it. It’ll take you right there.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Yeah. And I think particularly – I want to harken back to what you’re talking about, people new to town.
This is a really, really a good way to get an understanding of what Tennessee is about, By talking to people who are politically engaged, but also meeting some of the players and the candidates and just having a conversation with them.
As opposed to, you know, the social media stuff that you, or the ads or, it’s just, you know, it’s very personal.
Lonnie Spivak: And if we wanna start winning elections in even the small races, we really need to get you engaged. We’re not asking for you to do anything other than show up.
Michael Patrick Leahy: When we come back with Lonnie Spivak, the chairman of the Davison County Republican Party, we’re gonna talk about.
The upcoming elections are August 3rd. What are you doing? What are the candidates doing? And what can we expect to see over the next three weeks and six days until we have the results in? This is The Tennessee Star Report. He’s Lonnie Spivak. I’m Michael Patrick Leahy.
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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 “Warner Park” by Warner Park Nature Center.
