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 in studio to acknowledge quick legislation passage, social media platform use, and how the Left tries to make something out of nothing.
Leahy: In studio, Lonnie Spivak, chairman of the Davidson County Republican Party is here with us. Lonnie, it’s been a very eventful week, and I think we’ve got more stuff coming. I do wanna say this about Governor Bill Lee.
He has quickly signed some very significant bills that have been brought to his attention and passed in both the House and the Senate quickly. Kudos to Speaker of the House Cam Sexton and Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally.
They brought ’em the bill to stop transgender genital mutilation for kids under 18. They brought ’em the bill that would outlaw the drag queen and other kinds of skin shows, I suppose, that are held in public spaces or that where children are present.
Spivak: I wanna talk about that. And I’m falling into the trap too because it doesn’t say drag queens in the bill. It prohibits sexually explicit burlesque-type shows in public areas where children can be present.
Leahy: And the impact on a drag queen show or any other stripper show.
Spivak: If a library wanted to have stripper hour where strippers came and read story books to kindergartners, that wouldn’t be allowed either. It really has nothing to do with your gender or where you are in the LGBTQ+ community. It really is saying we’re not gonna do sexually explicit burlesque shows in areas where minors can be present or in public areas.
Leahy: It’s a very good bill. A very good bill.
Spivak: It’s just been so misrepresented by the media here in Tennessee and across the country. Governor Lee has gotten some pushback from our legal, but not legitimate president and the governor of California and others. And to his credit, he stood up for his decision.
Leahy: Just a couple of little things here to point out. This is how desperate the left is. So there was a picture of Governor Lee when he was in high school and they put that up on a billboard and they oh, made fun of him, all that. Fine, big deal. And then I did have to mention Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally has been on his Instagram account saying stuff back and forth with 20-year-old gay guy who, that, it was like an odd sort of thing.
And that’s been all over the press. McNally’s 79 years old and he’s got a heart problem. They trying to create something outta nothing from that. If the lieutenant governor’s listing I would say, those are the kind of little communications you probably ought not to do. It’s not cool. You may think it’s cool, but it’s not.
Spivak: If the lieutenant governor is anything like my parents, using a cell phone and getting on social media is a difficult task. (Laughs)
Leahy: I would say. Anybody over a certain age ought not to be allowed on Instagram or Twitter because they don’t know how to use it. Or Facebook.
Spivak: Mike, I don’t work on Instagram. I think it’s connected to my Facebook page system stuff, post there, but I don’t really actively post on Instagram. I’ve never done TikTok. I only really use social media platforms now for promoting my individual ideas.
Leahy: Exactly. And anyway, we just wanted, had to mention that little kerfuffle. By the way, the lieutenant governor stuff I give it like a 72-hour half life.
Spivak: If that long half-life, probably just not that interesting.
Leahy: You are exactly right.
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.
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 comment upon Governor Bill Lee’s State of the State address and his infrastructure plans.
Leahy: We are joined in studio by a very good friend, all-star panelist, recovering journalist, good guy, and also public affairs specialist, Mr. Clint Brewer. Good morning, Clint.
Brewer: Morning, Mike. How are you today, man?
Leahy: I am delighted to have you here and to talk about what’s going on in the state and nationally. Let’s start with the state if that’s okay.
Brewer: Yes, do it.
Leahy: Governor Bill Lee delivered a State of the State address on Monday evening. What was your reaction to it? Good, bad, indifferent, mixed?
Brewer: I was pretty positive on the whole thing. I thought he did a great job. I think he laid out the priorities in a way that Tennesseeans are going to understand and appreciate. I really have to say the emphasis on infrastructure is important. It’s important to people’s quality of life.
It’s important to the state’s economy. Tennessee’s economy has built a lot around our ability to move things from one point to the other. We’ve got some of the best logistics in the country with our interstates, our rail systems, and our airports. And so doubling down on that is good. Also, energy consumption changes.
Tennessee has always been fueled by gas taxes that we pay in cash for our roads and infrastructure. And with the nature of how people consume energy changing for transportation, I think we’ve got to double down on that. So I was really happy to see it, and I think it makes a lot of sense.
Leahy: Well, I’m going to shock you.
Brewer: You’re going to disagree with me?
Leahy: No.
Brewer: You’re going to agree with me.
Leahy: I’m going to say that I think the general direction that he’s going in infrastructure, along with his Commissioner of Transportation Butch Eley, I think it is a good direction, and I think it is a direction that reflects the reality of the population density of Nashville and Middle Tennessee and the rest of Tennessee.
Brewer: Yes, no, I agree with you. It’s a vital service. It’s a service only government provides. I think the Governor and Commissioner Eley, in particular, are being creative. I think there’s some talk of toll roads and other things.
Leahy: Choice lanes!
Brewer: Yes, not on the talking point. Things that are done in other large metropolitan areas, and other states that have seen this kind of growth in the past. It’s all smart stuff, and congratulations to them for thinking ahead rather than trying to play catch up. I think that’s a style of governance we’ve been fortunate to have in this state, and I’m glad to see it continue. I thought it was a really good speech.
Leahy: Tennessee is growing and will continue to grow. I know this part will shock you. I had some quibbles about some of the things that he suggested there, and we’ll get to those in our next segment.
But this transportation infrastructure plan, I think they were very, very smart in the way they put it together, in the sense that Nashville is not New York City, it’s not Boston, it’s not Washington, D.C., and it’s not San Francisco. It doesn’t have that dense population concentration in areas that make mass transit, subways, and the like is relatively cost-effective.
Brewer: It’s also big geographically.
Leahy: It’s big. It’s split out. It’s a lot more like it’s closer geographically to Dallas, Texas.
Brewer: I think that’s fair.
Leahy: And so state Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson was in studio with us yesterday and he told us that he went down to Dallas with the governor and with Commissioner Eley to look at what they’ve done there. And, you know, I lived in Dallas in 1984 for about a year, and I must admit I was a liberal at that time and was a big mass transit fan.
But a friend of mine who was a professor at Harvard, John Kane, went down and advised the Dallas area Rapid Transit folks on how to construct a transportation system that worked. And he kind of blew my mind when he said, no, what we need to do is build roads and have choice lanes and toll lanes, which is what they did. And I have to tell you, we go to Dallas now once or twice a year. It’s working great down there.
Brewer: Yes.
Leahy: I was very impressed with how they’ve handled infrastructure in Dallas, Texas. Yeah.
Brewer: How they move people around that city is impressive. And it’s no surprise to see Majority Leader Jack Johnson on the case. We’ve talked in the show many times about how fortunate Tennessee is to have leaders with the kind of experience and brain power and temperament. Jack’s right up there. No surprise at all.
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 Tennessee State Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson in studio to explain the process by which the Governor’s legislation is carried.
Leahy: In studio State Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson is here in studio for this last segment. You got to go up to do some business.
Johnson: I’ve got to get to work. I work for the people in Williamson County. I got to go clock in.
Leahy: I know you’re not going to be able to stick around for News Potpourri, but you can make it there in time. It’s close to here.
Johnson: It’s a very long drive. (Chuckles)
Leahy: But I wanted to take this last segment here, Jack, to talk to you a little bit about the process by which the state legislature reviews the budget proposal set forward by the governor in the State of the State Address. And it was a long list of things that he wants to accomplish, and some of them, I think, like the transportation infrastructure are very promising, depending on the details. And then other things like this $350 million for sports facilities in Memphis.
I don’t like that at all. But tell us what the process is where you as a state Senate majority leader, and how you work through that process, what your relationship with the governor is, what your duties are, and then what that back room conversations are.
Johnson: The way the process works in Tennessee is the elected leader who is the leader of the party, of the governor. So we have a Republican governor. So the Republican leader in the Senate and the Republican leader in the House are the sponsors of everything the governor would like to do from a legislative standpoint.
Leahy: When you say the leader, you talk about the majority leader.
Johnson: In this case it is, but let’s say we had a Democratic governor and we had a Republican majority in the legislature. Then it would be the Democratic leader or the minority leader who would be the sponsor of the governor’s legislation. But in this case, you’re right. We have a Republican governor and we have a Republican majority.
Leahy: But it’s not Randy McNally and it’s not Speaker Cameron Sexton, Randy McNally, the president of the state Senate and our lieutenant governor.
Johnson: Correct.
Leahy: Or the Speaker of the House Cam Sexton. It is the majority leader in the House, William Lambert and the majority leader in the state Senate that’s you, Jack Johnson. Why is it that the governor’s legislation is not carried by the Speaker of the House or the state Senate president?
Johnson: Sure. We have the speaker of the Senate, Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally. We have the speaker of the House. They are elected by their chamber. So they are the presiding officer, if you will, over the House and then over the Senate. My role is more of a partisan role, even though certainly Randy McNally is a Republican. Cameron Sexton is a Republican. They are elected by the body.
Leahy: They handle the entire body, meaning all the Democrats there as well as the Republicans. Therefore, they could not be the partisan sponsor of these bills that the Governor wants.
Johnson: Typically not. And it’s very unusual for the Speakers to file legislation with their name on it. My role, and Leader Lambert’s role, is to basically be the liaison, if you will, for our majorities in both the House and the Senate.
And so when the Governor has something he or she would like to have done, be it a legislative initiative or the budget, and I’m the sponsor of the budget in the Senate, leader Lambert is the sponsor of the budget in the House. And so it’s our job to shepherd that legislation through.
I always want to point out that it’s also our job to go back to the Governor and say, hey, this is not getting a favorable reception. It’s getting a bit of a cool breeze here on what you’ve proposed, Governor. And so we work through all that. We have those conversations.
Leahy: So have you had those conversations in the previous budget year with the Governor? And he said, you know, State Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, you have a point. Let’s take that off for this year. Have you had that happen?
Johnson: Absolutely. And I’ll say this about Governor Bill Lee. He is a collaborator. He wants to work in partnership with the General Assembly. We’ve had those conversations, and I’ve had to go back to and say, hey, I don’t think we can get the votes to do X. We can do Y and Z, but I can’t get the votes to do X.
And so we’ve modified or changed whatever he is wanting to do. The budget is the most important bill we pass every year. It’s actually the only constitutionally required piece of legislation we have to pass every year. The way the Constitution lays it out, the Governor is required to propose a state budget, which he did on Monday night, and he delivers a budget document.
And that’s a proposal, and that’s a starting place. He has weeks and weeks of budget hearings with all the various agencies and departments of the government, and they come with their budget needs and say, hey, Governor, we need more money to do this, or hey, we’re able to save some money by not doing this.
And he puts together a budget proposal and then that is presented. And actually, yesterday morning, the Commissioner of Finance and Administration, Jim Bryson, my predecessor in the State Senate ran for Governor back in 2006, which is the year I ran for the Senate seat.
So, a great friend. And he did an extensive and more in-depth presentation of the Governor’s proposed budget. So there’s an old saying, though. The Governor proposes the General Assembly disposes. And so that budget proposal, we will now have hearings. We’ll have testimony.
All the different departments and state government have to come in and make their independent budget proposal that is included in the governor’s budget. We ask questions, why are you spending money on this? Why can’t you save money by doing this?
And it’s a very grueling, in-depth process, but it should be because we need to go through that budget with a fine tooth comb. And we do, both in the House and the Senate. And later in session, there will be an amendment. We call it the budget amendment that usually comes in March sometimes or sometime in March.
And that’s where the governor maybe wants to change a few things. And then ultimately the legislature can take things out of the governor’s proposed budget, put things in, change it, modify it. But it’s done collaboratively with the governor and his staff. It’s a very effective process.
Leahy: So, you are sitting there for the State of the State and listening, the night before last Monday night, and as you listen to the speech, do you hear proposals that you say, well, that’s interesting, I wonder what that’s all about? Does that happen?
Johnson: It does. And we get a briefing prior to the governor’s State of the State, legislative leadership does. So we have a pretty good general idea of what’s in there, but it’s always good to hear the governor lay out his vision.
Live from Music Row Thursday morning onThe 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 and The Epoch Times’ editor-at-large Roger Simon in-studio to discuss the status of the Tennessee state three-year residency bill and the AP‘s false interpretation of where it stands.
Leahy: We are joined in-studio by a good friend, all-star panelist, my former boss at PJTV, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, and senior editor-at-large for The Epoch Times – and I forgot, mystery novelist, author, Roger Simon. Good morning, Roger.
Simon: Good morning. I actually got up early this morning because I knew there was big news in Tennessee.
Leahy: So here’s the news I’d like to get your comment on. First, yesterday afternoon we broke the story that the three-year residency bill to be a candidate on the ballot for the U.S. House of Representatives for the primary ballot was enacted into law, because Governor Lee sent, unsigned, the law back to the Tennessee Secretary Senate clerk.
Simon: Why did he do it that way? We should get into that.
Leahy: We’ll get into that in just a minute, and then literally within one hour, the Tennessee Secretary of State, this is our lead story at The Tennessee Star.
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett – Tre, I’m talking to you – offered conflicting comments on whether he will enforce the residency law and remove carpetbaggers Morgan Ortagus and, most likely, Robby Starbuck from the Tennessee 5th Congressional District GOP primary ballot.
Roger, the governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee, had a spokesperson tell the Associated Press this after we reported that the law was in effect because 10 days had passed and he hadn’t signed it and they hadn’t vetoed it. This sounds eerily like, oh, I don’t know, a statement that was made by Morgan Ortagus’s campaign recently.
Simon: I thought you were going to say Kamala Harris.
Leahy: Yeah, either one. I can’t tell the difference these days. ‘We feel the voters are best able to determine who should represent them in Congress.
Well, Governor Lee, if you had the courage of your conviction, you would have vetoed the bill. But why didn’t you veto the bill? Because it would have been overridden easily.
Simon: Easily. But there’s another thing, everything is going on below the surface here. This is a kind of dirty politics as practiced in Tennessee, but also in New York and California. And regrettably, virtually every other state, maybe save Florida, because they have a governor with a spine.
Leahy: I think you’re going to say something else. The spine is good, though. Get the point across. (Laughter)
Simon: Thank you. It’s a family show.
Leahy: It’s interesting that the AP quickly jumped into the fray to tell us this law was invalid when, of course, it’s premature in the extreme. But the AP, I will say to everyone out there, do not think of it as an even-handed institution. It is quite in the hands of the liberals.
Leahy: It’s far-left.
Simon: And it’s gotten worse and worse over the last few years.
Leahy: And the Secretary of State’s office issued a confusing statement that conflicted with their previous comments right after we broke the story.
The AP jumped off that statement. I’ll read the statement. The first statement, again, they issued a subsequent statement that conflicted with the first statement.
Simon: Like Kamala Harris?
Leahy: There you go. They said, “The bill was not signed into law before the April 7th filing deadline. The requirement does not apply retroactively to candidates who met the qualification deadline at noon on April 7th.”
That was all they said. The AP took that and ran with it and said, their headline said, “Trump–Backed Candidate on the Ballot.” No! Wrong interpretation, AP.
But they hung it on this inconsistent and false statement actually issued by the Secretary of State’s office. Trey Hargett, I just said that, and you can come in and try to defend that statement, but it is a false and misleading statement.
Simon: I’m going to be the nasty guy here. There’s been a little bit of nasty. I’m going to go further. Here’s the thing. When you look at politics, you should always look at the politics behind the politics.
What’s going on here is what I will call fear of the most powerful politician/non-politician in the state of Tennessee, a man named Ward Baker. I like Ward Baker, personally. He’s a political pro. He’s a very charming guy, very smart.
Leahy: You brought up Ward. Let me just say very smart guy. He’s a personal friend of mine as well. I like Ward, but he plays hardball.
Simon: He plays hardball, but that’s his job. He’s paid by candidates to get them elected. He’s done a good job with Marsha Blackburn, Mike Pompeo, and people outside.
Leahy: And Bill Hagerty.
Simon: Nashville figures and state figures, anyway.
Leahy: What do you see? Because these are your words, not mine. But we’ll comment on it.
Simon: He figures beneath the surface of this, and that is all of these people from the governor to Hargett to the Speaker of the House, all these people have their eyes on a higher office. That shouldn’t be news to anybody out there.
But that’s what the truth is, and they’re playing this whole game. First of all, they’re afraid that they don’t want to go on the wrong side of Ward because they need Ward down the line, or they don’t want Ward against them.
Leahy: That may apply to some, but not all. But we’ll talk about that.
Simon: I’m just giving you my way of looking at this.
Leahy: Since we’re talking about Ward we probably got to get him on the show and discuss these things and other things. Ward, I’ll call you.
You’re welcome to be on the show. He’s actually offered to be on the show. So we’ll have him discuss it. Some of the things that you are attributing to him, I don’t know if they actually …
Simon: I think it’s fear of him. That’s a different thing.
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 further comment upon who in the state decides for the filing deadline to be on the GOP primary ballot.
Leahy: And we’re continuing our discussion with Clint Brewer about the communication gaffe of Secretary of State Tre Hargett immediately after the enactment of the three-year residency requirement to get on the primary ballot for the U.S. House of Representatives.
They issued a very conflicting and confusing statement that the Associated Press immediately ran with and claimed that it meant that Morgan Ortagus is going to be back on the ballot. Associated Press got it wrong, and they got it wrong in part because of the screw-up by the Secretary of State’s office.
And we pressed them on that, and they kind of backed away from the April 7th deadline claim and reverted to the statutory requirement that April 21st is a qualifying deadline, which means the law went into effect before the qualifying deadline, Clint Brewer.
Brewer: I’m not sure your quarrel is as much with the Secretary of State’s offices as the AP. I mean, it is a nuanced situation.
Leahy: Now, that is exactly the case.
Brewer: Could the initial communication be a little more specific about April 7th versus the 21st? Sure. But I think what you’re seeing is the Secretary of State’s office operating with an abundance of caution since this is a brand-new law. There’s a residency requirement.
As we said in the previous segment, the law does not spell out whose job it is to determine the residency requirement or what the mechanism is to determine the residency requirement.
For example, if you enroll your kid in almost any school system in Tennessee, you can take them, you know, a utility bill. And so how do you establish what documents are acceptable? There’s a lot of questions that the law doesn’t answer.
And so if I am in the Secretary of State’s position, I’m thinking about the fact that there’s a deadline on the 7th that they control and there’s a deadline on the 21st that they don’t control. And so I feel like what they’re doing is from a legal standpoint, trying to limit their communication on the topic.
Leahy: Yes, I think exactly.
Brewer: You’re saying it’s a gaffe. I think it could have been clearer. But I do think there’s some intentionality to the Secretary of State’s office communication in this regard because the law is not entirely clear about who controls the final deadline.
It’s definitely the executive committee. I think this is a one-time event in that the laws passed, it’s put into effect after the filing deadline that leaves some gray areas. I’m not sure it’s a gaffe.
Leahy: I don’t think there’s any gray area.
Brewer: I don’t think it’s as much of a gaffe as it is sort of being intentionally cautious …
Leahy: Vague.
Brewer: … about what they’re saying. Maybe their attorneys have advised them to be that way.
Leahy: This is why you’re a good communications guy. If I were the Secretary of State, I would hire you immediately. (Brewer chuckles) Because you made the best out of a bad situation for that.
Brewer: I’m just trying to think through their burden in this situation.
Leahy: There are two elements to this. The first, where they made a big gaffe, was by reversing themselves on the issue of when the qualifying deadline was.
Brewer: Or did you just ask a better set of questions than the Associated Press?
Leahy: The Associated Press asked no questions.
Brewer: Well, that’s my point.
Leahy: In fact, it’s almost as if it was a coordinated effort between, oh, I don’t know, the governor, the Secretary of State, and the Associated Press to have a misleading headline. It’s almost as if.
Brewer: I can pretty much assure you that they do not all get together and agree to that.
Leahy: I didn’t say they got together. But a common goal was accomplished by like-minded individuals.
Brewer: What you’re seeing is, again, I think that given the situation, because some of these candidates whose residency is in question … I live in Wilson County.
Leahy: Morgan Ortagus’s residency timeline is not in question. She would be off the ballot.
Brewer: I mean the question in terms of the executive committee process.
Leahy: Well, that’s a separate issue. The executive committee is not about residency. It’s about meeting the standards of having voted three out of the four most recent primaries.
Brewer: Who has to figure out residency?
Leahy: The issue of residency is not before the Tennessee executive committee.
Brewer: That’s my point.
Leahy: The issue of residency is a separate lane. I think you’re right about one thing and wrong about another. The thing that the actual misleading statement from the Secretary of State’s office is to claim that the petition filing deadline of April 7th is a qualifying deadline.
The qualifying deadline and by statute is April 21st. We talked to State Senator Frank Niceley, who made that point. It’s April 21 is the qualifying deadline, not April 7.
Brewer: So in your mind, the Secretary of State’s office has from the 7th to the 21st to make some kind of ruling on each of these candidates based on residency?
Leahy: No, not at all. No. Let me tell you what my mind is thinking on it. I think it’s very clear that the qualifying deadline is April 21st.
It is after April 21st that it would be the job of the Tennessee Secretary of State to determine if a candidate meets those standards, if they were to be on by the state executive committee, which I think is in doubt at the moment.
But let’s go with that. So here’s what I would say. This is the Robby Starbuck argument versus the Morgan Ortagus argument. The standard on this, if you just take the way that they’ve approached others’ residency requirements in other cases would be the date upon which you registered to vote.
The legislature didn’t spell it out, but you would think, just by the way, that the Secretary of State has acted in the past, it would be the voting deadline.
Brewer: And the piece of code they opened up. Is there any reference in the election law to what establishes residency?
