All-Star Panelist Clint Brewer: Titan Stadium Deal ‘Is Going to Get Bumped to the Heel of the Discussion’ After Mayor Cooper’s Announcement He Will Not Run for Re-Election

All-Star Panelist Clint Brewer: Titan Stadium Deal ‘Is Going to Get Bumped to the Heel of the Discussion’ After Mayor Cooper’s Announcement He Will Not Run for Re-Election

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 with current Mayor John Cooper out of the mayor’s race, the Titans Stadium deal is no longer important amongst candidate positions.

Leahy: With us, our very good friend Clint Brewer. Clint, we only have you for this segment. You have to boogie out and do some business.

Brewer: Got some business to attend to.

Leahy: Got some business to attend to. But I wanted to go back to the mayor’s race. I think it’s fascinating. I have an idea. I don’t know if all my ideas are good.

Brewer: I don’t know if anybody in the Metro government is going to listen to you either, Mike.

Leahy: Oh, nobody in the Metro government would listen. Let me just stop for a moment. Nobody currently in the Metro government is going to listen to me now. I think right now in Metro Nashville, probably 30 percent of the population listens to this show and they probably all pretty much agree with 90 percent of what we do, right?

Brewer: Ehh. Ehh. (Laughs)

Leahy: But yeah, okay, maybe not 90 percent, maybe 70 percent. Anyway, we have a base in Davidson County of people who vote in the mayoral election. And I wanted to run this by you since your experience in Davidson County and have been a Tennessean your entire life.

Brewer: Entire life.

Leahy: Yes, which I haven’t. I mean, I’ve only lived here for 31 years.

Brewer: You’re grandfathered in.

Leahy: Am I grandfathered in?

Brewer: Yes.

Leahy: But here’s the question. Would a mayoral candidate who makes, as one of their key platform elements, opposition to the Tennessee Titans Stadium deal, would they be able to garner support and gain support with such a position?

Brewer: I don’t think you’re going to find a candidate who is out front and overwhelmingly in favor of it. I mean, they may not be against it as it currently stands, the current version of the deal. They’re not going to say, I support it; we’re going to do this deal. I don’t think any of them are going to say that.

I think all of them are going to say something very similar, which is, we need to take a look at it. We’re going to have to revisit that. We’ve got a conversation about other priorities in the city. I know the people who are working on it don’t want to hear this, but I think it’s going to get bumped to the heel of the discussion.

Leahy: And by that, you mean it won’t really be fully discussed until after we have a new mayor.

Brewer: Yes. I think that you’ll have maybe a couple who will come out and say, I’m against it as it stands now, we need a better deal. I think there are some who are going to come out and say, we have more studying and more thought to apply to this.

I think with Mayor Cooper out of the race, I don’t think that taking a position opposite the stadium gets you as far as it would have with him in the race. Does that make sense? Okay.

Leahy: Because could have been the poster child, right, that you could go after.

Brewer: That only sort of buttresses your argument. If you’ve got a counterpoint. Had he chosen to run again, he would have had to have owned it. And he would have to. Without that foil there I just don’t know how much I don’t think that the difference in the candidates’ positions is going to be that different, where it gives anybody an advantage.

Leahy: A foil, you say? I love that term. (Laughs)

Brewer: Before we move on, I know this is our host’s least favorite topic in the mayoral race, but I’m just going to say it.

Leahy: Well, hold it. You can say whatever you want to.

Brewer: I know. That’s why I’m about to say it.

Leahy: He’s trying to set me up for this.

Brewer: No, I’m not. I just want to say that we’ve had another interesting entrant into the race. It’s a very interesting field, but until former mayor Megan Barry says whether she’s going to run or not, we don’t really know what we’re dealing with.

Leahy: Oh, I’m delighted to talk about the former mayor.

Brewer: Well, I’m just telling you, she’s the heavy out there, and in an open seat, somebody with that level of popularity can’t be discounted. And I just think she has to continue to be a political consideration for the field until she states affirmatively. I don’t know that a reporter has asked her, but she is still a very popular public figure in Nashville, and I think she would be formidable in a race.

Leahy: She’s never accepted our invitation to come on The Tennessee Star Report. She’s welcome to come on. It will be a direct set of questions for her. For the traffic at The Tennessee Star and for the ratings of The Tennessee Star Report, it would be a boom if Megan Barry got into the race because of her disgraceful departure from the mayor’s office.

Brewer: And to be fair to her, I don’t know that she’s even entertaining the idea. But with an open seat, it just creates a lot of possibilities.

Leahy: Yes, I think that’s right. Now, let’s talk about possibilities. I’m very interested as you know, the Davidson County Republican Party will be selecting their new chair on Saturday. I’ve gone on the record as endorsing my friend Lonnie Spivak for that role.

He’s been around for a long time and is a very capable, very good guy. And I think the mayor’s race presents an opportunity for the Davidson County Republican Party. I think our listeners will know that Clint’s facial expressions indicate he’s not so sure.

So let me pose that in terms of a question. Is there an opportunity for someone who’s not a total left-wing lunatic, and I would put pretty much, I don’t know, just Jim Gingrich at all but the others, I think, are?

Brewer: I don’t think any of them are left-wing lunatics.

Leahy: I think they are.

Brewer: I think the field as a whole is left of center.

Leahy: You are such a kind person Clint.

Brewer: Broadly, there’s opportunity in metro politics for Republicans and conservatives to run and win. I’m always a fan of let’s crawl before we walk and let’s walk before we run. Wouldn’t it be nice if the Republican Party here could maybe pick off a school board seat or two?

Leahy: I understand what you’re saying. I don’t disagree.

Brewer: Let’s start somewhere reasonable. Let’s not just go straight to the top of the ticket.

Leahy: But here’s the other thing. You see, from an organizational perspective, this opportunity is so interesting, I think it makes sense to have a credible candidate out there that the GOP can support. Maybe they get 30 percent, maybe they get 35 percent. Maybe they squeak into the runoff.

Brewer: Mayor Cooper was very effective at recruiting conservatives to his last campaign.

Leahy: And they are not feeling good about the way he treated them. They felt like he was deceptive.

Brewer: And so the question becomes, do conservatives in this county repeat that exercise and sort of pick a horse that they can live with?

Leahy: Let me say from the announced candidates, and I’ll add Bob Freeman to this, Bob Mendes or Megan Berry, the absolute unanimity, is we’re not going to fall for the Jim Cooper plan again. And we need somebody else.

Brewer: The John Cooper plan.

Leahy: Thank you. It’s early.

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carol Swain on Possible Mayoral Candidacy: ‘I Have Been Called to Hold Politicians Accountable, Not to Be One’

Carol Swain on Possible Mayoral Candidacy: ‘I Have Been Called to Hold Politicians Accountable, Not to Be One’

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 all-star panelist Carol Swain in studio to discuss whether she would consider a run for the mayor of Nashville in the 2023 August election.

Leahy: Our good friend, all-star panelist Carol Swain, is in studio with us. Carol, yesterday, Mayor John Cooper announced that he’s not running for re-election. The election for a new four-year term will be held on August 3rd here in Metro Nashville Davidson County. There are several candidates who have been announced. They’re all pretty much far-left lunatics. (Swain chuckles) I mean, they’re nice people, but they’re far-left lunatics.

Swain: I know. Look at the National Democratic Party.

Leahy: Yeah, what’s the difference? And we’ve had Sharon Hurt, who’s an at-large council member on the newsmaker line. She’s not been in the studio yet. Freddie O’Connell, a council member is running. He’s clearly a far-left lunatic. And then Matt Wilshire, who’s pretending not to be a far-left lunatic, but he is a far-left lunatic.

Swain: He’s approaching Republicans, and I hope people are very cautious about lining up behind him.

Leahy: I can tell you he’s telling people he’s a Republican.

Swain: Just like Mayor Cooper told the Republican women that he was a conservative and got a lot of their support.

Leahy: Yes. You remember that well. Now, Carol, I recall that there was a special election; I think it was back in 2018. You ran for mayor, and then you ran for mayor again.

Swain: I would like the world to remember that I came in number two in that special election.

Leahy: You did.

Swain: Even though the conventional wisdom among Republicans in the world is that no Republican can win in Nashville, so you have to support the best Democrats you can find.

Leahy: You also ran for mayor in the 2019 general election.

Swain: Came in number three, and they changed the way they did the ballots. And so my name was at the bottom of the second page. It wasn’t on the front screen.

Leahy: It was just an accident.

Swain: Which part was an accident? (Laughs) Oh, yes, I remember those days fondly. I’ve attended two victory parties where I was the loser. (Laughter)

Leahy: Well, you handle it with grace and style, Carol.

Swain: Of course.

Leahy: Mayor Cooper not running for re-election. It’s a wide-open field. I think I heard Natisha Brooks announced it yesterday. She ran for the GOP nomination in the 5th district. She finished fourth or fifth in that. She didn’t have a lot of money, but she’s a good speaker.

But the big question that a lot of people are asking me is, and here you are. So I’m going to ask you, Carol Swain, are you going to run for mayor of Nashville Davidson County in the August 2023 general election?

Swain: Michael, I’m too old, too smart to give you a yes or no answer. (Leahy laughs) The thing about it is, everything you say you never do, sometimes you end up doing. So, I’m not going to say never, but it would take a miracle.

Leahy: We believe in miracles here on The Tennessee Star Report. Let’s outline the elements of what would be the elements that would enable such a miracle to take place. And there are several.

Swain: The most important thing is I believe God has a plan for my life, a call on my life. Everything would have to line up as far as what I felt, and how it was being laid out. And then I would need someone like Ward Baker to run the campaign.

Leahy: Our friend Ward Baker, he listens to the show.

Swain: And at least $2 million.

Leahy: At least $2 million.

Swain: And then before I would even consider that, I would have to do a deep dive into the city’s finances, the state of affairs, what’s happening with the crime, what’s happening with the police, because I have been focused on national issues, and I believe that I’m called to a much bigger arena than Nashville.

But at the same time, I do love the city. And it’s like other blue cities. It is going to hell in a handbasket. I don’t know what the solution is, but those far-left candidates can only take Nashville further down.

Leahy: There’s no question about that. As bad as Mayor John Cooper has been, the candidates that I outlined to you, Sharon Hurt, Freddie O’Connell, and Matt Wilshire would be no better and could probably be worse. That’s a really bad field.

Swain: Our cities are in a sad state right now. And I would encourage the Republican Party to stop being so fatalistic with this argument that no Republican can win and go out and recruit someone. Because I think it’s possible to win for the right person. Especially since the Democrats are in the race, I think that they’re going to sort of take each other down.

Leahy: They will split the left-wing lunatic vote. And if you look at Nashville, Davidson County, depending upon the election, it’s probably now 70 percent Democrat, 30 percent Republican, or maybe 65 percent Democrat, 35 percent Republican. Something in that range. Would you agree?

Swain: Probably. But the city has deep problems, and corruption is one of the major ones, and I’m not sure what it would take to turn things around. I look at that homeless encampment at the corner of Nolensville Road and Edmundson, and it is spread across the street. It was on one side behind the store.

It is growing. What do you do about homelessness? We know that whatever the Democrats are doing, it’s not working. And it’s just so many problems affecting the city. And I would never, ever run for office unless I thought I could make things better.

And I don’t know that because I don’t know the state of affairs in Nashville. I have not been following it closely. That’s my honest reaction. But I can tell you that my mother passed seven days ago.

Leahy: And we are sorry about her passing. How old was she?

Swain: She was 92 and a half.

Leahy: A long life.

Swain: And she lived with me for 13 years. And so all of my decisions have been made thinking of my mother, and she was declining. And so I had cut back on my travel. And the blessing there was that I had always prayed that I would be at home when she died, and she would die at home.

She wouldn’t be in the hospital, hooked up to a machine. And I was in the room when she took her last breath. And I could have gone to the store. I could have gone to the gym. I didn’t have to be there. God answered my prayers. And so right now, I don’t know anything.

I definitely don’t know my future. I do know that, as I’ve always told people, I feel that I have been called to hold politicians accountable, not to be one. I also believe that we don’t need any more politicians. We need statesmen and stateswomen who are out there for altruistic reasons and not for themselves.

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 “Carol Swain” by Carol Swain.