Sometimes all it takes to win a political battle is to just show up, former Hamilton County legislator David Fowler told members of the Chattanooga Pachyderms Club on Monday.
Mr. Fowler, who moved from Signal Mountain to the Nashville area this summer, recalled a recent incident when the state senate was considering a proposal to require that adult businesses be located at least 1,000 feet away from schools, churches and other public agencies.
That same day, he said, the Family Action Council of Tennessee -- an organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the traditional family, which Mr.
Fowler spearheads -- had convened a meeting of pastors, and 54 showed up.
When the FAC meeting ended, he said, he told the pastors that legislation regarding adult businesses was scheduled to come up at 1 p.m. that day, and asked them to stay for the committee meeting where it would be heard.
Some pastors did stay, he recalled, and seven of them sat in the front row.
Early in the meeting, Mr. Fowler said, it was announced that the legislation was not yet in final written form so the vote on it had been delayed.
He congratulated the pastors, he said, explaining to them that the vote was postponed because legislators did not want to approve it with a group of clergymen in the audience.
When the same legislation came up again for consideration, he said, some of the pastors returned to Nashville and attended that meeting as well.
Proponents of the legislation then spoke up, saying they wanted to go on record in favor of the limitations on adult businesses while the pastors were present.
In the end, proponents were able to force a vote and the measure passed unanimously.
"That's a reminder to us all that, often, half the battle is just showing up," Mr. Fowler said. "When legislators feel the heat, they'll see the light."