Roy Exum
By late Monday afternoon I had received 11 emails hoping to alert me to the fact Chattanooga was the fourth worst-run city in America. Not two months ago our city was among the leaders as the Most Dangerous City (per capita) in the United States. Since then we have had 19 people shot in the month of June and I can only suspect had the shootings been included in the Wallet Hub polls, we would have strengthened our stance and become a medal winner in not one category but both.
Mayor Andy Berke, with his second term until March 2021, is universally agreed as the worst Mayor in our city’s history, the worst elected official in our county’s history, and the worst representative of our wide-flung community in the state’s history. But just as the local Republican Party did virtually nothing to challenge his ineptitude in the last election, I cannot identify a single source that is willing to take him to task by impeachment.
That brings us to focus on the next 20 months and the rumors at the Kanku “grab and go” Market, at the corner at 20
th and South Broad, are not yet promising for the betterment of our city.
Ken Smith, now the chairman of the City Council, would naturally be the early favorite but attorney Wade Hinton, who will be remembered for finding a way not to cut the grass at the Confederate Cemetery during the Confederate monument hysteria, is believed to be Berke’s pick as his successor – hardly an attribute.
Tim Kelly, a Chattanooga auto dealer, is being encouraged by some but, because Kelly is in the thick of Chattanooga’s now-tainted “liberal elites” as the chairman of the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, he may be best advised not to buy any political ads on credit. The same storm clouds come with Kim White, the head of the shadowy River City group, and Kim’s best advice is probably not to even think about bumper stickers.
The latest rumor – and no one has yet to confirm a run for any office – is that Robin Smith, who has just been seated in the legislature, would be a good candidate for mayor. The stickler there is that Robin’s expertise is state politics, so much that as a freshman legislator she is among those prominently mentioned as a good candidate to become the Speaker of the House when the shamed Glenn Casada soon resigns. The line of hopefuls for Casada’s office gets bigger by the day, and veteran legislator Mike Carter is among the front runners.
Now that Chattanooga non-profit UnifiEd has been outed as a political pariah instead of an education proponent, their focus in 2020 is to win a majority of seats on the School Board (The County Commissioners are seated until 2022) and hopefully saddle a winner in the legislature. On the 2020 School Board two-year rotation in a four-year term, four members of the nine are up for election next year: Rhonda Thurman, Kathy Lennon, Tiffanie Robinson and Joe Wingate.
In an article in the Tennessee Star last month, Wingate called out UnifiEd, explaining their real purpose. “(UnifiEd) is a political action group that disguises itself as an education advocacy group. They are there, and they attempt to interject themselves into politics under the veil of being a group that wants to advocate for education,” Wingate said.
It is strongly believed UnifiEd will target School Board chairman Wingate in much the way they used Lennon to oust chairman Jonathan Welch, much to Signal Mountain and Red Bank’s chagrin. Lennon is still trying to wax that over, telling the Star that UnifiEd is harmless. “They don’t have any influence,” Lennon said brazenly. “They support our budget. They are just an advocacy group.”
Wingate was far more on point. “It is hilarious to me that they get the press and the ink and the attention they do because they have zero influence on our school administration. They have zero influence on our school board. The only reason they get any attention is because people give them attention and call their name. It’s funny to me that folks can’t figure out that if you quit talking about them then they don’t have a platform. They are irrelevant, as far as I’m concerned, in our county.”
But by using school-aged children to canvass neighborhoods in well-organized Obama-like strategy, more and more people recognize their threat. County Commissioner Tim Boyd said in the Tennessee Star story, “UnifiEd has a political agenda, and it is not to improve education in Hamilton County. It is to turn Hamilton County from bright red (politically) to dark blue,” Boyd said, adding he’s spent a lot of one-on-one time with UnifiEd members, and he knows them well.
“The GOP locally keeps ignoring me screaming and hollering about them,” Boyd said and didn’t hesitate to describe the 350 new positions in the rejected schools tax increase last week. “Did Unified have any influence on the current proposal (to add 350 news positions)? Of course, they did,” he laughed.
All nine members of the City Council are up for re-election in March of 2021 and “could be” targets including Anthony Byrd, Erskine Oglesby and Chip Henderson. Carol Berz, Jerry Mitchell and Russell Gilbert are thought to have too strong a base, Darrin Ledford could win any race in the city or the county, and Demetrus Coonrod is whispered to be “untouchable.”
UnifiEd is now searching for a state legislature target. Insiders say they would love to deflate state Senator Todd Gardenhire, since his interest in education doesn’t run in the liberal vein, and his popularity for being outspoken is now high enough to be knocked down. How Todd would fare in a legal challenge over school vouchers is bothersome, but his record is hard for anyone to flaw. Bo Watson is seated until 2022 but House appointees (2020) include Patsy Hazelwood, Esther Helton, Mike Carter, Yusuf Hakeem, and – of course – Robin Smith, who took the remainder of Gerald McCormick’s term.
Could McCormick want to return – perhaps but not under UnifiEd – and the most vulnerable are Helton and Hakeem, both in their first terms. UnifiEd would have a problem filling districts where they lack a viable candidate but, again, there is over a year and, historically in politics, it is the last year in any term when the magic plays best, unless, of course, your name is Andy Berke.