Local Notes

The Lincoln County Republican Party held its monthly meeting the evening of June 1 in the Auditorium of the Fayetteville Municipal Building. The featured speaker for the evening was Bill Ketron, Senator from Tennessee’s 13th district, who was accompanied by his daughter Kelsey.

Mr. Ketron began his remarks with a recap of legislative work that was recently wrapped up in the recently-concluded session of the General Assembly. Special note was taken of ethics legislation that came out of the special session, although the Senator noted that merely passing a new law will not necessarily change the behavior of someone who is unethical anyway. In that vein, he noted the ongoing trial of former State Senator Roscoe Dixon, as well as the status of other members of the General Assembly who were implicated in last year’s “Tennessee Waltz” FBI sting.

Regarding legislation in general, Senator Ketron noted that there were over 4,000 bills introduced in the General Assembly in the past session. He is thus looking into the possibility of introducing a bill that would cap the number of bills that can be introduced, currently researching similar legislation in other states.

Among the other legislative issues he took note of were the General Assembly’s dealing with the recent Kelo decision – regarding Eminent Domain – by the U.S. Supreme Court, Minimum wage legislation that Democrats failed to push through despite efforts to demagogue, and legislation dealing with public employees’ pensions. Additionally, Mr. Ketron would note how Democrats branded his English-only Driver’s Test bill as racist, and that more of the same can be expected as Tennessee considers toughening voter ID requirements in the near future.

The Senator also took note of the surplus budget that Tennessee’s government ran for the past fiscal year. He noted that projections for the next couple of years point to surpluses as well, and made the point that this should put to rest any talk of the need for a state income tax as the state is obviously not short on revenues. Part of this year’s surplus was used to put more money in Pre-K programs, Higher Education, and the state’s “Rainy Day” fund.

Regarding his re-election campaign, Mr. Ketron noted that he is one of three Republican Senators specifically targeted by the State Democrat Party, the others being Mae Beavers and Don McLeary – who switched parties to become a Republican in the wake of the Ophelia Ford scandal. State Democrats are going to fully fund Senator Ketron’s opponent, making his need for contributors and workers more acute.

When the floor was opened for questions, the Senator took note of the controversial election bill that was amended by the Democrats at the last minute and passed in the closing days of the session. Noting that he would vote differently if he had to do it over again, Mr. Ketron pointed out that outgoing House Democrat Leader Kim MacMillan introduced the controversial amendment to the bill – toughening the requirements for write-in candidates to get on the November ballot – as all legislators were trying to wrap up work before the session ended. This meant that legislators didn’t have time to study the bill in detail. Upon discussion of the bill with Assistant Floor Leader Diane Black, having been informed that the Democrats were going to kill one of his bills if the election bill didn’t pass, he voted for the bill. In hindsight, he now wishes he hadn’t, and is supporting the State Republican Party’s call for Governor Bredesen to veto the bill.

Stating that he looked forward to seeing the folks in Lincoln County again in three weeks – at the Lincoln County Reagan Day Dinner, the Senator concluded his remarks, and mingled with the crowd following the adjournment of the meeting.