Tennessee Campaign 2022: Governor's race, partisan school boards elections, redistricting and Hamilton County GOP battles for mayor, DA

Jan. 3—NASHVILLE — Despite having no presidential or U.S. Senate contests on Tennessee's 2022 election calendar, voters will have plenty of reasons to go vote this spring, summer and fall with elective offices ranging from governor, Congress and the state legislature on down to county mayors, commissioners, judges and others.

"You've got every local official elected in the state" on the ballot, Tennessee Republican Party Chair Scott Golden said in a telephone interview. "You're already talking about thousands of candidates. Throw on top of it that every eight years we elect every judicial office in the state. So you got local elections and judicial elections — and of course a pretty good monumental effort on our part to get school board elections involved as well. We're electing partisan school board members for the first time in the history of our state."

Partisan school board elections were approved during a special session of the legislature in October, allowing county political parties to field candidates in what until now have been nonpartisan races.

So far, 56 county Republican parties and 32 Democratic county parties have decided to hold school board primaries, including both parties in Hamilton County, according to Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett's office. About a dozen counties where party nominees are decided by political caucuses have moved to partisan school board contests as well.

"I think there's no plan for [partisanship] in the school board races," House Democratic Caucus Chairman Vincent Dixie of Nashville said Sunday in a telephone interview. "The focus should definitely be about the student's educational experience. Whether you're a Democrat or Republican or independent or any other, Libertarian, any other party, should not matter. The focus should be on how do we make sure our children are being educated in the best manner that we can. Because we have to move the needle if we're 46th or 45th in the nation when it comes to education expenditures."

At this juncture, Republican Gov. Bill Lee has no announced Republican rival in the state's August GOP primary. Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles last year flirted with running as Lee came under criticism for his COVID-19 executive orders but has since backed off.

Lee's standing took a hit in a recent Vanderbilt University poll — dropping from 65% to 55% among registered voters — with pollsters attributing the dip to the governor's signing of Republican lawmakers' package of bills seeking to bar public schools and local governments from imposing mask requirements and businesses and other entities from requiring workers get COVID-19 vaccinations.

But the governor, a businessman and political outsider who emerged as the victor in a multi-candidate 2018 GOP primary, still remains strong with Republicans in a GOP-dominated state where no Democrat has won a competitive statewide race since 2006.

Two Democrats, nonetheless, have stepped forward. One is Dr. Jason Martin, a pulmonary critical care specialist from Nashville, who before announcing his bid had been publicly critical of Lee's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The other is J.B. Smiley Jr., an attorney and Memphis City Council member.

State Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, said voters deserve a choice.

"Absolutely, there should be a race against Gov. Lee based on job performance alone. What is the basis Tennesseans have to rehire him?" Yarbro said. "And I think if Democratic candidates make that case and make it effectively, it would be a real election."

Congressional seats

One factor in 2022 elections is redistricting, the once-a-decade requirement to adjust political boundaries to reflect population growth and shifts. The Republican-dominated General Assembly will vote on state and congressional plans after they return to the state Capitol on Jan. 11.

Because of massive population growth in Nashville-centered Middle Tennessee, all nine of Tennessee's congressional seats are expected to undergo changes. No official Republican congressional redistricting plan has been revealed publicly. Republicans now hold seven of the nine seats. But Republicans are reportedly eyeing splitting up the 5th Congressional District so that Democrat-heavy Nashville is divided into as many as four Republican-held districts as the GOP seeks to dislodge incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper of Nashville.

The 4th Congressional District, now held by U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Sherwood, could include a sliver of Davidson County.

Many Republicans expect the 3rd Congressional District held by U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Ooltewah, will shed several Northeast counties and that Bradley County, now divided between Fleischmann and DesJarlais, will be reunited in Fleischmann's re-fashioned 3rd District.

"I think when you look at how we poll as a whole, I think you will definitely see us in a position to share our policies and what we've done and to engage the voters in such a way we can pick another congressional seat. I see that as a very strong possibility," said state House Republican Caucus Chairman Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, who stopped short of revealing GOP lawmakers' exact plans during a Times Free Press telephone interview last week.

Tennessee voters, Faison said, are "sick and tired of what's going on" in Washington. "I see us picking up a congressional seat just because of the failure of the White House right now," he said.

Republicans may want to reconsider that, said Kent Syler, a political science professor at Middle Tennessee State University who served as then-Democratic U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon's chief of staff.

"That's not as easy a decision for Tennessee Republicans as one might think," Syler said last week in a Times Free Press interview. "The Republicans are already overperforming. If you look at the percentage of congressional seats they have and you look at their percentage of the vote, even with seven of the nine they're overperforming. And if they try to go to eight of nine, it takes them to almost 90% over their typical election performance."

Breaking up Davidson County will "probably" lead to breaking up some of the suburbs, Syler said, and adding more or trending Democratic areas.

"Democrats have done Republicans a big favor by self-gerrymandering themselves within Davidson County. They've packed themselves in. So the Republicans are looking at basically breaching this dam of Democrats and splitting the county four ways, a county that has more potential self-funding candidates than probably any county in Tennessee. I really don't see the logic in it.

Legislative redistricting

House Republicans now control 73 of the chamber's 99 seats. In December, the Republican-dominated House Redistricting Committee released a redistricting plan that was approved along partisan lines.

It loops nine Democratic representatives from Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis into four districts. Left untouched was Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, a Democrat from Chattanooga and the only Democrat in Southeast Tennessee.

"This redistricting process has been the most non-transparent, partisan process that I've ever witnessed," said Dixie, a Democrat whose own home was placed in a Democratic colleague's district. "These maps are racially gerrymandered, and they're vindictive."

After the map was revealed and voting on in the House Redistricting Committee last month, the panel's chairman, House Deputy Speaker Curtis Johnson, R-Clarksville, defended the process as "unprecedented" in transparency and bipartisanship and said partisanship was not taken into account.

"As we are going through the process, Republican, Democrat, we don't look at that," Johnson told reporters at the time.

The Republican-controlled Senate has yet to release its map but is expected to do so this month.

Thinking local

With Hamilton County Republican Mayor Jim Coppinger stepping down after 12 years in the job, a trio of Republican candidates so far are offering themselves up as candidates in the May GOP primary.

Already filing to run are Hamilton County Commission chair and businesswoman Sabrena Smedley as well as businessman Matt Hullander, the son of Hamilton County Bill Hullander, who is seeking reelection. Also announcing but not yet filing to run is Republican Weston Wamp, the son of former U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp of Chattanooga, who leads the Millennial Debt Foundation and has been involved in two venture capital firms.

Another Wamp is running for office as well: Attorney Coty Wamp, the former congressman's daughter, is challenging incumbent Hamilton County District Attorney General Neal Pinkston in the local Republican primary.

On another legal/political front, three Hamilton County Republican attorneys, including former Criminal Court Judge Rebecca Stern, have picked up nominating petitions to run for the county's Criminal Division 3 slot being left vacant by retiring Judge Don Poole, according to the Hamilton County Election Commission's website.

Others picking up petitions are Boyd Paterson, a former assistant prosecutor who now works in the county Public Defender's office, and attorney Amanda Dunn.

Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow him on Twitter @AndySher1.