Current, former Tennessee governors discuss election issue at early voting kick-off event
Kim Chaudoin | 615.966.6494 |
As election day in Tennessee draws near, a number of issues are being discussed across the state.
On Oct. 15, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and former Gov. Phil Bredesen visited Lipscomb for a special event hosted by the Nelson & Sue Andrews Institute for Civic Leadership and the Institute for Law, Justice and Society to kick-off early voting in the state. The governors came together to discuss Amendment 2, the proposed judicial selection amendment to the state constitution that will appear on the statewide ballot this November. The modification to the amendment makes the governor's judicial appointments subject to confirmation by the Tennessee legislature. Those judges would then face public retention elections every eight years. Under the proposal, the process would do away with the nominating committee that currently sends three candidates to the governor.
Haslam and Bredesen took questions from university students and supporters at a breakfast event billed as a bi-partisan effort to get out the vote for Amendment 2.
"This works," said Haslam, the state's Republican governor. "We have an appellate level court system that works in Tennessee right now. And when you have every living governor, all the mayors of major cities and counties … when you have all these groups who are involved in the process and say, 'This works,' I think it does speak the right message."
Both governors said avoiding the influence of special interests through campaign contributions is a major part of why they're supporting the measure.
Bredesen, a Democrat, used examples of scandals that have plagued states like West Virginia and Alabama, where judges were accused of deciding cases based on political considerations, as evidence of what can happen when individual interests influence decisions such as this.
"West Virginia has been the current poster child for the bad things that happen when you allow individual interests to target individual judges in that way," he said. "We don't have it here now, we don't need to start having it."
Haslam said there was wide support among the state's mayors for the amendment, as well as backing by the state NAACP, the conservative Beacon Center of Tennessee and other groups.
Founded in October 2010 to build on the legacy of Nashville leader Nelson Andrews, the Nelson and Sue Andrews Institute for Civic Leadership engages current and emerging leaders in academic and community programs to create thriving communities. These include a master’s in civic leadership, one of only two in the nation; Citizen Leadership Academies and customized leadership classes serving organizations, counties and cities statewide. The institute’s newest initiative is Leadership Tennessee, the only statewide leadership education program in Tennessee created to cultivate a network of business, nonprofit, education and government leaders committed to addressing the state’s challenges and opportunities.