Like Nationwide, Jim Cooper Is On Your Side

Rep. Jim Cooper, soon to be the Dean of the Democratic Congressional Delegation from Tennessee, has a new ad out in the virtues of having a good constituent outreach service is highlighted.



(via Cass)

As Bad as Alabama and Mississippi?

Oh, no...we're worse.

Jeff Woods has an article lamenting the decimation of the once strong Democratic Party here in Tennessee. In the opening he says:

"Rather than talking about the need for choice in elections — and warning about the crazy stuff Republicans will do if given free rein — Tennessee Democrats stubbornly have stuck to their playbook of campaigns past (as dreadfully unsuccessful as it has been). That is, they have masqueraded as Republicans — not really Democrats at all, but God-fearing, Nancy Pelosi-hating good ol' boys just like their opponents.

So how's that working out for them? The once-almighty party of Andrew Jackson and Al Gore is about to take a knockout punch and drop like a sack of potatoes into the irrelevant status of Democrats in Mississippi, Alabama and nearly all the rest of the South."

All fine and good, except for one important caveat, Mississippi and Alabama's legislatures are still controlled by the Democrats. Granted, they are the "God-fearing, Nancy Pelosi-hating good ol' boys" that are anathema to the Democratic party I call home, but nominally at least, they are still Democrats.

Mississippi's Senate has 27D to 25R, and their House has 73D to 48R.

Alabama's Senate has 20D to 15R and their House has 60D to 45R.

With all the various pundits and trolls coming up with reasons for the decline in Democratic power in this state, from those who think Chip Forrester is the single greatest detriment to Democratic candidates (and that somehow myself and a handful of Nashville Young Dems are responsible for him being there), to those who think our candidates just needed to grow a backbone and stand up for "Democratic" values and somehow there would be volunteers, votes and cash raining down like manna from heaven.

How about another possibility? What if the problem for Tennessee Democrats is that in the past they tried to actually do some good stuff for this state. Starting with TennCare and culminating in an attempt to pass an income tax to both pay for TennCare and improve our dismal education rankings, it seems like the decline in power started there, and has snowballed ever since. Granted, this election cycle and the last have been coupled to an anti-Democratic resurgence in the South in general, but Tennessee is rather unique in the (assumed) impending demise of our party's control of the legislature. Could it be that maybe Democrats in Mississippi and Alabama have remained there because they haven't challenged the status quo and have been content to be at the bottom in all sorts of metrics with regards to education and quality of life?

I don't know, I guess I'm spitballing here and the PP trolls are probably right in that I single-handidly installed Chip Forrester as TNDP Chair and have since lead to the demise of the party of Andrew Jackson...I just wish I had realized my great power and used it to make a bit of money in the process.

Wanna Pay More In Taxes? Vote Republican

Ran across this website trying to persuade black people that it is in their best interest to vote Republican.  Now, I'm assuming based on the way this guy is dressed this video was shot sometime in the 1990s, but the message is rather simple...if you don't like paying income taxes, vote Republican.  Of course, this message might ring true with some of the wealthy black Americans, but the vast majority of all Americans, black or otherwise, benefit from our current progressive income tax structure over any of the crackpot replacement scams perpetrated by the GOP such as a "Fair Tax".

Justin Wilson Seeking Job Security

Rewind back to 2007, before the Republican onslaught of 2008, many Republicans were keen to sit on their hands when given the opportunity to vote for then Comptroller John Morgan.  Was it because he did a bad job?  Nah, its because he was too "partisan":

"They all campaigned against me this last election," State Rep. William Baird (R-Jacksboro) told NashvillePost.com, referring to Gov. Phil Bredesen and House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh as well as Sims and Morgan. "The constitutional officers are supposed to be non-partisan. They should not be out campaigning against members of the legislature."...

...State Sen. Diane Black (R-Gallatin) echoed Baird's concerns and abstained from voting, but added "I believe both John Morgan and Dale Sims do a good job and I am confident that they will continue to do a good job. I am disappointed that they would go out and campaign against an 8-year incumbent, because they need to stay neutral."

Now, fast forward to the present. Republicans have one of their own, Justin Wilson, installed as Comptroller. So, here's their chance to be honest...were their complaints about Morgan grounded in principle, or just another example of partisan hackery.

Not content to simply show up at a few events here and there, Comptroller Justin Wilson has opened up his pockets to make it rain for some of his fellow Republicans.

According to TREF reports, Wilson has given at least $25,000 to Republican committees and PACs.

$6,000 to MPAC (Mark Norris)
$10,000 to MUMPAC (Jason Mumpower)
$6,000 to the Senate GOP Caucus
$3,000 to the House GOP Caucus

Not that it really matters, but on different reports Morgan Wilson has listed different titles, from lawyer with Waller Lansden, to Comptroller, to partner with Cherokee investments. Regardless, where is all the fuss and muss over this politicization of a "non-partisan" office that we saw from Sen. Black and others circa 2007?

If You Like Race to the Top, Vote Yokley

TNGOP Chairman Chris Devaney made a rather startling suggestion to Jeff Woods regarding Democrat Eddie Yokley:

People have to make that decision. If they think it’s a good idea to take stimulus money, then they should vote for Eddie Yokley. If they think it was a bad idea for Eddie Yokley to take stimulus money, then they should vote against him.

The Tennessee Legislature went into an "extraordinary session" this summer in an effort to pass changes to our education laws in order to get Race to the Top money that was allocated in the American Recovery and Re-investment Act, aka the stimulus package. The bill to allocate and accept that stimulus money was passed unanimously in the House.

So, there you have it. Chris Devaney is saying that if you like Race to the Top, vote for Eddie Yokley...can we get that endorsement on a TV ad?

That's The Craziest Thing You Could Find?

Well, Ty Cobb may not much like using the term illegal immigrant, but he doesn't have much of a problem with his ad firm doing so:



When I first saw the title, "Crazy Talk With Sheila Butt" I assumed maybe they might be going after her nutty views on gays and what not...but no. She's "crazy" for supporting a guest worker program (which isn't exactly giving jobs to "illegal immigrants" if they are here legally) and mentioning the phrase income tax in a debate.

It is what it is I suppose...

Tea Partiers Will Have Keep The Fear Alive to Counteract...

Like Sanity?

Wanna Rally to Restore it?

Don't have the time or money to go to Washington, DC?

You may be in luck...

Rally to Restore Sanity - Nashville
600 Church Street
Saturday, 10/30 - 11:00AM to 3:00PM

Unfortunately, the organizers are considering canceling due to less than enthusiastic responses, so if you are so inclined, go show your support.

Cook Downgrades TN-05 to "Likely Dem"

The Weekly Standard is excited about new Cook Political Report ratings which show seven races across the country being downgraded from Strong Dem to Likely Democrat, amongst those is our own Jim Cooper.

The Cook Political Report has updated seven House races, moving all seven "Solid Democrat" races to "Likely Democrat." The list includes Frank Pallone of New Jersey, David Price of North Carolina, Peter DeFazio of Oregon, Jim Cooper of Tennessee, Lloyd Doggett of Texas, John Tierney of Massachusetts, and Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.

Is this reason for concern? Well, no, not really. In all likelihood Cook has various forecasting models that take into effect prior performance, their Cook PVI (TN-5 is D+3), and national polls. However, there is no objective evidence (at least that I've seen online) that shows Cooper is in anymore trouble today than he was a week or month ago. Short of an objective poll showing the race close, this still has to be seen as a heavily favored Democratic seat, although the margin of victory might be smaller than Cooper's seen before since moving into Nashville's congressional district.

The last FEC reports available showed an incredibly large COH gap between Cooper and his opponent, David Hall, and as of 10/13 his only media buy was a fairly small cable ad buy of about $6K with less than $30K in the bank, compare that to nearly $300,000 spent by Cooper to blanket the airwaves with his Penny Pinching Ways.

Having said all that...still go out and vote, because only assholes don't vote when they have the ability to.

Finney Has Had Enough With Negative Ads

After a barrage of negative ads from Backstabby McGee Don McLeary, Lowe Finney reminds voters that negative ads don't create jobs (unless you work at FRR or another political media firm) and he's never met the Washington politicians who McLeary is trying to tie young Lowe to:



You can see some of the anti-Lowe ads from McLeary here, here and here...all of them seem obsessed with Finney's vote against a pointless resolution decrying the Cap and Trade bill that was bottled up in the Senate. Of course, this could be construed as payback from some rather harsh negative ads run against McLeary in 2006 which accused him of supporting a marijuana legalization advocate, aka Milton Friedman.

Yarbro and Henry Agree, Tennessee is Awesome

Jeff Yarbro sent out an email to his supporters reminding them to vote, and to vote for his former opponent and now BFF, Sen. Douglas Henry:

If you live in Nashville's 21st District, I encourage you to vote to re-elect Senator Douglas Henry. During the primary campaign, Sen. Henry and I had the opportunity to discuss the issues facing both the district and the state. Despite some differences on policy positions and approach, we consistently shared a love of Tennessee and the hope that our best days were ahead of us.

Few in our state's history have demonstrated the devotion and faithfulness to public service as Sen. Henry has. During his tenure, he has been committed to a government that both lives within its means and meets our obligation to build a better future for our children. I hope that you will join me in supporting his re-election and in working with him during his next term.

Which Cycle Are We In?

As we head into election day there is but one question that plagues the Democrats...are the voters going to use lube?  Various election forecasts show substantial GOP gains in the House, with most showing 50+ seats, with some showing as many as 80 seats swinging to the dark side, while some more optimistically show gains of only 30-40.  My guess is in the high 50s, but that is neither here nor there.

In trying to contextualize this election cycle, it seems the go to scenario is that of 1994 when Republicans gained 54 seats after 46 years under a Democratic Speaker of the House.  That's all well and good, but a GOP victory after a nearly 50 year Democratic reign doesn't seem to fit this mold which is an impending GOP gain after only four years of Democratic congressional control.

19th Century John Boehner?

While modern times have seen a relatively stable pattern of Democratic and Republican gains in the House, with a Democratic gain of 75 seats in 1948 being the largest swing since the beginning of the New Deal era in 1932, that was not always the case. One time period sticks out to me as more indicative of where we are now.

Going into the election of 1888, Democrats (the conservative party at the time) narrowly controlled the House and voters were getting a bit restless and decided to hand control over to the Republicans who advocated a policy of high tariffs to protect the burgeoning manufacturing industry of the Northeast.

By 1890, voters said, "Wtf? Tariffs?" and coupled with a rather large "panic" and what was seen as somewhat profligate spending (the Dems railed against the "Billion Dollar Congress"...sound familiar?) voters thought the Democrats had been in time out long enough and decided to give them a shot again, so we saw an 86 seat gain for the Dems and a 93 seat loss for the Republicans. These heavy margins are hard for any party to maintain, so in 1892 Republicans made modest gains, but were still an underdog minority party. By 1894, after four years of more conservative Democratic policies, the economy still sucked pretty damn hard and so the voters, once again, decided to put the Democrats back in time out and we saw a whopping 130 seat gain for the Grand Old Party, the largest one year gain for a party ever.

So, getting to my point (I think there is one in here somewhere), what does our time have to do with this time period? Well, for one, we have an economy that is in flux and while there are some modest gains in private jobs and GDP growth, voters don't get a sense that things are really on the mend. Two, you've got a party advocating belt tightening during a bad economy. Three, voters are punishing the incumbent party for doing EXACTLY WHAT THEY SAID THEY'D DO if they took office, namely passing health care reform, Wall Street reforms, and cutting taxes for 95% of Americans (sshhh...don't tell, its a secret).

Long story short, Republicans will make gains this year, no doubt. But given the large degree of instability between party changes I have to wonder if this is stable lasting growth or, like our stock market, a symptom of instability with short bursts of gains and losses before we find an equalization.  My point being, there is no immutable law of politics that says we have to have lengthy periods of time where one party controls the Congress...we had that for the better part of the 20th century, but over a longer time frame that appears to be somewhat of an anomaly.

A Brief History of GOP Gains:

1854 (formation of new GOP) +46 seats
1864 +50
1866 +37
1872 +63
1894 +130
1914 +62
1920 +62
1938 +81
1942 +47
1946 +55
1966 +47
1994 +54
2010 ?

Jeff Cassman Was An Illegal Immigrant

God damn so much irony, so little time.  Culture warrior and Republican politco Jeff Cassman was busted in Guatemala and his capture was documented on video.



According to a Google translation of the video info:

Jeffrey Lynn Cassman, 34, of American national was arrested this afternoon in the central park of Antigua Guatemala, this guy was wanted by the FBI accused of crimes Postal Securities Fraud, three counts of theft of USS. 30 000 and other Computer Fraud USS.195 thousand.

The accused had arrest warrants in the United States in the State of Tennessee in Dixon County since January 2005 and was wanted by U.S. authorities.

The arrest of the subject was made after investigations by the Special Criminal Investigation Division (DEIC), it succeeded in Sacatepéquez Old City where he currently resided illegally. He was turned over to Immigration where he will be deported to their country of origin and delivered to American authorities who sought the arrest of the accused.

Oh, Cassman...if only your scams were done on a much grander scale instead of being hunted down in Guatemala you would have received a golden parachute on Wall Street.

Democratic Unity - As One Stand Together

Watch about half the crowd look at the ground and shuffle their feet when "our next Governor" Mike McWherter's name is mentioned...

War Memorial Plaza

Tuesday, October 26, 5:00 p.m.

Join Democratic legislators, candidates, and grassroots supporters for a Get Out the Vote Rally, Tuesday, October 26 at 5:00 p.m.

* Greet candidates who will represent your values in the TN General Assembly.
* Learn from legislative leaders why this is the most important election in decades.
* Find out what your vote really means to redistricting.
* Celebrate what it means to be a Democrat in Tennessee.

Whether you are a long-time Democrat or new to the Party, we hope you’ll join us on Oct. 26. Early voting continues through Thursday, Oct 28th. All nine sites will be open till 7 pm on the day of rally. Election day is Tues, Nov 2.

You Might Just Grow Up To Be The First Openly Gay President

President Obama joined the chorus of famous people, both gay and straight, who are posting youtube videos telling kids that someday their life will be sunshine and rainbows.



I'm not quite sure if there is a sudden increase in gay teens committing suicide or if its just a snowballing media narrative that takes a few anecdotal incidences and extrapolates it to be a new crisis/phenomena. Either way though, I guess if it can help a couple kids get through a tough time, its a good thing...I just hope that all the media attention doesn't actually push someone towards doing the deed in the hopes of some sort of post-death fame.

One G Down, Now What About Some God and Gays?

I find it interesting how it seems that many campaigns in Tennessee ultimately end up focusing on largely irrelevant issues, be it hand-wringing over non-existent efforts to pass an income tax, or now talk of changing our handgun permit laws to mirror those of Vermont, or in other words, everyone over the age of 18 can pack heat without going through training or licensing.

Bill Haslam is now back-tracking, or clarifying depending on who you ask, comments that indicated support for, or at least no opposition to, the possibility of adopting such a law (or lack thereof).  "Our next Governor" Mike McWherter has seized on this semi-controversy in the hopes that this will be the key to him making up the 40 point gap in the polls.

If you follow this link you'll see video from WKRN in which McWherter criticizes his opponent's position and warns, "and that means you can have people carrying concealed weapons into shopping malls, into shopping centers, into movie theaters..." I don't know if this was an example of poor editing, but permit holders already can do all of these things, assuming that these businesses haven't posted signs banning firearms on the premises.

Ultimately, getting rid of our carry permit system would be a mistake for numerous reasons, not the least of which is the loss in state revenue associated with doing so. Now, I'm sure some of the amateur constitutional scholars that now make up the Tea/Republican party might argue that its unconstitutional to limit in any way our right to get our gun on, but Supreme Court precedence and common sense would disagree.

Time For The PP Trolls To Go National

Yesterday our intrepid Governor went to his favorite stomping ground, the Wall Street Journal editorial pages, to attack what has inaccurately been dubbed "ObamaCare" under the auspices that it would cost the Federal Government a gazillion dollars and would incentivise businesses to drop insurance coverage for their employees.  Well, Jonathon Gruber, a Professor at MIT who presumable hasn't made a gazillion dollars in the health care industry, sees things a bit differently.

Gruber takes to task many of Gov. Bredesen's assumptions, notes accurately that the companies are already stopping health insurance coverage, and overall just rips the Governor's arguments apart.  And just in case "our next Governor" Mike McWherter or Bill Haslam were reading that and getting any bright ideas on how to save the State some coin by dropping health insurance for state employees, Gruber crunches the numbers and comes to a different conclusion than Phil:

Bredesen does talk about another state--his home, Tennessee--and does some calculations to suggest it would save money by dropping insurance for its public employees. But his math is way off. First of all, Tennessee state employees generally make too much money to get big subsidies through the exchanges. Forty percent have incomes higher than 400 percent of the poverty lines, which means they’d be eligible for no tax credits at all; even for those with incomes below that level, the average tax credit would offset just a third of their premium cost. Second, if these individuals lost their public employee insurance and went into the exchanges, they would want to receive the same very generous benefits they get now–coverage comparable to the platinum plans offered in the exchange. Working from CBO’s estimate of the cost of less generous plans in the exchange in 2016, those plans would cost about $6650 for an individual and $17,400 for a family in 2014.

Using the Governor’s estimates of 40,000 state employees, and accounting for the low subsidization and high cost of the very generous benefits they would need to get in the exchange, I estimate that it would cost state employees about $425 million out of their own pockets to replicate in the exchange what they get today from the state. Accounting for the amount already paid by employees ($63 million after tax), that is a net increase in cost to them of $362 million. Providing a raise to state employees sufficient to offset that cost would cost the state about $496 million, which is itself an understatement since the higher wages would lower the employees’ subsidies and require additional raises. Add to that the $80 million the state would have to pay in free rider assessment, and the cost to the state is $576 million. Thus, by dropping insurance, the state wouldn’t save money, as Bredesen claims. It would incur a new cost of around $230 million--and, along the way, displace state employees from their existing source of insurance. I find it hard to believe Bredesen--or any sane governor--would even think about doing that.

Oh That Phil

Gov. Philip Bredesen is promoting his new book, Fresh Medicine, by giving the Wall Street Journal a little taste of what he's got to offer in a critique of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's proposed health insurance exchanges. The Governor takes us on an exciting ride through a thought experiment revolving around the potential gains if the State were to stop providing health insurance for employees and comes to this conclusion:

Our thought experiment shows how the economics of dropping existing coverage is about to become very attractive to many employers, both public and private. By 2014, there will be a mini-industry of consultants knocking on employers' doors to explain the new opportunity. And in the years after 2014, the economics just keep getting better.

The consequence of these generous subsidies will be that America's health reform may well drive many more people than projected out of employer-sponsored insurance and into the heavily subsidized federal system. Perhaps this is a miscalculation by the Congress, perhaps not. One principle of game theory is to think like your opponent; another is that there's always a larger game.

That's interesting because the economics of simply not covering employees at all is greater today than it will be in a few years...and in an economic downturn with an overflowing labor pool, many companies could likely do it without a significant loss of labor.

Ultimately though, supposing that Gov. Bredesen is right and we could see a move away from employer based health care over to individual health insurance plans...isn't this a good thing? From an economic theory perspective the current system stifles the free flow of labor because employees might feel more tied to their current job than a new one in a growing market because of their need to maintain health care benefits and the fact that many companies have a waiting period before enrolling new employees on their plan...leaving a lapse in coverage that could be a year or longer even if that person goes directly from one job to the next.

Now, could the costs to the Federal Government be grossly underestimated currently? Perhaps, I haven't dug through the CBO's scoring of the bill and I'm not sure what assumptions they took into account, but even if this does become a problem, it could wind up being a good one that can be remedied by either reducing the subsidy and providing a cheaper, non-profit public option that individuals participating in the exchange can subscribe to.

Apparently There Is An "Independent Conservative" In The 4th

But its not Lincoln Davis and he's advertising on DailyKos:

Dr. Steve Doing What He Does Best, Putting People To Sleep

Dr. Steve Dickerson, the GOP candidate challenging Sen. Henry, has a new ad up on youtube that is presumably going to get airtime on the television.  In it, he touts his experience as a physician, he is a well paid anesthesiologist, as a reason he should be the next Senator from the 21st District.



Curious. Is Dr. Steve gonna wear his lab coat around the legislature like Mike Williams wore his NASCAR jacket? Or will that prop usage end after election night?

What Doth Maketh a Religion?

Laurie Cardoza-Moore is none too pleased with the bold decision by the Department of Justice to declare that the second largest religion in the world is in fact a religion:

"The bottom line is, is the Department of Justice going to sanction a religion that kills homosexuals, that kills apostates who leave Islam and convert to Christianity, who kill women because they ask for divorce," she said. "I guess we're going to have to go back to the Constitution and see how it defines what makes a religion."

Oh, God, if only the founding fathers had considered that someday a religion that preaches the death penalty for homosexuality might come to our soil...oh, wait, that's right...when the Constitution was written we totally killed the shit out of some gay people.

There is a rather detailed paper on the subject, but long story short, at some point in time all of the original colonies in the United States had on their books laws that called for the murder of people who committed acts of "buggery" or "sodomy". It wasn't until Deists and Secularists started getting thrown into the mix of lawmakers that we began to see a liberalization of anti-sodomy laws around the beginning of the 19th Century. However, capital punishment for acts of sodomy didn't get repealed in North Carolina until 1869 and South Carolina until 1873 (I'm sure, quite grudgingly).

What's the point here? The point is that religion, if viewed literally and through a orthodox lens, is generally always violent, bloody, hateful, and despicable by modern American standards. Its only when you view the whole Bible through a more liberal viewpoint (read: ignoring the bad stuff and focusing on the good) that you come to the more lovey dovey Christianity that has been more or less a part of most of American society for the past couple hundred years.

Islam isn't a problem in an of itself, its those who view the Koran literally and wish to see its laws and customs established in criminal code that are the problem. Right now Muslims make up about 1%, give or take, of the American public. The chance of them establishing their religious laws are nill (unless of course they team up with the equally dangerous American Taliban known as the Conservative Evangelical movement...). The key here is not to demonize them, the key is to subject Muslims in America to the same debauched and commercialized culture that we have grown accustomed to in an effort to see their offspring become as secularized as we are. 

Did The DCCC Drop Herron Over Pelosi?

That is the narrative Roy Herron would have you believe, that because he took the bold step of saying that he wouldn't vote for Nancy Pelosi to be Speaker of the House, somehow the DCCC stopped supporting him as a result:

Herron added that it would be an “amazing coincidence” that the Democratic Party just happened to pull its financial support from his campaign the day after he said he wouldn’t vote Nancy Pelosi in as U.S. House Speaker.

Not to rain on his parade or anything, but its a pretty easy claim to debunk.  Why?  Well, because Herron isn't alone in rebuking the most effective Democratic Speaker in generations.  Bobby Bright from Alabama has done the same, saying he would neither vote for Nancy Pelosi or John Boehner, but rather some "centrist" candidate, all the way back on October 7th.  Has the DCCC stopped supporting this reliably Republican Democrat?  Hells to the nah.  As recently as the 19th they dropped over $250,000 in his district, bringing their total to over $1.1 million for the most conservative Democrat in Congress.

Its simple really...the DCCC's job is to take money from liberals and give it to conservative who will then go and bash those liberal donors.  Its a weird ritual Democrats do every year because, lets face it, if we were to only support liberals then we'd be a pretty small minority in Congress.  So, no...the DCCC did not drop Herron because he denounced Pelosi, in all likelihood the latter followed the former.

(h/t PP)

POTUS Explains Why We Need To Vote

In a wide-ranging, interesting, but ultimately not too enlightening interview, the President closes with this message to his supporters:

One closing remark that I want to make: It is inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines in this midterm election. There may be complaints about us not having gotten certain things done, not fast enough, making certain legislative compromises. But right now, we've got a choice between a Republican Party that has moved to the right of George Bush and is looking to lock in the same policies that got us into these disasters in the first place, versus an administration that, with some admitted warts, has been the most successful administration in a generation in moving progressive agendas forward.

The idea that we've got a lack of enthusiasm in the Democratic base, that people are sitting on their hands complaining, is just irresponsible.

Its a fair comment, and I'll be voting despite my complete lack of enthusiasm in the slate of candidates before me...and I may even vote for McWherter, if not for anything else than because he supports Planned Parenthood funding (yeah, the pros column is pretty sparse). At the end of the day though I think most people who still like and support the President are going to vote. In fact, Gallup's polling shows that Democratic interest and enthusiasm isn't all that diminished from 2006, its more that Republicans are just super excited to send a giant "fuck you" to the President and the Democratic party, coupled with a middle-of-the-road electorate that is confused, misinformed, or just not happy with the Democratic legislative accomplishments.

State of the Election

Apparently there is an election going on people are going out to vote.  Personally, I haven't been able to muster up the intestinal fortitude to withstand the ballot box yet, but according to the latest figures from the election commission roughly five percent of registered voters in Davidson County have:

15,387 had early voted as of yesterday, or 4.94% of active registered voters (of which around 6K are newly registered since the primary).

The highest flow of traffic to the ballot boxes appear to be in Hermitage, Edmondson Pike, and Green Hills.

Best I can tell there is really only one "toss-up" race within the city limits, and that would be the 60th House race between Sam Coleman and Jim Gotto. While Democratic polls do show a Coleman lead, given the atmosphere and the conservative nature of this traditionally Democratic district, I'd not be taking anything for granted if I were either of them. Other than that, Sherry Jones is being contested along with Doug Henry, but its difficult to see either of them going down. And, of course, there is robo-call David Hall going up against Jim The Pennypincher Cooper, but the GOP likely blew whatever slim hopes they had when their donors wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on Jeff Hartline and whatsherface Mama Grizzly.

Oh, yeah, and "our next Governor" Mike McWherter is battling it out with John Jay Hooker to be the least effective Democratic candidate ever.

Berke Fundraises off of Stacey Campfield

Sen. Andy Berke apparently wasn't too amused by a recent comment from Rep. Stacey Campfield regarding the 4th Congressional district race:

"If I had Lincoln Davis as my congressman, I'd put a gun in my mouth, too."

That is what Rep. Stacey Campfield, R-Knox, said yesterday on his blog. He was referring to allegations that Congressman Davis' opponent, Scott Dejarlais, had committed domestic violence against his ex-wife and then held a gun in his mouth.

Rep. Campfield is now running for the State Senate in Knox County against Democrat Randy Walker. He is one of the most extreme members of the General Assembly: advocating that felons have the right to carry concealed firearms; arguing against Pre-K; voting against the University of Tennessee budget; and calling the Black Caucus worse than the KKK.

This is why I have created a political organization that will help common sense candidates who will work together to move our state forward.

Can you contribute to Three Star PAC to keep extremists like Stacey Campfield out of office in November?

So, Campfield makes light of attempted suicide, what's the big deal?

Suprise! Forrester Ain't No Boss Crump

Greg Johnson, an East Tennessee Republican columnist who specializes in bitching about all Democrats non-Bredesen, has a post up in which he seems to lay the blame for the Democrat's plight in Tennessee (perhaps the Nation?) on the feet of our fearless leader, Chip Forrester.

Not only is it Chip's fault that Mike McWherter is getting pummeled by Bill Haslam in the polls, he's also to blame for the retirements of Tanner and Gordon and the subsequent plight of their would-be Democratic successors.

He also goes on to trot out that bullshit line about "Chicago style politics" because of a negative ad run against Scott DesJarlais, as if somehow personal attacks are a Chicago phenomena abhorrent to the ways of our genteel southern politics.

Here's the deal. Forrester and the TNDP have laid all their eggs in one basket, winning back the Tennessee State House. No party chair can carry a bad Gubernatorial candidate to victory when going up against a GOP challenger who is well liked and has endless resources at their disposal.

In terms of the Congressional races, could Forrester, or a better question, could a Charles Robert Bone have stopped Tanner or Gordon from retiring? Its hard to say, but if the President and other Democratic leaders couldn't get a couple of multi-decade serving Congressmen to run for re-election, its hard to imagine a newly appointed party chair being able to pull those kinds of strings. Could Forrester do something to change the dynamics of the 6th and 8th? Maybe he should have worked hard to recruit a better funded and more well known challenger in the 6th, but that seat was written off by political prognosticators and serious candidates alike the moment Gordon announced he was finished. As for Herron, I'm not sure if there is an argument out there that there was a better candidate who could've been recruited. At this point, its up to him, and the DCCC (which recently announced it was writing off the district) to seal the deal, and he hasn't.

So, that brings us to the State House. Forrester, Turner, and other members of the party leadership certainly have a fair share of the blame for the Ty Cobb II debacle in 62. Not only because our candidate turned out to be a couple shades shy of retarded, but also because they knew it and still poured well over a hundred thousand dollars into the campaign to beat Pat Marsh (who many still swear was willing to run as a Democrat if the party hadn't already backed Cobb). That decision not only sapped much needed resources, but potentially lost permanently a former Democratic seat.

Have they learned their lesson? Arguably the slate of candidates we have is reasonably good. The party right now is focused on a small handful of races, some challengers to GOP incumbents like David LaRoche, others Dems running for open Democratic seats like Sam Coleman. If they somehow manage to pull off an upset (and I wouldn't bet on it) and take back the State House, Forrester will be deserving of many kudos for making the best of a bad situation. If, however, we lose more seats and increase the GOP margin in the House and fail to win any Senate seats, it would be incumbent upon Forrester to pack it up and step aside.

Long story short, the book is not yet written on Forrester's tenure as Party Chair.  November 2nd and the results in the legislature will decide this.

So, What You Are Telling Me Is That He's Liberal?

The News Corp funded TNGOP has a new ad out which attacks "liberal" George McDonald for writing a check to his fellow Democrat Bob Rochelle.



(h/t PP)

Raises for State Employees?

Well, it is the TSEA's job to ask for them, but I kind of have to agree with Stacey Campfield in that it is highly unlikely next year:

“They can look for a 7 percent raise next year, but I’m looking for a unicorn and a rainbow that drops golden bars from heaven,” he said. They may deserve a raise, he added, but “I just don’t see that as happening,” even at a lower level.

Randy Walker, Campfield’s Democratic opponent, called it “cowardly” to deny state workers annual cost-of-living adjustments. Lawmakers could dig deeper in the budget to find the money, he maintained.

“Zero is unreasonable,” said Walker. On the other hand, 7 percent in one year might be a little much, he added.

Perhaps a one or two percent increase is possible, but unless the state's revenues dramatically increase over the coming months, its difficult to see how they'd do that. Personally, I haven't seen an increase in pay in more than three years, and in fact my pay has slightly decreased since then (the Obama tax cuts have made up a little bit of the difference though), not that that is a reason to deny state employees, but at a time when Social Security recipients aren't seeing a COLA adjustment, and when it looks like federal financial support for states will be slowing down, its probably not going to happen.

As the most recent job figures have shown, while private sector employment is increasing, public employment is down...and, market pressures being what they are, if I were a public employee I'd count myself as being lucky to still have a job and not to get a pay decrease.

But He Would Pay for a Vintage Overlay on His Video

Rep. Jim Cooper extols the virtues of being cheap, both at home and in Congress:



P.S. Based on this and other political ads, I'm thinking of starting to pay my bills at the kitchen table. I generally do it automatically online, but apparently the kitchen table is more patriotic and fiscally conservative.

The Campfield Windfall

Stacey Campfield?

Does your campaign owe you money?  Are you tired of it not paying you back?  Well, with the Stacey Campfield method of running for State Senate to get back all that money you owe yourself, you too can be debt free!

Yes, in the previous post about Steve Dickerson I mentioned its rather uncommon for a candidate to pay himself back in the middle of the campaign, but I guess its not all that uncommon as Stacey Campfield did it too. After coming into a nice little windfall after winning his primary race for State Senate, Campfield used his newfound fundraising prowess to remimburse himself $34K, some of which was campaign debt to himself that went back at least two years.

That left Campfield with a paltry $3,100 in his bank account at the end of the quarter, compared to the $30K his Democratic opponent Randy Walker had in reserves. I don't see any indication from the reports that the party has spent much money to aid Campfield's campaign, but they certainly have the cash to do so if need be...of course, the general antipathy towards Stacey Campfield in Nashville might make them wanna sacrifice a superfluous Senate seat just to be rid of the bomb-throwing blogger altogether. 

The Dickerson Priorities

You often see candidates giving money to their campaign at the start in order to show they are serious and to give them initial start up capital.  You rarely see said candidates pay themselves back with donations before the election is over.  Well, you have now.

Steve Dickerson, the Republican candidate taking on The Senatuh, Doug Henry, had quite the impressive haul in this last quarter, raising $86,546 almost entirely from his friends in the medical field (which really warms my heart since all those stories about how hard it is for the medical community to make a buck under Obama) and a great deal raised from people who live outside the district. However, instead of plowing that into his campaign to defeat Sen. Henry, Mr. Dickerson (who apparently is hard up for cash) used his friends money to pay back a loan he'd given his campaign earlier in the year, to the tune of $32,000.

The bulk of his other expenditures appears to have been directed towards his primary race, which indicates that perhaps his hopes of becoming the next State Senator for District 21 died when the election commission found Sen. Henry to be the winner of the Democratic primary.

Coleman and Gotto Tied for Fundraising

Another Q3 fundraising update, this time coming from our friends in the Antioch/Donelson/Hermitage area where Councilmans Jim Gotto and Sam Coleman are running to replace Rep. Ben West Jr. in the State House.

In terms of money raised, Coleman edged out his GOP opponent by a slim margin, raising $52K to Gotto's 50K.  However, it appears that Gotto is being pretty stingy with his money compared to Coleman.  Over the entire campaign, Gotto has spent only $18,148 out of the nearly $90K raised, leaving him with a COH balance of $68K going into the final stretch.  Meanwhile, Coleman has not been as thrifty (because, you know, having a large bank account at the end of the campaign is not usually a good thing), spending nearly $30K last quarter leaving him with another $30K going into the final stretch.

What that means is that Gotto will have more money to do television, which despite all the talk of GOTV, is what can really win or lose a campaign.  I'm not sure if that is in the works, it may just be that Gotto is arrogantly confident in his impending victory that he doesn't see the need to spend his money campaigning, but that would be wishful thinking.

At the end of the day, the Coleman/Gotto race will be closer than many people think, and it would be a mistake for either campaign to take anything for granted. 

McDonald Leads Beavers in Fund-raising Q3

Democratic nominee George McDonald significantly outraised his Republican opponent, Sen. Mae Beavers, in the last financial quarter according to documents out today.

McDonald, who previously had given his campaign $83K during the primary, raked in $101K in the last quarter (ending October 1st), compared to the $66K raised by the incumbent Mae Beavers.  McDonald also (according to the report) had more cash on hand, $97K to $84K, but Beavers had more money going into this last quarter and as a result was able to spend nearly four times as much as her Democratic opponent.  Also, the Senate Republican Caucus shows to have given Beavers $25K which wasn't reported in Beavers filing.

All things considered it would appear that the two candidates will be at least on par going into the November election in terms of money. Of course, Beavers is an incumbent and a Republican, two factors that will likely be working in her favor. Not working in her favor is the way in which she handled getting into the race, a move based almost entirely on her personal hatred for Susan Lynn...which Democrats hope can either depress GOP turnout in the district or perhaps even siphon off some voters over to McDonald.

John Tanner for Speaker!

In a bold (desperate?) move,  State Sen. Roy Herron has joined his fellow congressional-wannabe, Brett Carter, in saying that he won't be voting for Nancy Pelosi should the voters decide to make him their Congressman.

Herron said he would be more middle of the road politically than Fincher. Herron also said he would not vote for Democrat Nancy Pelosi or John Boehner, R-Ohio, as speaker of the house.

"I think both of them are too extreme," Herron said.

Its actually a pretty cheap way of going about things to just say you aren't going to vote in favor of re-electing the Speaker of the House, especially seeing as Nancy Pelosi is the only leader in the Democratic party to actually get shit done in a timely and effective manner (I'm looking at you Harry Reid).

So, if Roy and Brett find San Fran Nan to be too "extreme," why not say who you'd like to install as the Speaker. And remember, there is no requirement that the Speaker of the House be a member of the US House, so go bold and be creative. Hey, since you and all your fellow "conservatives" seem to hate politics and politicians so much (despite your great desire to be one), perhaps we could look at someone outside the political sphere? A successful businessman perhaps, maybe a retired General.

In addition to booting the first ever female Speaker of the House, Roy would also like to look to the military for solutions to our budget deficit:

A commission should be appointed to make recommendations to U.S. legislators about reducing the deficit. A similar method was effective when deciding which U.S. armed forces bases to close, Herron said.

Fantastic! You mean, like the recommendation that we close down Milan Arsenal to save the federal government money? Oh, wait, no...that's right...you oppose that because you want the Federal Government to save money and reduce costs, just so long as its not in your backyard.

That is the kicker with reducing the budget deficit, everyone is all for it until they realize its going to result in less spending and fewer jobs in their district.

(once again, H/T JR Lind)

See also:  LeftWingCracker says Vote Mabel!

The Case For That Retarded Hunting Amendment

R. Neal gives it his best shot from a progressive standpoint:

In order to exercise our constitutional right to hunt and fish there must be sustainable habitat for fish and game. Therefore, any action that threatens fish and wildlife habitat is unconstitutional.

That means stormwater runoff and agricultural waste that degrade water quality would be unconstitutional. So would coal-fired power plant emissions that degrade air and water quality and impact forest growth and sustainable fisheries. Mountaintop removal mining, clear cutting, and ridgetop development that destroy natural wildlife habitat would be a violation of your constitutional rights.

Two points. First, best I can tell federal environmental laws do a good bit of this, and also the amendment specifically protects private property rights...so if the offending company has purchased the rights to these lands, I'm not sure an amendment preserving the "right" to hunt and fish could be used to halt mining, etc...

Second, since when do we give a jolly good fuck about our State Constitution? I mean, the thing explicitly states that the Supreme Court is to be an elected body, however, its chosen by the Governor and the Legislature. Now, don't get it twisted, I like the setup we have now as opposed to seeing a bunch of right-wing social conservatives pack the court, but still, we have pretty much collectively thumbed our nose at the highest document of our state in this regard, so its difficult to see a broad swath of environmental reforms coming from a rather liberal interpretation of a hunting and fishing amendment.

Yeah, I'll be voting against this.  Not because I'm opposed to hunting or fishing (beyond the fact that sitting around for hours waiting for Bambi to come into my line of sight does not sound appealing in the slightest), I say do what you do, but because there hasn't been any effort whatsoever anywhere to really eliminate the right to hunt.  In fact, hunting is an important part of animal management and is the humane thing to do to keep a large population from starving to death.

(h/t JR Lind)

John Jay McWherter

At this point in the game, I think the best strategy for "our next Governor" Mike McWherter would be to go home, stay home, don't answer the door or the phones, and he's likely to do better on election day as a result.

It appears that McWherter's desperate xenophobic pandering by highlighting Haslam's rather loose (some would say non-existent) ties to Mahmoud Ahmadenijad and Hugo Chavez have actually helped to increase the Knoxville Mayor's lead against Son of Ned.

In August, Haslam led 56-31 according to Rasmussen, that lead is now 59-31.  Looking deeper, it appears that Haslam has gotten more popular while McWherter has gotten more unpopular.

August: Haslam 26% Very Favorable to 5% Very Unfavorable
October: Haslam 33% Very Favorable to 8% Very Unfavorable

August: McWherter 20% Very Favorable to 11% Very Unfavorable
October: McWherter 20% Very Favorable to 19% Very Unfavorable

The only thing that can really account for McWherter's bump in unfavorability would seem to be a combination of his lackluster debate performances and desperate negative attacks...because so far as I can tell Haslam has largely ignored the beer distributor from Jackson. So, not that he'd take my advice, but here it is anyway.

Mike, you seem like a decent enough guy who wants to follow in your father's footsteps. Well, that isn't going to happen, not this year anyway. So, you have two options. Go all Zach Wamp, throw a few more attacks out there, and see your name drag further down. Or B, drop the negative attacks, focus on your positives, spend whatever money you have left talking about puppies and kittens, and at least rehab your image a bit before the inevitable loss in November.

Those are the two options available to McWherter, because unless they have some major (actual) scandal up their sleeves, Haslam will be our next Governor.

Sen. Henry's Employment Program

The Q3 campaign disclosures are trickling in today and first up is Sen. Douglas Henry, winner of the 21st Senate Democratic Primary and facing Steve Dickerson in the general election.


It appears that claims of Henry's campaign hiring "volunteers" to do visibility was in fact true as they spent over $11,000 at Trojan Labor (for what, its not specified in the report). In addition, the Senatuh has taken out another $100,000 loan to keep his campaign afloat, bringing the total amount of money loaned to his campaign this cycle to nearly $400K, of which the monthly interest payments to Suntrust are nearly $700 as of September.

All told Sen. Henry raised about $28K in the third quarter and spent about $158K, with around $92K left in the bank. Sen. Henry is having a fundraiser at Waller Lansden on October 19th, hosted by his former opponent Jeff Yarbro among others, if you'd like to pitch in so the Henry doesn't have to again.

No details yet on Dr. Dickerson's haul.

Steelworkers for Rabidoux

This just in:

President of USW Local 7655 William E. Jones says he has spoken at length with Rabidoux about his campaign and vision for the 7th District. “Greg has consistently expressed his passion and concerns surrounding working people and the needs of the District,” said Jones. “He will be a GREAT candidate and do a GREAT job as the Congressman from the 7th District here in Tennessee. The USW Local 7655 endorses Greg Rabidoux for Congress, District 7.”

And, to save the trouble of future posts, all other labor unions who plan to endorse within the 7th district, probably support Rabidoux over Blackburn.

Oppressively Low Taxes

Lincoln Davis' opponent, Scott DesJarlais, seems to think that the 111th Congress is responsible for the job losses incurred over the past 3 years, and that in order to "stop the pain" of the recession we must:

"Stop the wasteful spending" - Of course, conservatives have been railing against "wasteful spending" for as long as spending has been around.  However the "wasteful" variety (typically identified by over-spending, perhaps pork-barrel projects) is lower than ever thanks to Democratic initiatives to open up the earmarking process and track government stimulus spending (a recent report shows a negligible amount of waste, fraud, or abuse in the ARRA).

"Stop bailouts" - OK, a nice populist message, but if you are going to visit farms and machine shops as you do in the ad I'd argue you rethink this strategy.  Farming in America is a bailout (AKA subsidy) addicted industry that relies on the federal government to keep those small, family owned white farmers that politicians love to put in their ads, in business.  Also, in terms of manufacturing, while its taken a hit in recent years, God only knows what effect allowing the largest manufacturing industry in the country (automobiles) to go out of business, which a large part of the market would have were it not for the government investments, ie, bailouts.

"Stop job killing taxes" - And this would be the one that, as some cantankerous fellow out there once said, goads my gourd.  Taxes today are at their lowest level in over two decades. Across the board, be it the wealthiest few or the bottom of the barrel, Americans are enjoying the lowest tax rates since the 1980s (and in some cases lower).  In fact, there are more special tax breaks for "small businesses" than ever before, and the Democrats over the past two years have cut taxes to lower rates than they were under even George W. Bush.  Besides extremely heavy smokers, nearly all Americans have given less to the Federal Government (and many, because of job losses have taken more) than ever before.

Now, can you make the argument that taxes will go up in the next few years?  Sure, the Republicans put in a sunset provision in the 2001 tax cuts so they will expire for everyone unless the GOP and a handful of spineless and worthless "Democrats" stop blocking efforts to extend them for 95% of Americans.  There will be some small tax increases due to the health insurance reform bill, but most companies won't feel a thing, and in theory costs to companies will reduce compared to what they would have been over the long haul.  But the notion that our economic doldrums are in any way shape or form related to "high taxes" is absolutely absurd given that across the board and for every subset of the American population they are lower than they were under Bill Clinton's administration in the 1990s.

Will this schtick work? Yeah, probably...the American people are showing themselves to be incredibly myopic (not that we ever weren't). But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be called out for the dreck it is.



(h/t Post Politics)

Yay to Illegal Guns

"Our next Governor" Mike McWherter is a little peeved that the NRA chose to rank his rival, Bill Haslam, higher than him, despite no endorsement to go with it.  Via TNReport:

"I guess the NRA accepts the fact that (Haslam) has completely flip-flopped on that issue,” McWherter told reporters after leaving a private meeting with the Association of Chiefs of Police Wednesday night in Nashville.

Haslam scored a “B-” from the group, although his stances on gun control were under fire during the primary election when fellow Republicans charged that he was weak on gun rights. Haslam, the Knoxville mayor, became a member of the NRA after he began campaigning for governor. He also joined Mayors Against Illegal Guns, but later left the group.

I'd like to say that only in Tennessee would being against "illegal" guns be controversial, but I suppose many other places feel the same way. Regardless, as was shown with Bredesen's toothless veto power, the Governor of this state has nothing to really do with our gun laws, and even if the Democrats were to somehow win back the House this election cycle, they wouldn't touch gun control legislation with a ten foot poll.

(h/t JRLind)

NRA Backs Herron in 8th

In what came as somewhat of a surprise endorsement to me, the National Rifle Association chose to back Roy Herron for Congress in the 8th over his Republican opponent Stephen Fincher.  While the NRA website lists him as an incumbent, this is an open seat but the difference for the NRA appears to be that Herron has an actual record to back up his rhetoric, whereas Fincher's words are just words at this point.

They list his support for guns in bars, a bill that requires guns be auctioned off rather than destroyed when confiscated (because God knows there are too few guns in this country), and the meaningless constitutional hunting amendment, among others, as evidence for his support of unchecked gun proliferation.  Herron, obviously, is quite pleased with this announcement:

"I am honored to have the endorsement of this group that fights as passionately as I do for the hunting and shooting rights of Tennesseans," said Herron, a part-time citizen legislator and former minister. "I grew up hunting with my father and brothers and have continued the family tradition of hunting with my sons. I will vigorously defend the 2nd Amendment rights of every American."

While the NRA is generally known as a Republican leaning group, it appears they are having to defend some of their choices in this election, with leader Chris Cox going to the National Review to explain why they have backed a handful of Democrats who are in tough, perhaps even GOP leaning, races:

One of the primary reasons that the National Rifle Association and gun owners continue to have success at the federal, state, and local levels is because we’re a single-issue organization. We have our longtime election slogan of “Vote Freedom First,” which obviously means we’re hopeful that our members and gun owners put Second Amendment issues at the forefront when they make those decisions. Those decisions have allowed us to build a bipartisan majority now that has proven to be not only beneficial but, I would argue, invaluable to protecting and promoting the Second Amendment.

The political reality is that we have President Obama, who had at one point 60 Democratic votes in the Senate and a 39-vote margin in the House. If it weren’t for our pro-gun Democrats, we would be having a very different conversation. To not only have no bad legislation pass, we’ve gained ground despite those very real and very challenging numbers, [which] probably makes us one of the few right-of-center groups to have victories during this period.

Interestingly, on the State Senate side in Tennessee, the only candidate to receive an 'F' rating by the NRA was a Republican, Jim Summerville, who is going up against guns in bars champion Doug Jackson.

Update:

Chas Sisk points out that Lincoln Davis was also endorsed by the NRA...though slightly less surprising given that he is an actual incumbent as opposed to Herron who is running for Congress for the first time.

Making "BIG" Changes

Bill Haslam has found a novel and exciting approach to how we deal with crime in this state.  When he tells it, you have to wonder, "why didn't anyone else think of that?"  His approach is two-fold.  First, longer prison sentences.  Second, make prisoners lives more miserable.



I know, I know, your mind is probably as blown as mine was. 

In all seriousness, I'm not sure what trappings of nice hotels these prisoners are supposedly receiving.  Do they have some access to the internet or TV?  Maybe, but I think it would be better for their post-prison life if they weren't isolated from mainstream society by being technologically illiterate.  Other than that, what do they have, beds?  Books?  Food?  Showers?  What exactly should be taken away from prisoners and to what intended benefit?  

Does Blackburn Hate America?

That is the question being posed by her Democratic opponent, Greg Rabidoux, who thinks her vote against HR 2039, the Congressional Made in America Promise Act of 2009, is downright unpatriotic:

“One would think even Rep. Blackburn would see the worth in supporting American business by asking the Legislative branch to ‘Buy American,’” said Rabidoux. “The flag flying over the Capitol should not be made in another country, and the items in the gift shops on the Hill shouldn’t be made in China.”

“I wonder if Blackburn thinks that no one will notice her continuous string of unpatriotic votes? She voted against extending health benefits to 9/11 first responders and joins only a handful of legislators in voting against a ‘Buy American’ bill,” said Rabidoux. “We cannot continue to have a representative in Congress who votes against the interests of those she is there to represent.”

There doesn't appear to have been much debate on the issue in Congress, which passed 371-36, but according to the GOP caucus website the opposition was based on potential cost overruns:

Generally, buy American provisions include waivers to ensure that taxpayer funds are not used to make purchases at prices exorbitantly higher than present market value. However, H.R. 2039 would prohibit heads of legislative offices from determining that purchase costs are too high in the case of products which bear various Congressional seals. Some Members may be concerned that this provision may raise the cost of certain products purchased for use by Congress, and thus, increase government spending.

To answer the first question, yes, Marsha Blackburn hates America...or at least the America I know and love. But is this vote evidence of such hatred? Meh...there is a legitimate point of contention as to how much extra Congress or any government agency should spend in an effort to "Buy American".  Whether that was her qualms with this bill, I don't know, it doesn't appear that she gave any statement on the matter via the House floor or her campaign press office.