Takeaways from Election Day - August 2022

Well, if you live in the Fifth Congressional District of Tennessee (or even if you don't), you're probably not feeling great about politics these days. Especially if you watch local television regularly. Beth Harwell, former Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives; Kurt Winstead, who touted his status as "retired brigadier general" but failed to mention that this was in the National Guard; and Andy Ogles, mayor of Maury County (county seat - Columbia) went at it hard with negative campaigning on television and perhaps turned off many voters. From what I could see whenever I was watching, many outside political action organizations had a hand in this Republican primary election.

Mayor Andy Ogles won the race. Given the dynamics of the newly-drawn district, Ogles will likely sail to victory in November and head for the House of Representatives in January.

No one really likes to see such negative tactics. David Plazas, editorial board member at The Tennessean, wrote an excellent opinion article on Wednesday questioning the candidates and the tactics.

But the facts are that such tactics, most of which amount to distortion and mudslinging, work. If they didn't work, the candidates and organizations wouldn't spend the money to put the advertisements on the air. 

I support the men and women of our armed forces 100%. But when I saw that Winstead actually served in the National Guard instead of the Army, I felt deceived by his "retired brigadier general" claim. From what I can see, Winstead was deployed at some point in the 2000s during Operation Iraqi Freedom. I would have focused my advertisement on my past service, not the rank I achieved in the National Guard.

Beth Harwell curiously has gone nowhere politically since leaving the state House of Representatives in 2018 to run for governor. She came nowhere close to winning the Republican primary for governor in '18, and, even though she carried the Davidson County portion of the Fifth U.S. House district, finished a distant second to Ogles in her party's primary. 

After two big primary losses in a span of five years, Harwell's political career may be over.

In other election action, the four proposed amendments to the Metropolitan charter passed. Most prominent among these was amendment number one, which clarified the process for amending the charter, giving the council a process for placing an amendment on the ballot and also allowing an amendment to go before the voters by petition signed by ten percent of Davidson County registered voters.

A final lesson from this election comes not from Nashville but from my native Cheatham County: For the first time ever, Cheatham County Republicans held a May primary. Democrats did not do so. Some candidates ran Republican. Others ran independent. A key race was the one for General Sessions and Juvenile Court Judge, an office held by Phillip Maxey since 1990.

Seasoned Ashland City attorney Dan Cook ran in the Republican primary. Judge Maxey took the independent route. The local Republican party posted signs stating that, on August 4, 2022, "R = Republican and I = Democrat".

Well, folks, "I" does not mean Democrat. Cheatham County is a solid Republican county, but voters swept the popular Judge Maxey back into office with a landslide 72% vote.

I generally like the judges I practice before and mean no disrespect by my opinion that parties should not be allowed to inject themselves into local races and especially races for judge, district attorney, and public defender.

This includes Democratic Davidson County, where virtually all judges run as Democrats, and Republican Cheatham County, where some candidates prefer to stay independent.

And some of those independents win based on their job performance and personal appeal too. Just ask my friend Judge Phillip Maxey.

All the best to Judge Maxey and to all judges across Tennessee who will take office on September 1. Especially the judges here in Davidson County.

James A. Rose

Publisher