Our Question of the Day: Is Chip Forrester the Puppet of Gary Odom?
This message landed in Pith's email box over the weekend: "Odom is taking over the TNDP. Chip is his puppet." No sooner did we read it than the AP's Erik Schelzig was out with this story. Looks like Schelzig is listening to the same insiders who have been whispering in Pith's ear. These are troubled times for Tennessee Democrats.
OK, maybe it's a little paranoid to say Gary Odom is taking over the party, at least at this point. But Chip Forrester's naming Bill Freeman as treasurer is a very strange decision for someone who's trying to make nice with the state's senior elected leadership. Not only has Freeman given thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to Republicans. But he's also a big developer buddy of Odom's. And Freeman has publicly criticized the governor for trying to close the tax loophole for wealthy developers who are clever enough to organize themselves as Family Owned Corporate Entities. By the way, Freeman is one of those lucky developers getting a nice tax break. In a big surprise, Odom helped killed Bredesen's attempt to close the loophole last session. Here's the sordid history on that.
So the party has itself a fat-cat treasurer who has helped Republicans beat Democrats, who thinks the state shouldn't try to make commercial real-estate tycoons like himself pay their fair share of taxes in a time of fiscal meltdown. Pith predicts Forrester can now officially forget about fund-raising help from the governor. Already, as Schelzig reports, Bredesen aide Will Pinkston has told Forrester to stop trying to raise money using Bredesen's name for the Governor's Roundtable.
Yes, Forrester has definitely stepped in it this time. How do you think his young liberal supporters feel about this new party alignment? On the other hand, what does the governor's office expect Forrester to do? Rebuffed by Bredesen, he runs into Odom's arms. He has no where else to turn.
Update: Mary Mancini says Freeman can't be all bad. He gave $250 to the Democratic election opponent of that crazy Minnesota Republican congresswoman, Michelle Bachman.
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