I read with concern Jackson Baker’s April 28th Politics column,
“Truce or Surrender? Democratic Establishment Grabs Power Back from
Forrester.” While I have long admired Baker’s journalistic skills and
appreciate his insightful reporting on politics, this time he didn’t
get it right.
First, it is no secret that my candidacy for Tennessee Democratic
Party chair was not supported by key Democrats, including the governor.
But since my election on January 24th, I have worked hard to “circle
the wagons” and unify the party for the crucial effort of taking back
the state House and Senate and winning the governor’s race in 2010.
Like any coming-together, this has been a process, as feelings have
healed, lines of communications have been established, and all the
parties have been able to put the election behind them and look forward
to 2010. I never expected this would happen overnight, but I knew that
over time these key Democratic officeholders would do what they knew to
be best for the party.
There have been a few bumps in the road during this process. In
hindsight, it was not my best decision to ask Bill Freeman to serve as
party treasurer. I was certainly focused on the incredible fund-raising
successes he had with the Obama-for-President campaign and not on his
past difficulties with the governor. But with Freeman’s resignation, it
is now my hope that this issue is behind us.
I’m proud to say that House Democratic Caucus chair Mike Turner and
Governor Bredesen have been key leaders in this process, but it has
also involved high-level staff and donors. The process has been an
evolutionary one with no magic “aha” moment that defines that a deal
has been struck. The process is continuing even now.
Baker was right when he noted in his article that things were moving
in a positive direction at Speaker-Emeritus Jimmy Naifeh’s annual Coon
Supper. But to characterize this as “surrender” could not be further
from the truth. The coming-together of all the constituencies for party
unity is something I hoped would happen and could not be more pleased
with how this has taken place.
Baker also wrongly states that the “deal” requires that I hire an
executive director picked by the governor and report directly to the
governor. This is completely untrue. What we have decided to do is
bring on a top-flight communications director (something that I
campaigned on while running for chair) to more aggressively combat the
continued failings of the Tennessee Republican Party, which has been
hijacked by extremist right-wing zealots like Representative Jason
Mumpower, Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey, and the state GOP chair,
Robin Smith.
Given his history as a successful entrepreneur, Governor Bredesen
looks at operations from a business perspective and in discussions has
suggested that the party develop a business plan to help guide its
operating activities, which we are in the process of developing now.
The kind of leadership that the governor has given the state in these
turbulent economic times is just the kind of leadership he has
demonstrated for the party.
What we are really doing is having the entire team play to its
strengths. The governor’s fund-raising prowess is key to our statewide
financial success. This is an “all hands on deck” candidate-recruitment
process that seeks, identifies, recruits, and trains the best
candidates for 2010, empowers the 72 members of the state Democratic
executive committee in a much more visible leadership role, re-engages
our 95 county parties, brings the grassroots activists from across the
state into the party, and utilizes new, 21st-century communication
tools to create a community of committed Democratic activists to do the
single most important job we all have: win in 2010.
There has been no “surrender” — just the unification of our
party for the battle ahead.
Chip Forrester is chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party.