NOW IS THE TIME FOR FORRESTER TO EXIT

Tennessee Democrats are facing a political crisis of epic proportions in the coming months. And right now, it doesn’t look good.

continued...

Democrats swept to victory in other parts of the nation in November 2008, but if the Presidential election results in Tennessee are any indication, Tennessee voters appear to be turning sharply to the right. In 2010, Tennessee Democrats face a serious challenge – by Bill Haslam, Zach Wamp, Ron Ramsey, and Bill Gibbons – to their 8-year reign in the Governor’s Mansion, and apparently must do so without a well-known candidate of their own. Tennessee Democrats also lost control of the General Assembly for the first time in 140 years. That loss may have the most far-reaching repercussions of all, as the party in power in the General Assembly controls the three Constitutional offices – Secretary of State, Treasurer and Comptroller – and all important 95 county election commissions. If Democrats even hope to regain control in the near future, odds are it will have to be next year. That’s just the short-term problem.

But the Democrats’ chances in 2010 could not be less optimistic. Aside from the fact that Democrats have thus far failed to field a candidate for governor who could mount a serious challenge to Haslam et al., the Tennessee Democratic Party’s new Chairman, Chip Forrester, appears incapable of pulling together the various factions within the state party and his little over two-month tenure may be the worst nine weeks the TNDP has had in memory.

The upside is that all 95 counties are coming off re-organization conventions where they have elected new precinct chairs, new officers, and new chairs for the next two years. Now is the time – while a new TNDP Chair can establish good relations with these new county chairs – for the feckless Forrester to go. If he is not ousted or does not resign – soon – Tennessee Democrats will be facing Tennessee Republicans in 2010 not only with a state chair who has been ostracized by the party’s elected leaders, but also with a completely ineffective leader.

Forrester won a bitterly-fought race for party chair against mega-donor Charles Robert Bone, in which he managed to offend Bredesen and practically every Democrat Congressman in the process, a feat he has continued since his election. Few will deny that throughout his nine-week tenure, Forrester has been mired in controversy, struggling through a series of misadventures and withering criticism. What’s worse is that his tenure has also been marked by a long train of administrative abuses and uncanny political mis-judgments. So much so that he’s the subject of an ever-increasing number of jokes poking fun at him, at his neckwear (bow-ties), at his choice of drink (white wine spritzers) and even at his choice of exercise (tai chi). His loyal supporters are frequently ridiculed and dubbed “the Chipinista” by bloggers across the state. And while in my view some of these attacks are unfounded and the jokes ill-suited and even on occasion in bad taste, the fact remains that in just 9 short weeks, he has become the most ineffective chair Tennessee Democrats have had in memory.
Veteran Democrats across the state will tell you that this is as bad as its ever been over at the TNDP headquarters.

There is no reasonable defense for keeping Forrester at this point. Perhaps the 42 Executive Committee members who supported Forrester over Nashville mega-donor Charles Robert Bone have wised up and will help usher him gently to the door . . . for the good of the party. Or perhaps the 25 Executive Committee members who refused to support Forrester – even while he was the only person in the race – will persuade enough of their colleagues who were duped into supporting Forrester back on January 24 into asking him to resign. Of course, there’s also the less likely possibility that Forrester himself sees the writing on the wall and will choose to do the right thing, ending his own suffering. It will not get any better. It can get much worse. Either way, it’s just a matter of time. Otherwise, the TNDP may as well close its doors and get out of politics. How in the name of Andrew Jackson did this happen?

A Bitter Beginning

Forrester’s problems began well before his ascension to the TNDP throne. He was an early Tennessee supporter of President Obama. Following the GOP take-over of the Tennessee house and extension of its power in the Tennessee senate, Forrester appeared to be the only candidate available to replace TNDP Chair Gray Sasser. A long-time member of the Executive Committee, Forrester coaxed the early support of a majority of Executive Committee members by using his self-proclaimed “ties” to Obama campaign chief David Axelrod, his Obama-inspired “grassroots” approach to party-building, and his long tenure as TNDP Treasurer and Executive Committee member. To be sure, Forrester cajoled just enough veteran party activists and Executive Committee members – like Harold and Sylvia Woods of Knoxville – to support him. Then Bone came along and presented a viable and strong option, even siphoning off some of Forrester’s early commitments.

Forrester ran on a platform which included an “open door” policy to Tennessee’s Congressional Democrats and a promise to “harness the energy and enthusiasm of new Obama voters and volunteers.” He publicly stated that he “had the votes.” After Bone emerged, it was clear that Forrester wasn’t the choice of the state’s top-elected Democrats, this after many, including Bredesen, nearly every Congressional Democrat, Sasser and six former TNDP chairs (Bob Tuke, Randy Button, Doug Horne, Dick Lodge, Houston Gordon and Bob Thomas) signed a letter urging Bone’s election.

As time passed, the two camps became clearly defined, with Bone lining up big-name elected Democrats, former party chairs and donors to make his case and Forrester using his relationship as an Executive Committeeman and plucking away at the well-spring of political neophytes who came out in 2008 to support President Obama. As Bone began luring away votes, Forrester panicked, publishing a list of names of Executive Committee members who had committed to him early – before Bone entered the race – as a means to prevent further diffusion of support. The tactic worked. At the January 24 meeting, Obama-inspired volunteers – many wearing Forrester trademark bow-ties – cheered on Forrester. In the end, Bone’s late charge was not enough, and he lost 42-25 to Forrester, with Forrester delivering an acceptance speech evoking many of the themes from the Obama campaign.

Although not well known to rank and file Democrats across Tennessee, Forrester has a history of odd political behavior, beginning in 1992 when he was then-Senator Al Gore’s re-election campaign director. In a now characteristic-bad move, Forrester resigned his position with Gore to announce his decision to challenge then-incumbent Congressman Bob Clement. Nothing wrong with ambition, but it just so happened that Forrester forgot to tell Gore, who didn’t know about Forrester’s plan until it became public.

Up, As A Mark – A Tennessee Train Wreck

Almost immediately after Forrester’s election, things took a downward spiral, quickly speeding out of control, until now . . . nearly ten weeks later . . . it resembles a disastrous train wreck. Forrester, known in Nashville for his frequent clashes with establishment figures, perhaps bent on martyrdom, allowed himself to be cast up, as a mark. And he has never recovered.

Pitting the old against the new

It isn’t as if Forrester is an idiot. After all, you have to give the man some props for pulling it off, but when it comes to crafting a message or deciding on a proper political strategy, he has shown . . . well, that he’s not exactly gifted. For instance, right out of the box, Forrester – either intentionally or negligently – pitted veteran Democrats against Obama-inspired newcomers by sending the message which downplayed the role of veteran Democrats and announced that newcomer Democrats were here to “save the day.” That horribly-crafted message – apparently a pitiful attempt to signal to veteran Democrats that help had arrived – produced a groundswell of vocal opposition among veteran Democrats. And it has shown no sign of eroding.

Refusing to weigh-in on closing FONCE tax loophole

Next, Forrester was presented with an occasion to align himself and the TNDP alongside Governor Bredesen by taking a strong stand in support of legislation to close the so-called FONCE tax loophole benefitting the wealthy. Certainly, in the current economic crisis, Tennessee Democrats would support the repeal of a tax loophole which helped the wealthy and cost the state millions of dollars in revenue, right? Wrong. Forrester soon announced that the issue was a “legislative matter” and that neither he nor the TNDP would weigh-in on it. So, he’s Chair of the TNDP and he’s not going to take a position on legislative matters?

Eventually, Forrester finally realized that if he wasn’t going to address “legislative matters” he didn’t have much to do (or be paid for, for that matter). So on which important legislative issue did he choose to take a position? Was it the Judicial Selection Commission? Housing the mentally ill? The budget crisis? Nope, neither of those. Then what? Forrester issued a media release demanding the firing of a lowly GOP legislative staffer for some admittedly racist campaign hijinks which dated back to last October. Anything else? He recently went well out of his way to pick a fight with conservative pro-gun Democrats Doug Jackson, Ben West, and Hank Fincher by issuing an April Fools’ Day proclamation intended to be humorous, the end result of which unnecessarily insulted Tennessee gun-owners. There are a lot of issues in Nashville about which you can poke fun, but – for a variety of reasons, including recent events and others not so recent but still well-remembered – guns isn’t one of them. You just don’t joke about guns.

Courting Freeman – Forrester’s big-tent philosophy

By far the most controversial and ill-fated decision by Forrester was his February appointment of Nashville real estate developer Bill Freeman to be the TNDP’s Treasurer. The decision was bad from day one, mainly because Forrester had long known of Freeman’s virulent hatred of the governor from Bredesen’s days as Mayor of Nashville, Freeman’s support of Bredesen’s Republican opponents in 2002 and again in 2006, and Freeman’s prolific financial support of other Republicans, including Bob Corker and George W. Bush. Perhaps Forrester’s worst mistake of all, however, was his failure to disclose these facts to the party’s Executive Committee before he asked them to endorse his selection of Freeman. From that very moment, Forrester was doomed.

From the outset, the attacks on Freeman were relentless on blogs across the state. It turned out that his hefty contributions to Corker inflamed Harold Ford, Jr.’s legion of supporters, many of whom were politically active for the first time during the Ford campaign and who went on to support Obama as well. Equally important, many of those same people had supported Forrester in his race against Bone. On the heels of losing what little support he had among veteran Democrats, Forrester’s choice of Freeman, intended to bring moderate Republican money into the party’s coffers, morphed blazing fast into an unbelievably bad and fateful decision. And worst of all, in February, Freeman ran headlong into an impenetrable stone wall when he tried his hand at raising money. Elected Democrats and big donors simply ignored him.

Signs of weathering the storm

For weeks, a handful of commentators on blogs spearheaded a rousing effort to oust Freeman. They were all over the Internet, one supporting another, and back again. As time passed, however, reports from Nashville seemed to signal an end to the calls for dumping Freeman. For awhile, in late February and early March, it even looked like Forrester’s defenders, appearing to be mostly Obama-inspired volunteers, may have stemmed the rising tide. They countered Forrester critics on blogs and in emails and repeated the refrains “give Forrester a chance” or “give Freeman a chance.” All the while, Freeman was still being pilloried. A few critics across the state, mainly in middle Tennessee, but also in Knoxville, poured on the heat by pressing the Executive Committee to oust Freeman. A petition was even drawn up and circulated among Executive Committee members. Still, even Forrester’s strongest opponents on the Executive Committee eventually conceded that Freeman and Forrester may have weathered the once-raging storm. Blog posts began to disappear, as readers began to tire of the attacks on Freeman.

But what many thought was an end of the “oust Freeman” movement was actually the dead calm before the fatal storm. Despite all of the Forrester-led hoopla about Freeman’s prodigious fundraising prowess, word soon leaked out in March that in its first month under Forrester, the TNDP was able to raise just $31,000, that was $180,000 less than former Chair Sasser’s take in his first month in office. And of the $31K, about $4K was raised by a handful of progressive bloggers in an independent campaign on the TNDP’s behalf, another $5,000 was donated by Freeman himself, still another $5,000 was given by his company’s law firm, and yet another $1,000 by Democrat-come lately and new Forrester pal Ward Cammack, a 2010 gubernatorial prospect.

To make matters worse, around the same time, the TNDP’s long-time lawyers, the prestigious Bass Berry and Sims firm, quit and informed Forrester that he must find new lawyers. Seems that the TNDP still owes part of the firm's $80,000 bill for fighting Rosalind Kurita's lawsuit.

Berated by bloggers, spurned by the state’s highest elected leaders and big donors, and making Forrester look increasingly bad, Freeman finally resigned, citing opposition by the Democratic establishment. In fact, Freeman predictably laid most of the blame for the party’s woes on Bredesen stating in a release,“As I’ve made fundraising calls in the last month, several longtime donors have expressed their concern to me that Governor Bredesen was not as supportive of me as I had hoped.” Not surprisingly, when asked to comment, Bredesen told a Chattanooga paper that he didn’t feel inclined to help a guy who had opposed his election, not once, but twice, noting “The person they chose to be the Treasurer worked very hard against me.”

Making a horrible situation more horrible

It is amazingly hard to believe that Forrester didn’t see this coming. After all, it’s not like from day one no one told him what was going to happen. He was told, and told, and told. It didn’t take a political genius to conclude that Tennessee Democrats might refuse, or at least hesitate, to give their dollars to a Republican-giving real-estate developer who has never concealed his disdain for Governor Bredesen and did everything he could to keep Harold Ford, Jr. out of the U.S. Senate. Perhaps, as one commentator remarked, “Forrester just thought he could overcome it all by clicking his heels and chanting ‘yes we can.’” Indeed. That’s what he gets for thinking.

And then Forrester made a bad situation worse. Rather than owning up to what was a truly awful decision, Forrester’s media release on the Freeman resignation was widely viewed as an attempt by him to lay the blame for the TNDP’s inept money-raising performance at Bredesen’s feet, yet another move by Forrester not likely to endear himself to the Governor.

Three more strikes and you’re out

On the heels of the awful financial news and Freeman’s undoing, Forrester made three more political blunders in lock-step succession. First, he and Freeman went on an ill-timed junket to Washington D.C. to meet with new DNC Chair Tim Kaine. From all appearances, that meeting was an unbridled failure. Second, Forrester hastily announced a telephone conference for Executive Committee members . . . at the same time in which Bredesen was scheduled to appear before the General Assembly and present his long-anticipated budget plan. Finally, Forrester announced that he had decided to move the TNDP’s headquarters away from its rent-free space in downtown Nashville owned by gubernatorial prospect Doug Horne to the Steamfitters’ union hall in Antioch.

The first decision turned out to be a last gasp attempt to gain much-needed financial aid from the DNC. Forrester should have known all along that new DNC Chair Kaine would do his homework and give his fellow governor a call, and perhaps Jim Cooper as well, and John Tanner, and . . . well, you get the picture.

The second decision – a message to Bredesen that the TNDP couldn’t care less about the state’s fiscal distress and the administration’s plan to overcome it – was widely seen as just another petty slap in the face by Forrester at Bredesen

And the third decision was viewed by most as a concession by Forrester that the TNDP was in dire financial straits and that Forrester was readying himself to be evicted from Horne’s rent-free digs. Like Bredesen, Horne had supported Charles Robert Bone. Worse still, Forrester was increasingly being seen as a supporter of Ward Cammack in the 2010 governor’s race, a race that Horne was still considering. Finally, the move was also seen as a setback to the efforts of conservative Democrats to keep some distance between the TNDP and big labor.

Bungling county intra-party wars in Shelby and Knox also known as Sylvia can always get what she wants

If the above rendition wasn’t bad enough to question Forrester’s effectiveness, he was recently called on to be the final arbiter in a Shelby County intra-party dispute. From most accounts, Forrester appears to have needlessly gone out of his way in order to aid his own preferred candidate. Then, called upon to resolve a Knox County party matter, he refused altogether to get involved.

The catalyst for Forrester’s two contradictory decisions: Forrester consigliere and Executive Committeewoman Sylvia Woods was directly involved in both cases and neither Forrester’s decision in the Shelby County fight or his indecision in the Knox County dispute could have been more pleasing to Woods than if she had made them herself.

According to the complaint by Shelby County Democrats, Forrester and Woods, who chairs the TNDP County Party Development Committee, were asked to address what appears to have been a legitimate complaint – but instead decided to meddle in Shelby County’s re-organization efforts, making decisions which demonstrated a clear bias in favor of fellow Executive Committee member (and Forrester ally) Jay Bailey, a candidate for Shelby County Party Chair. Forrester issued an “ultimatum” to Shelby County, ordering additional seats to be added to the county’s executive committee before the vote for county chair. Neutral Shelby County observers say the intent of the move – engineered by yet another Executive Committee member and Bailey mentor David Upton – was to give Bailey a better chance to win. Forrester threatened not to certify Shelby County’s results if the seats were not added. In the end, even the carefully orchestrated manipulative antics of Forrester, Woods, Upston and Bailey failed, as Bailey was soundly defeated by a vote of 49-32.

The Knox County complaint focused on what appeared to be the decision by Knox County Chair Woods to ignore the county’s rigid set of bylaws. Woods – characterized as being improperly elected in abstentia last June – favored local Obama organizer and Forrester fan Gloria Johnson to be the county’s new chair – sought to cling to some semblance of power. The complaint sought to re-schedule Knox County’s convention. Predictably, Forrester decided to ignore the complaint in complete deference to Woods and Johnson was indeed elected with Woods in charge of the convention.

Forrester’s hand in these two events – involving three of his biggest supporters on the TNDP Executive Committee – leaves him with an unusual number of enemies in two of the state’s largest counties. It also demonstrates his penchant for seeking out controversy, a quality which appears not unfamiliar to him, and one not wanted or needed in a state party chairman.

Whose life is it anyway?

It’s been reported that blogs have made Forrester’s life miserable since he became Chair. Obsessive political insiders feast on the almost constant online debate over whether Forrester should go or stay. Unfortunately for Forrester, those insiders include members of the TNDP’s Executive Committee, some of whom publicly acknowledge that they would know little about the party's travails if not for reading the blogs.

In a statement for which he was recently “nominated” by a Nashville journalist as “worst liar,” Forrester decried: “I don’t spend all day with my door closed reading the blogs.” In fact, under nonstop attack from a handful of anonymous Internet assassins, Forrester decided he could use a little public relation help. He arranged conference calls with political bloggers around the state, hoping they will report “his side” of things to counter the arguments of his prolific Internet critics. Forrester mused that with Freeman gone, “perhaps we can begin to move together instead of apart.” Forrester vows not to quit, “as long as we're making progress.”

Forrester’s even been forced to publicly address blog-initiated rumors, which have him reportedly “striding around the party headquarters like a crazy man loudly vowing to find candidates to run in party primaries against certain of Tennessee's Democratic congressmen.” Meanwhile, he's supposedly managed to irk the party's volunteers and is reportedly spending his time brooding in his office with the door closed. Nashville reporters say that Forrester is bent on finding challengers to the state’s Democratic Congressmen (who supported Bone in January and who have made it clear that they want nothing to do with him as TNDP Chair). Called out, Forrester even felt compelled to phone one Congressman (reportedly Jim Cooper) to quell these rumors, stating “There is no effort on my part or anybody's part to find primary candidates against any member of Congress.”

Can the TNDP be salvaged?

Still there are those who proclaim that Forrester’s job can be saved. They think that if Forrester hired a “respected political professional” as executive director, he could retain his job. They even tout the name of Jennifer Buck Wallace, Obama’s state director, for such a position. But as tremendous a candidate that President Obama proved to be elsewhere, his lackluster Tennessee campaign was quite frankly a national embarrassment. The Obama campaign’s efforts were nothing short of extraordinary in many states, but not Tennessee. The national campaign focused its efforts elsewhere in a Axelrod-lead strategy that was as brilliant as the candidate himself. But Obama’s hopes fizzled in Tennessee following his defeat here in the February primary. As a result, the Tennessee campaign was buoyed by grassroots volunteers and political novices spurred on by Obama’s inspiring message, but not much needed campaign cash.

Adding a political novice of such ilk to the TNDP payroll as executive director just doesn’t seem like the way to go. Save one holdover from Gray Sasser’s term, there is no professional staff. It’s just Forrester, and well . . . that's not working out very well. For instance, his press release regarding Freeman’s resignation essentially admits the TNDP is a shambles. “The damage is bad,” says one insider. “It's not irreparable at this point but it's close.” The TNDP needs a steady hand at the wheel . . . and in a hurry.

The party is a wreck. Forrester has alienated the governor and the state’s Democratic Congressmen. He has alienated veteran Democrats from across the state. He has angered Democrats in two of the state’s largest counties. He has raised little money. He has taken one mis-step after another. Over two months into his term, he has no treasurer and no professional staff. He refuses to take a stand on any meaningfully substantive issue. He is the becoming the punch line of jokes and the party is quickly becoming a laughing stock.

As a result of county re-organizations across the state this past week, new officers and chairs are now in place for the next two years. Perhaps with this new group of Democratic leaders, the TNDP can turn it around. But it can’t turn our fate around without a steady hand – a leader – at the helm, and that is not and cannot be Chip Forrester. Now is the time for Forrester to exit the stage. Unless that happens, Democratic candidates – from Governor, to Congress, to state senate, to state house, to local offices – will be forced to work around the TNDP, not with it.