NASHVILLE -- A resolution urging that the state Capitol Commission erect a statute on the Capitol grounds in honor of former Vice President Al Gore for winning the Nobel Peace Prize failed on the Senate floor today.
The resolution, which also urged a statue be erected for Nobel Peace Prize winner Cordell Hull, failed on a 15-14 vote with most Republicans voting no. It needed 17 votes to pass.
Earlier, the sponsor, Sen. Andy Berke, D-Chattanooga, said the measure had "broad bipartisan support in the House."
In the Senate, Sen. Ken Yager, R-Harriman, removed an amendment he had previously attached to the resolution that would have included the name of libertarian economist James Buchanan Jr., who won a Nobel Prize for economics.
Sen. Yager also noted that Mr. Gore had not actually been born in Tennessee.
Mr. Gore, Democrats' unsuccessful 2000 presidential nominee, won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for "informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change." That was based in large part for his documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," for which he won an Oscar.
The late Mr. Hull, a one-time U.S. secretary of state, won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping found the United Nations.
Statues of Mr. Gore and Mr. Hull still will be erected, but they will be paid for with private money.
Andy Sher is a Nashville-based staff writer covering Tennessee state government and politics for the Times Free Press. A Washington correspondent from 1999-2005 for the Times Free Press, Andy previously headed up state Capitol coverage for The Chattanooga Times, worked as a state Capitol reporter for The Nashville Banner and was a contributor to The Tennessee Journal, among other publications. Andy worked for 17 years at The Chattanooga Times covering police, health care, county government, ...
AG and BO would have made wonderful stops for people walking their dogs.
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