NASHVILLE – A Chattanooga-based conservative news site is slamming a number of top Tennessee Republican officials, including House Finance Chairwoman Patsy Hazlewood of Signal Mountain and Senate Speaker Randy McNally of Oak Ridge.
The site labeled those two and others as “Republicans in Name Only,” slapping “RINO Legislators of the Year” designations on both Hazlewood and McNally for legislation and policies both lawmakers supported or opposed that the website disagrees with.
Republican Gov. Bill Lee wasn’t spared by Tennessee Conservative News Publisher Brandon Lewis and his staff. The governor, along with his education commissioner, Penny Schwinn, were deemed “Executive Branch RINOs.”
At least two dozen other GOP lawmakers, including Sen. Todd Gardenhire of Chattanooga, were criticized as well on their votes on individual bills in areas ranging from illegal immigration to school choice to gun rights to abortion, medical “freedom,” the Second Amendment and more in the two-year legislative session.
“Many Republicans talk a good game on the campaign trail yet vote with left-leaning corporations and Democrats in committee,” Lewis said in a statement. “RINOs depend on low-information primary voters to re-elect them. The RINO Report offers the kind of detailed coverage from a Conservative perspective that Republicans can’t get from liberal corporate media outlets.”