NASHVILLE — A new advocacy group with deep pockets and close ties to Gov. Bill Haslam is spending big bucks defending his stance on maintaining Tennessee’s K-12 education standards, Federal Communications Commission television station filings show.
Since Dec. 29, Tennesseans for Student Success, a nonprofit group headed by Haslam’s 2014 campaign manager, Jeremy Harrell, has spent $137,000 broadcasting a 30-second spot in the Nashville and Knoxville media markets, according to a Times Free Press review of Tennessee-based television stations’ political advertising files.
The ad even aired on Nashville NBC affiliate WSMV-TV during the Super Bowl.
The spot features a series of teachers and parents saying, “We have the fastest-improving schools in the nation. Yet some politicians want to drag us back to the days of lower standards, less accountability and fewer choices for parents. And that’s why they need to hear from us.”
The group, which has at least six staffers, has also hired seven lobbyists, including three principals at top-flight firm McMahan and Winstead, state Ethics Commission filings show.