A series of missteps by the state education commissioner and a perceived error in judgment by the governor is bringing greater scrutiny to the state’s ethics rules and relationships officials hold with lobbying groups.
Democrats are threatening to file yet another sworn complaint for a state ethics violation and pass legislation in 2025 to avert indiscretions. Even Republicans are irritated with the governor’s actions because of public perception, but mainly because they could have been avoided.
Gov. Bill Lee said earlier this month he will not repay a group called Alliance Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based conservative Christian group that funded his expenses to speak to its conference this July at an exclusive South Florida beach. Lee contended it held the tax designation as a 501(c)3 group and state law allows it to pay for his July trip there to speak, even though its lobbying arm, ADF Action, uses a state lobbyist, Matthew Lorimer, who pushed bills this year such as one limiting the type of aid school nurses can provide to students. It proved to be a headache for personnel across the state at the beginning of the school year because many parents failed to sign a form giving permission to treat their children.
ADF Action spent between $20,000 and $50,000 on lobbying in Tennessee in 2023 and between $10,000 and $25,000 in the first half of 2024, according to a Tennessee Lookout analysis.
The Tennessean published a report about Lee’s trip as the Tennessee Ethics Commission dismissed a sworn complaint this month against Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds who took trips to two out-of-state conferences paid for by her former employer, pro-voucher and pro-charter group ExcelInEd.