NASHVILLE - Two Tennessee Democrats vying to become their party's gubernatorial nominee in the Aug. 4 primary say Republican Gov. Bill Lee's refusal to disavow an education adviser's mocking of teachers and their training programs is only the latest example of the governor's failure to lead.
"I think the big difference between me and Gov. Lee is he doesn't stand for anything, he blows with the political winds," Nashville physician Jason Martin said Friday in a Chattanooga Times Free Press telephone interview.
Attorney JB Smiley, a Memphis councilman also running for the Democratic nomination in the Aug. 4 primary, offered the same view Friday by phone.
Smiley pointed to Lee sitting silently as Larry Arnn, the president of conservative Hillsdale College who plans to open 50 of his charter schools in Tennessee at Lee's urging, told a group in Franklin that "teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country."
The event was secretly videotaped and provided to Nashville television station WTVF.
"I'm sorry that the people of Tennessee have to be subjected to a leader who simply does not value the teaching profession," Smiley said. "Our governor, you know, is lacking spine. Whenever someone is saying hurtful things to a group of people that you're representing, that you're leading, you have an obligation, a responsibility, to immediately push back on that. He failed to do that. He failed the people, he failed the teachers, he failed the students. He failed his own party, Republican leadership."
After the controversy erupted, the governor told reporters that Arnn was criticizing "the influence of left-leaning activists in public education." A Hillsdale spokeswoman told The Tennessean that Arnn was "clearly criticizing the educational bureaucracy that has done a great disservice to both teachers and students."
A number of Republicans, including House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, the Senate speaker, have spoken up in defense of teachers.
Efforts to reach Carnita Atwater of Memphis, the third Democratic candidate in the primary, were unsuccessful Friday.
DEMOCRATS' LONG DROUGHT
Democrats have been unable to get a member of their party elected to statewide office since 2006. But both Martin, 47, and Smiley, 34, said they believe they not only can win an election but later work across the aisle with Republicans.
"I want to push back on that," Martin said in response to a reporter's question about the possibility of a Democrat winning. "It absolutely can be won. And this is an opinion that's been formed after traveling 30,000 miles up and down Tennessee, red counties, blue counties, urban counties, rural counties. People have the same hopes, dreams and wishes and we've got the agenda to deliver."
He said he believes he can work with leaders like House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville.
Smiley said he has already found ways to work across the aisle with Republican Memphis City Council members.
"I've got more experience, government and political experience, than anyone running," Smiley said.
Photo contributed by Dr. Jason Martin for Tennessee / Jason MartinABORTION, MEDICAID EXPANSION
Martin and Smiley also took issue with the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion legal in many instances. Lee and fellow Republicans previously passed new restrictions on abortion.
One, already in effect, bans abortions after a fetus' heartbeat is detected, usually about six weeks into pregnancy. The other, expected to go into effect in August, bans the procedure in most instances except to save the life of a mother or to prevent serious harm to the mother.
Martin said he believes he can use executive authority to protect physicians acting in good faith to protect the lives of their patients. A provision in the state's trigger law has raised concerns that doctors will face arrest for performing an emergency abortion to save the mother's life. The law says such an emergency would be an affirmative defense against prosecution, raising alarms among doctors that they will have to defend themselves.
"We can talk about ways to prevent unintended pregnancies, increase the social safety net, make sure that we have fair adoption laws," he said. "I will use every ounce of executive authority to protect women's rights."
Smiley has introduced a resolution in the Memphis City Council that urges the local prosecutor and law enforcement not to prosecute women seeking an abortion or medical professionals who perform them.
If governor, he would push to codify Roe v. Wade's protections.
"We should not police women in matters of reproductive health," Smiley said.
"My administration will advocate every day for us to expand Medicaid," Smiley said regarding the expansion of Medicaid to serve additional Tennesseans, long opposed by legislative Republicans.
"If you want to pass it quickly, educate the people on how many people are without access to health care," Smiley said, saying that's hundreds of thousands of people.
It would improve health outcomes, provide needed mental health services and benefit people with drug addictions, he added.
He said proponents need to go into communities and talk to people.
"We have to make it political suicide for a person to vote against Medicaid expansion," Smiley said, adding he doesn't think Lee cares.
Martin said his top priority is access to health care, and Medicaid expansion is an important part of that. Tennessee can slash the number of uninsured Tennesseans from 800,000 to 400,000, he said.
That not only affects health care but also will reduce bankruptcies and revive rural economies, he said.
"Rural Tennessee is dying, rotting on the vine," he said, with the state among the worst when it comes to hospital closures.
Photo contributed by Committee to Elect JB Smiley / JB SmileyEDUCATION, MARIJUANA
Lee has touted winning approval from lawmakers this year to transform the state's K-12 education formula from a model based on specific categories to a student-based formula. The governor provided an additional $750 million for that, as well as a $500 million investment in a new school model program. Another $125 million is going to increase teacher pay. There was also $32 million for charter schools.
But in a recent Democratic candidate debate in Nashville, Martin said it doesn't cover what is needed and creates funding problems for local governments.
"We put into place a policy that's going to rob schools and school districts of local control and create a property tax bomb for a couple of years from now," Martin said.
Martin said Friday his top priorities as governor would be education, workforce development, health care access and infrastructure.
"Those issues unite us, no matter our color," he said, adding those are common-ground issues.
"We will stand against sending public money to private schools," Smiley said during the same debate. "That is not what is best for every person, every student."
Atwater, who participated in the debate, also said she opposed Lee's education initiatives.
Smiley and Martin said Friday they believe marijuana should be made legal, at least partially.
"Legalize it," Smiley said. "There's a lot of reasons we should legalize marijuana."
And tax it too, Smiley said, noting state lawmakers say there's not enough money to fully fund education and have high-performance schools.
"You think about what they're doing in Colorado, a state with fewer people than us but bringing in more money than we are," he said. "We can legalize it, we can tax it ... We can address some of our infrastructure deficiencies."
Martin said he thinks medical and recreational uses of marijuana should be legalized. He cited Colorado as well, saying the state, which has 1.5 million fewer people than Tennessee, made $400 million in tax revenue off it last year.
Legalizing marijuana would rob the drug cartels of the market, Martin said, allowing Tennessee officials to "quit locking up primarily Black and brown people for this small drug offense."
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow him on Twitter @AndySher1.