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Rex and the City: Schneid!
Monday, December 1, 2008 at 12:02am
Last week, Mayor Karl Dean’s office announced it would be loaning senior aide Jim Hester to the effort to defeat the Metro “English Only” referendum measure.
The news set off a ripple effect in the city’s political class, particularly among conservatives backing Councilman Eric Crafton’s ballot item. Though Dean is not lending his own personal heft to the effort to defeat English Only, he is sending a senior aide off the books to do the administration’s bidding.
Hester is an old Democratic Party campaign hand and a former political director for the state party in Tennessee. He was also Dean’s campaign manager in the mayoral race.
It was unclear exactly how prominent a role Hester will have in the anti effort, but we are wondering if his Dean campaign nickname will make a comeback. Hester was known as “The Super” — as in the superintendent — for his penchant for hitching his thumbs in his belt and asking fellow Deanites, “So, whattcha hearin’?”
We might suggest a nice One Day at A Time Schneider mustache to go with Hester’s reprised campaign role this time around. Maybe a tool belt?
What, Republicans don’t ride the bus?
Mass transit advocates are nervous that the GOP takeover of the state legislature might kill the momentum that had been building for dedicated funding for improved public transportation infrastructure.
The big four cities seemed to have moved the conversation to the brink of a new dedicated funding source being addressed next year, but all that changed with the state tilted to the right this election.
Metro Transit Authority Director Paul Ballard and Metro Planning Organization Director Michael Skipper had laid the groundwork to make the convincing argument that dedicated funding was necessary for Nashville and Middle Tennessee to grow mass transit.
The hope was for Metro to commit to a Bus Rapid Transit options this year and then to grow them with dedicated funding going forward.
But, Rex hears, the GOP state legislature will have little interest in getting behind dedicated funding, especially if it comes by way of a new tax of some sort.
Rex Noseworthy appears Mondays in The City Paper. He can reached at rnoseworthy@nashvillecitypaper.com
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Filed under: City News
Dedicated funding will come. We can step up to the plate and take charge, or we can wait for events to overtake us. You don't have to be a Republican or a Democrat to see that.
Dean is Mayor of what/who?*********************************ANY dedicated funding is bad. It removes the ability to respond to things that are more important.
"Last week, Mayor Karl Dean’s office announced it would be loaning senior aide Jim Hester to the effort to defeat the Metro “English Only” referendum measure."No. Karl Dean is trying to defeat our right to make our own choice, and THAT's the problem.
This will be Jim Hester's first campaign that wasn't funded out the wazoo with tons of money, so expect to see what you saw when he ran Harold Ford Jr.'s primary race and Karl Dean's mayoral... lots of paid media and ZERO grass roots work. No wonder the Chamber loves him so much.Expect a resounding loss on Election Day for "The Super
Why is dedicated funding being pushed for public transportation? Dedication of gasoline tax for roads has not been honored. In fact oneof the biggest diversons has been to transit.