I am a fan of the Knoxville Ice Bears, a professional hockey team in the Southern Professional Hockey League. For the better part of 20 years, I've been going to the Knoxville Civic Coliseum to cheer loudly for my local team, cheering them on through many championship years and tough seasons like the one that just ended. It's not just the hockey itself, but promotions like the Wiener Dog Races, Star Wars Night, or “Era” Night, where teenage girls belt out Taylor Swift lyrics in unison. in a ceremonial scene.
There may be no obvious connection to local politics, other than a banner advertisement for a politician on the arena wall. But if you look more closely, some subtle similarities emerge. While you can understand the game on a simple level (goals, wins, games, penalties), one key to watching hockey is knowing where the puck is going next and how it's happening apart from the action. It's about predicting what conspiracies are happening and how strategies are changing.
The question of the depth of these observations came to light earlier this year when five state legislators attended a legislative forum in Knoxville sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the East Tennessee Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. One subtle change is that the state senator for the 6th District is now named Becky Massie. This is a change from her previous election cycle, when she was Becky Duncan Massey, using the Duncan name, a link to her brother and father, who together have represented the field in Congress for more than half a century. That was certain.
I also notice how Massie moves on the power play whenever something goes wrong. Like other politicians, she is for the good and against the bad, but when an issue is controversial, she defaults to dealing with it, instead letting the issue move through the legislative cycle. Talk about your position and whether you are a member of relevant committees. Massey said of her private school voucher, which drew quiet groans from the audience of about 50 people. But yeah, I always try to keep an open mind. ” She said she then collects information through electronic newsletters, her Facebook items and surveys, and even through conversations.
Three of the other panelists were my former colleagues on the Knox County Commission. I sat next to Democratic Rep. Sam McKenzie on the committee. He has been representing the 15th Congressional District for several years. During my time on the committee, Sam and I sat across the podium from Republicans Dave Wright, who currently represents the 19th District in the House, and Richard Briggs, who is currently in the U.S. Senate.
Briggs and Wright authored an effort to prevent Knoxville Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson from appearing on the ballot for both her current seat and her Senate challenge against Marsha Blackburn. Briggs argued at the forum that the effort was not prompted by Johnson, and that someone could run for both the Farragut City Council seat and the wealthy enclave's mayoral seat. Of course it is. It reminds me of the old saying, “I may have been born at night, but I wasn't born last night.”
Whether or not the origin story of Ms. Briggs' efforts is sincere, it is clear that the radical Republican supermajority despises women who genuinely challenge their policies, and that she There's a long history of failures in efforts to expel people, to long-fingered gerrymandering to get people moving. Gloria left her district and headed to her own office, which was in a closet.
If the anti-Gloria effort fails, and it seems likely now, that failure will not be due to a sincere change in perception, but rather because this legislation will help Republicans who hold multiple elected offices. This will likely be due to local opposition to what kind of impact it could have.
University of Tennessee sports fans may like to compare the current political environment to football, basketball, or even baseball. But I would argue that comparing minor league hockey to state legislatures is well-founded. The play is wild and rarely beautiful. Momentum shifts are real, and crowd-pleasing antics can fill intermissions with distractions. Ignore the dekes and fakes and focus on where the puck goes next.
