LEGISLATIVE COLUMN
Capitol Notes | Peggy Sue, the Beagle Hound
So sweet, she could charm a dog off a meat wagon.
TN General Assembly Election Update Tennessee continues to glow ruby red on the nation’s electoral map. That same trend continues in the Tennessee General Assembly except for one small blue dot here in Davidson County. Our Republican friends maintained strong legislative majorities in each house of the General Assembly with a 27-6 partisan majority in the Senate and a 73-26 partisan majority in the House. While Donald Trump carried Tennessee with around 60% of the vote and 92 of the state’s 95 counties, Davidson County was one of the 3 counties—along with Shelby and Haywood counties in West Tennessee—to go for Joe Biden. While the other 92 counties went overwhelmingly for Trump, Biden carried Davidson County by almost 100,000 votes out of 298,000 votes cast. The new blue dot came about when Heidi Campbell defeated two term incumbent State Senator Steve Dickerson in the hotly contested general election by 3,800 votes of 112,000 votes cast. Senator Dickerson was a good friend of the Nashville Bar, and we are grateful for his service, particularly these last two years when he
chaired the Senate State and Local Government Committee. We also look forward to working with Senator Campbell in her new position. She is a current resident of Oak Hill and the former Mayor. The remaining members of the Davidson County legislative delegation all won reelection, including Senator Ferrell Haile of Sumner County. While Senator Haile’s senate district includes all of Sumner County and Trousdale County, the district also includes about 60,000 folks in the eastern part of Davidson County. We suspect Senator Haile will now receive a few more requests for attention to the legislative supper dishes of the Davidson County dogs. Redistricting Looms By the end of December 2020, the US Secretary of Commerce will submit the 2020 census data to the President who will then present the data to the Clerk of the US House. Congressional officials should get the data needed by the states for redistricting by early April 2021. As they have in the past, the General Assembly is expected to file placeholder bills in 2021, work on them in the summer and fall of 2021, and then actually pass the bills drawing the state’s congressional districts, state house, and state senate districts early in the 2022 legislative session. Tennessee’s 2020 population in the early estimates is around 6,890,000 people, and we will continue to have 9 members in the US House. On the state level, house districts will be readjusted to reflect an ideal population of 69,590. West Tennessee is expected to lose two House seats, and those two districts will probably move to the
Nashville suburbs. The conversations for these issues are always spicy and almost always opaque, as elected officials get the opportunity to choose their voters and dogs rather than voters and dogs choosing their elected officials. Calendar Notes The NBA office will be closed December 24, 25, 31, and January 1 in observance of the holidays. The 112th General Assembly will convene in Organizational Session on Tuesday, January 12, 2021. The NBA and the General Assembly will observe the Martin Luther King holiday on Monday, January 18, 2021. The General Assembly will reconvene in Regular Session on Monday, February 1, 2021. Davidson County voters will get a rest period in 2021 because the county does not have a regularly scheduled election. The next one of those is the May 2022 primary election for local offices including all our general sessions and trial court judges. (BOLO alert for a 2021 special election in Davidson County if those agitated about this year’s property tax increase find an avenue for voters to challenge the increase by referendum instead of in the regularly scheduled Metro Council election in 2023.) n PEGGY SUE is fond of the classic 1957 Buddy Holly song. When hunting legislative news or biscuits, she is hard to contact.
DEC/JAN 2020-21 | NASHVILLE BAR JOURNAL
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