A Twitter Drama in Three Acts
As the RNC debate rages on Twitter, the Mayor’s Office attempts to distance itself from the action. Councilmembers prepare for a pivotal vote. Shakespearean drama unfolds.
PROLOGUE: Will they or won’t they?
The state wants something from Nashville… a cursed gathering of wicked politics. Is Cooper willing to sell the city’s soul for the shiniest convention of them all?
Mayor Cooper, through his communications bulldog TJ Ducklo, is up to the usual hijinks and political machinations. This time, the topic du jour is the Republican National Convention. Steve Cavendish of Nashville Banner wrote a great primer on the debate over bringing the RNC to Nashville in 2024.
Long story short, Cooper’s team spent months negotiating a deal that’s going before Metro Council for first reading on Tuesday night, in the form of an ordinance sponsored by two of the Council’s few conservatives, Robert Swope and Jonathan Hall. Pour one out for former Councilmember At-Large Steve Glover, who would’ve been all over this. Now, Cooper is passing the buck to the Council, hoping to get the state off his back.
ACT I: Mendes v. Remus
Reluctant hero Bob Mendes wards off evil with tweets and blog posts, finds himself opposite a friend-turned-foe.
At 12:36 pm on the day after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Councilmember At-Large Bob Mendes dropped a blog post expressing his opposition to Nashville hosting the RNC. At 2:43 pm that same day, Tennessee Lookout reported a joint statement from the chairs of Tennessee’s Democratic Party and GOP, who both expressed their support for bringing the RNC to Nashville.
After that, well, all hell broke loose.
Left-leaning Nashville Twitter (including me) lost their damn minds. What can I say? I startle easily. TNDP Chair Hendrell Remus – who had reportedly issued the statement without telling his staff or members of the TNDP Executive Committee – doubled down on his support and got ratioed. Mendes called him out for his bullshit. Remus took the bait, prompting another ratio. A TNDP Executive Committee member clarified that the TNDP actually does not support bringing the RNC to Nashville. Metro Councilmember Russ Bradford called for Remus to be removed as chair, and other Councilmembers expressed their own criticisms of the joint statement.
And just as quickly as that particular controversy escalated, it dissipated. As of this writing, neither Remus nor the TNDP has issued any follow-up to last weekend’s events. And the Davidson County Democrats – who you might assume would have some sort of position on this – are just asking for follows on Twitter. (Though the Wilson County Democrats summarily oppose bringing the RNC to Nashville. So there’s that.)
ACT II: O’Connell v. Ducklo
Freddie settles into his new role as a mayoral hopeful. Ducklo plays a DC game of obfuscation in a Nashville theatre.
On Tuesday, once we had all had a moment to breathe, Steve Cavendish dropped his piece on the RNC negotiations. Predictably, people had reactions. One of those people was downtown Councilmember and mayoral candidate Freddie O’Connell, who took to Twitter to place the blame for this squarely on the shoulders of the administration. “This was their choice, and it was a bad one,” O’Connell wrote. “Let’s not pretend that #MetroCouncil or any individual member compelled the preparation of the bill.”
Mayor Cooper’s spokesperson and Twitter feud stunt double TJ Ducklo jumped in, accusing O’Connell of “a patent mischaracterization of reality” and spamming O’Connell’s replies with a Tennessean article in which Cooper expresses his “serious concerns” about safety if the RNC comes to town.
Ducklo implied that the mayor did not want the deal to go forward – though Cooper’s statements to the Tennessean said no such thing – and that O’Connell was simply trying to confuse people into thinking this deal had anything to do with Cooper or his administration. If we are to believe Ducklo’s characterization, then, we would have to assume that some mysterious third party entered into negotiations on Metro’s behalf to bring the RNC to Nashville – a giant undertaking that would require significant public coordination and investment.
I tried to pin Ducklo down on two key questions that I hoped would further his goal of appropriately characterizing the situation: (1) Who negotiated the contract? (2) Who asked for the bill to be filed? As of this writing, he hasn’t responded. But he seems super invested in transparency, so I’m sure he’ll get to my questions eventually.
Meanwhile, O’Connell issued a strongly-worded missive further criticizing Cooper’s – and, by association, Ducklo’s – bizarre attempts to play hot potato and stick the Council with the responsibility for any potential fallout if they choose to vote it down. Ducklo has chosen, at least publicly, to stay out of the fray for now. And I’m still waiting on those answers. You know how to reach me, TJ!
ACT III: Swope v. Nashville
Swope is troubled. Will he abandon his quest and bring shame upon his party?
On Wednesday night, I got a tip that Councilmember Swope might be withdrawing the RNC bill. So I called him. After telling me that “nothing has been decided” with regard to whether he’ll try to move the bill forward next week, he asked me where I got my information. “I’ve been honest with you, haven’t I?” he asked, as though this were some sort of transparency quid pro quo.
While I had him on the phone, I asked what he thought about the mayor’s office distancing themselves from the deal. Swope couldn’t shed any light on their motivation, though he noted that he finds their behavior “strange and troublesome.” In no uncertain terms, Swope made it clear that this is Cooper’s contract. Cooper’s administration negotiated it, Cooper’s administration asked for it to be filed, Swope was given the opportunity to sign on as a sponsor, and he did.
Apropos of nothing, Swope had a lot to say about the people of Nashville. “I can’t make a dime in this town without someone trying to sue me or file an ethics complaint,” he lamented, launching into a muddled tirade about foreign governments and nonexistent conflicts of interest that I frankly don’t understand or care about. To my knowledge, the worst thing that’s happened to Swope as a result of his questionable business practices is a few Phil Williams investigations. But damn, can’t a man eat? Cut him some slack, y’all.
EPILOGUE: What’s still to come
At this point, everything is up in the air. Quite a few Councilmembers have either publicly or privately expressed their intention to oppose the RNC contract. But a lot can happen between now and next Tuesday, when the bill will be on first reading before the Council. Even Mendes, the man who launched a thousand impassioned emails to the Council (including one from me) has signed on to a letter that seems to suggest openness to a sort of truce between the Council and the TNGOP. So who the hell knows.
Whatever happens, I’ll be there next Tuesday covering the drama, as always. You can find me @startleseasily on Twitter.