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Nashville Mayoral Race


BrandonTO416

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Who are you supporting in the mayoral race? Who are the top candidates?

I honestly don't know who to vote for at this point. The ideal candidate for me will be one that supports high-rise development with few limitations, such as the silly height restrictions in various areas like SoBro. I want someone who will support urbanism and transit, but in a balanced approach (I want to see BRT implemented rather than LRT because of cost concerns). I want someone who is socially progressive and will expand rights rather than limit rights.

Of course education should be a top priority, but everyone supports education...

I want a mayor who will continue Purcell's view that government shouldn't prop up sports teams since we've already got two teams at this point. Money can be better spent elsewhere.

Who would most agree with my viewpoints? I don't even know where they stand.

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Bob Clement is the big name, big money, establishment candidate. He is garnering support across a wide swath of the city's interest and business groups. He is also from what I hear the default Republican candidate of choice, largely due to historic his moderate political record in Congress while representing Nashville - which garners him a huge advantage in contacts, fundrasing ability, name ID, etc. Having the Clement name has always been an advantage for Bob too, being that his father, Frank Clement, was a VERY popular multi-term governor from Dickson who served non-consecutive terms under two seperate sets of term laws (1953-1959, and 1963-1967), who would have went on to been Governor again (or possibly US Senator) probably with ease had he not died tragically in a car accident.

Councilman David Briley is from what I have heard termed a "practical progressive"/ "good government" type candidate from locals in the know that I talk to, but someone willing to take bold/controversial stands on issues like the Sounds Stadium, which he strongly opposed. His family of course is a political dynasty in the city, with his grandfather having been the first Metropolitan Mayor of Nashville and his brother currently being a State Representative.

Karl Dean, is another name I hear "progressive"/"good goverment" label attached too, I just don't know much about him. It appears him and Briley are competing for the same voting segments, which could be problamatic. I also have read he sees himself as an heir to the Bredesen/Purcell mantel of governance for the city.

Buck Dozier is a popular Councileman at Large (also former Metro Fire Chief), but don't know much about him besides he garnered the most votes of any coucilman at large during his last re-election, which is a good stat to have if one is mounting a metro-wide race. I read he is more conservative in his governance views overall, but has irked conservatives for some of his votes, while being criticized by liberals for being too pro-developer in regards to city ordinances.

Howard Gentry, Vice Mayor, don't know a whole lot about him either. He has a rather vague platform from what I have read and is criticized over his running of Metro Council sessions.

Those are the big names in the race. I know most about Clement and Briley, so other forumers feel free to chime in and fill in the blanks or give other viewpoints.

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I'm still leaning toward Briley. Clement is too much of a politician for the local level, Gentry seems ineffective, Karl Dean seems to be focusing just on education. That's a little single sided... Dozier sounds like a good Fire Captain, not someone I want as mayor.

My worry is that Briley seems to made his voice known for opposing certain developments, and I'm not sure that's what I'm looking for. So maybe Dean would be the better choice, if he'd just speak up on development.

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so far my candidate of choice is Briley as well (but the election is a long ways a way and certainly my mind isn't close to being made up yet). He seems to represent my political views and he is well qualified and has a good head on his shoulders. However-- I heard him on 1045 the Zone this morning talking about the Predators and Sounds situation. When reading quotes in the paper from Briley I am usually impressed. He seems intelligent and even ambitious when talking about the city's future. But listening to him on the radio, he doesn't exactly sweep you of your feet. That passion is in his words, sure, but it doesn't come through in his voice and presentation. And that worries me as far as having him out there being an advocate and often salesman for the city. I wonder how electable he is from this standoint.

Also, he didn

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I think Dean has my vote as well. I started leaning toward him months ago when I recieved a push poll from the Clements camp trashing the other candidates especially Dean. I felt bad for the guy and right there knew I wasn't voting for Bob. I really have no clue what each candidate represents but that article on Mr. Deans vision has caught my eye.

Does anyone know the candidates stances on the Convention Center?

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I think Dean has my vote as well. I started leaning toward him months ago when I recieved a push poll from the Clements camp trashing the other candidates especially Dean. I felt bad for the guy and right there knew I wasn't voting for Bob. I really have no clue what each candidate represents but that article on Mr. Deans vision has caught my eye.

Does anyone know the candidates stances on the Convention Center?

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Here's some links talking about how President Bush has proposed abolishing HOPE IV altogether (meanwhile, government spending has swelled to astronomical proportions by spending in areas we don't need).

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/02/07/no-hope-in-bush-budget/

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/Bush-...using1mar04.htm

We need more HOPE IV funding in order to replace old public housing projects with public/private partnerships.

We need a local government that is into HOPE IV and I think all candidates would support it, but this problem is as much a federal problem as it is local.

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An article from the Tennessean today. This is the first article in a while that has had any meat as to what the next mayors responsibility would be for the next 4 or 8 years.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar.../706110362/1001

The newspaper was just presenting the facts and is not endorsing any one candidate as far as I know. I may be wrong about that. But the one thing that caught my eye is the fact that the DT area is the engine that drives much of the economy and cant be neglected, ignored, or let to just grow on its own. There has to be a vision. I just don

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  • 4 weeks later...

Maybe this will help sway some of you on the fence...

I just interviewed the candidates that agreed to meet with me for our podcast, to talk about local real estate and development issues. I asked each of them the same exact questions, covering the following topics:

  1. #1 ranking

  2. Convention center

  3. Thermal plant site

  4. Transportation/parking

  5. Downtown office vacancy

  6. Green/LEED buildings

  7. Cities to model

So far only David Briley, Karl Dean and Buck Dozier agreed to do the podcast. Listen to the interviews here:

http://nainashville.com/naimathews/Podcast...72/Default.aspx

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Maybe this will help sway some of you on the fence...

I just interviewed the candidates that agreed to meet with me for our podcast, to talk about local real estate and development issues. I asked each of them the same exact questions, covering the following topics:

  1. #1 ranking

  2. Convention center

  3. Thermal plant site

  4. Transportation/parking

  5. Downtown office vacancy

  6. Green/LEED buildings

  7. Cities to model

So far only David Briley, Karl Dean and Buck Dozier agreed to do the podcast. Listen to the interviews here:

http://nainashville.com/naimathews/Podcast...72/Default.aspx

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Thanks for the information about the podcasts. I enjoyed listening to them. Hopefully the other candidates will choose to participate as well. It's nice to hear them respond one-on-one, you get a feel for not only their specific answers to a question, but how the think/process the information, it gives more context in my opinion.
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^^ Yeah I completely agree with that. I've been on the verge with Briley for awhile...So far, I have liked what I've seen from him, but I've still been pretty skeptical of his competence in regards to development and growth issues. After hearing the interview I have almost no reason why I wouldn't vote for Briley

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I think Briley is the class of the field. Unfortunately, he's operating from a big disadvantage from the standpoint of funding. The entire Nashville establishment jumped behind Clement quickly because they knew his name recognition would assure that he at least made it into a runoff. I have attended one or two Clement fundraisers (arm twisted) and almost to a man everyone that hears him speak cringes at how out of touch and relatively not so bright he seems to be. But everyone seems resigned that he'll win so the thinking seems to be "yeah he's an idiot but at least he'll be our idiot". More recently (after debates, forums, etc.) many of these same people seem to think Briley is the guy that should get elected but they're not sure how to help him at this point, other than to vote for him. In the short term, he'll need to overcome Dean's fundraising edge (he just loaned his campaign $300k of family money). But if he can scrap his way into the runoff with Clement I think he's got a great shot at causing a lot of original Clement backers to switch sides and vote him in. Personally, I hope he pulls an upset because I think he'll represent us quite well.

On a more somber note, Buck Dozier recently voted the Bristol on Broadway as his favorite new development completed since 2003. That alone ought to disqualify him from consideration IMO. :lol:

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