Always Be Closing

By Kleinheider Posted on May 18, 2008 at 1:35 pm

Drew Johnson of the Tennessee Center For Policy Research bolsters his non-partisan credentials by coming out strongly against the House Republican Caucus closed meeting last week:

“Tennessee really has a history of a sort of smoke-filled back room mentality. That’s where deals are done and this really reeks of that,” said Drew Johnson, president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a government watchdog group.

He said House Republicans pulled the same thing last year.

“These people, after all, are public servants,” Johnson said. “They are here to serve you and me. There’s nothing that they should be discussing that they can discuss to us as voters, as taxpayers.”

House Republicans have little to say about what happened last night.

State law said that legislative bodies can close meetings, but only to discuss matters of national or state security or to consider an impeachment investigation. The law is unclear regarding caucus meetings.

House Republicans did not break any laws by closing off the caucus meeting to media.

permalink

Tags: Drew Johnson, GQ Drew, The Tennessee Center For Policy Research, Trent Seibert  

Comments