Keith Talley Named TNDP Communications Director
Posted on July 8, 2009 at 6:11 pmThe Tennessee Democratic Party has announced a new hire to direct the organization’s communications effort.
Keith Talley has been named the party’s communications director. After serving nearly seven years in Washington, D.C., as U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon’s press secretary, Talley has consulted for a number of political campaigns across Tennessee.
Talley’s past work experience also includes stints as a newspaper reporter and editor at small dailies in Arkansas and Tennessee.
“Keith brings a wealth of knowledge and understanding of the political process to the job,” Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester said. “His experience will be invaluable during the 2010 election cycle.”
Gordon agreed.
“Keith did a fine job for me as my press secretary and understands the issues facing Tennessee families like affordable health care, good schools and higher paying jobs,” said Gordon, dean of the Tennessee congressional delegation.
“I know he’ll do a good job in making sure everyone understands where Democrats stand on these important issues. Keith’s experience will be an asset to the party, and I’m looking forward to working with him again.”
Interesting to note that the party has left out Talley’s most infamous resume entry: State House Caucus Political Director in 2008.
Architects Of Defeat OR What Can Brown Do For Bone?
Posted on January 6, 2009 at 1:22 pmR. Neal throws around a bit of gossip floating around the race for Tennessee Democratic Party Chair:
There is also talk that Bone would install Mark Brown as Executive Director and Keith Talley as the Communications Director. Chip Forrester notes that they are good guys but are also the architects of the 2008 Disaster as directors of the Democratic State House and Senate caucuses respectively.
It appears there is a power struggle going on in Nashville between the old school apparatchik and a more progressive grassroots movement. Is it even possible for Democrats to drag Tennessee into the 21st Century? Can Democrats elect progressive candidates statewide and join the emerging New New South, or do we have to keep running Republican-lite candidates and letting the TNGOP dictate the rules of engagement?
The next couple of years are going to be interesting. By the end of this month we will know the general direction.
UPDATE: Charles Robert Bone responds to the rumors:
I have not spoken with Mark Brown or Keith Talley about a position with the Tennessee Democratic Party. My current focus remains on meeting and talking with the members of the Executive Committee across the State to ensure that, as a Party, we develop, fund and implement an innovative plan that will allow us to be successful in the 2010 elections and thereafter.
Equally as important as the plan itself is the manner in which we go about developing the plan, and ensuring that this process is collaborative and transparent. As a part of this, I think the Party would be well served to publicly post these job openings and conduct a national search to ensure that we attract a diverse and talented applicant pool.
UPDATE II: Senate Caucus Political Director Mark Brown:
I want to confirm that [Bone] and I have not discussed any position at the TNDP. That would be premature, to say the least.
As for the Senate Democratic Caucus, I take full responsibility for our losses; after all, I was political director. We recruited good candidates. We raised more money than the caucus has ever raised. We ran strong races, but we lost. That’s my fault.
UPDATE III: TNDP Treasurer and chairman candidate Chip Forrester:
As I’ve consistently said, I’m not making any staffing decisions before I’m elected chair and I think that it would be unwise for any candidate to be doing the same.
I plan to involve the officers of the Party in these critical decisions as well as reaching out to seek input and advice from a broad range of sources to include the Governor, the Democratic Members of Congress, former Party chairs, key Tennessee Obama supporters, the House and Senate Democratic Caucuses, Democratic activists and others as we all shape the vision and staffing of the Party for the purpose of Taking Back the House in 2010.
While I too have heard that there have been discussions about involving these gentlemen, it just seems to me that we need a fresh approach, a change of how we have been doing things and a rethinking of the politics of grassroots involvement in our state because how the campaigns of 2008 were run and the results speak for themselves.
That is why, one of my first initiatives, as chair will be to convene a statewide Campaign Summit to conduct a thorough post-mortem on all the successful and failed Tennessee campaigns of 2008. It is essential that we look at what we did right and what we did wrong to ensure that as we lay out our plan for 2010 that we bring forward only the best and dispense with the failed. This summit must be a critical, no-holds-barred analysis of 2008. The future of the Democratic Party in Tennessee is too important not to undertake this effort.
I am certain that we have, in this state, men and women who bring talent, expertise and energy to the table for the task of Taking Back the House and the Party will do everything to bring them together.
SEE ALSO: Mark Brown says he would be a wonderful Executive Director.
Talley Talks Tactics
Posted on August 21, 2008 at 7:02 amClint Brewer follows up on his breaking news report earlier in the week and talks with the Democratic operative who admits dropping the believed-to-be expunged DUI record of state House candidate A.J. McCall on the desk of GOP House Leader Jason Mumpower:
Talley also chalked up sending the arrest records from the early 1990s and a copy of a flier against GOP Rep. Tim Dubois to McCall’s wife to “political hardball.
“I sent that record over there just to let them know we knew about the DUI arrest,” Talley said.
When asked why he sent to McCall’s wife and not to McCall, Talley replied, “Six in one hand, half a dozen in the other.”
McCall’s opponent, longtime incumbent Democratic State Rep. Stratton Bone’s campaign condemned the campaign tactics against McCall earlier in the week before Talley came forward. Talley said the Bone campaign’s statement did not bother him.
“It doesn’t concern me,” Talley said. “I’m here to win House races.”
Mumpower further condemned Talley’s actions, saying he would tender a complaint with House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh over the House Democratic Caucus actions. He also said four people work in his office and that it is staffed whenever it is open.
“It alarms me greatly that Democratic Party officials feel they can enter anyone’s state office, day or night,” Mumpower said. “That should not happen to anyone regardless of party.”
Mumpower added Talley’s action were “the kind of thing voters hate about politics.”
“Trying to scare and intimidate someone’s wife and then try to brush it off shows a person of very low moral character,” Mumpower said. “I guess they believe in a win at any cost kind of system.”
TNGOP Wants Talley Whacked
Posted on August 20, 2008 at 4:02 pmThe TNGOP reacts to the news that it was a political operative who tried to use expunged criminal record to intimidate an opponent:
The Tennessee Republican Party today renews and strengthens its call for an independent agency to investigate two distinct scandals: the illegal search of confidential records by an officer of the Tennessee Highway Patrol; and other tactics for the purpose of intimidation.
“The admission by Keith Talley, political director for the House Democratic Caucus, that he illegally entered the offices of House Republican leaders late during the night to anonymously leave records aimed at intimidating a Republican legislative candidate has intensified the need for an independent investigation,” said Robin Smith, Chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party. “The public deserves the confidence of an investigation into this culture of corruption by an outside agency with no ties to the Bredesen administration or the Tennessee Democratic machine.”
McCall Expunged DUI File Dirty Trick Claimed By House Political Director
Posted on at 11:15 amFrom the Associated Press:
A Democratic political activist says it was him - and not a state trooper who was suspended this week for unauthorized background checks - who delivered copies of a candidate’s drunken driving records to the Republican leader in the state House.
Keith Talley, political director for the House Democratic Caucus, tells The Associated Press he obtained copies of Republican state House candidate A.J. McCall’s records through a public records search at the Wilson County Courthouse.
Talley says he dropped the copies off on House Minority Leader Jason Mumpower’s desk several weeks ago in a move he describes as standard “political hardball.” He disputes the Bristol Republican’s claim that the records were placed in his locked office at night.
See Clint Brewer’s original reporting on the McCall situation and the allegations by leader Mumpower here.
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