Birther Announces Intention To Seek The Office Of Tennessee Republican Party Chair
Posted on May 16, 2009 at 12:57 pmShortly following the announcement that Robin Smith would resign as TNGOP party chair effective May 30, Rep. Eric Swafford sent the following letter to State Executive Committee members announcing his intention to seek the office of party chair.
Swafford recently made news by being one of the first Tennessee GOP lawmakers to sign on to a lawsuit questioning President Obama’s citizenship and eligibility to serve as President:
Dear State Executive Committee member:
Over the last several months, I have received inquiries from various friends and supporters as to whether or not I would consider running for Tennessee Republican Party Chair. I was humbled and honored that my fellow Tennessee Republicans had faith in me to perform the duties and obligations that being Chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party requires. After prayerful consideration, and many discussions with my family, I have decided to announce my candidacy for Chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party.
Last November, Tennessee Republicans made gains as never before. We took a message across the state that ‘It Matters Who Governs,’ and Tennesseans agreed. We set our sights on two things: a majority in the State House, and increasing our majority in the State Senate. With the Tennessee Republican Party and the Republican Caucuses working together more closely than ever before, we were able to accomplish these goals with the help of thousands of Tennessee Republicans statewide who believed in our mission.
After overcoming a difficult first election myself, I understand the challenges we faced last year, and will continue to face as we look to the future to make more gains in both chambers. I have been tested, and have proven I can win a difficult campaign. When I ran in 2004, nearly every odd was stacked against me. I had very little name recognition, but I won because of hard work and a promise to the people in my district that I would always represent their values in the Tennessee General Assembly. I have kept that promise.
I believe I now can bring those values and that same hard work to the position of Tennessee Republican Party Chairman. The majority of Tennesseans believe in our goals: promoting fiscal responsibility, prosperity, and core Tennessee values. I believe in spreading that message from Mountain City to Memphis, growing our party and our majority in the state legislature more than ever before.
I humbly ask for your support to serve as your Tennessee Republican Party Chairman. I appreciate your consideration, and I look forward to speaking with each and every one of you over the coming days and weeks. I am ready to roll up my sleeves and start working on these goals on Day One. Together, with your support, we can make this happen.
Saltsman: Always At The Right Place At The Right Time?
Posted on December 15, 2008 at 7:57 pmJim Geraghty breaks down the race for RNC Chair:
Ask some who watched Chip Saltsman manage the presidential campaign of Mike Huckabee, and they’ll say he demonstrated the ability to make the most of his opportunities: Huckabee was one of the few candidates in a crowded GOP field who walked into the contest an unknown and came out a star. But others look at the same experience and argue that the Huckabee campaign was an organizational disaster. Their successes, according to this view, were more attributable to the candidate’s unparalleled rapport with evangelical conservatives.
Similarly, when the Tennessee Republican party knocked Al Gore out of the Senate and made gains in the state legislature under Saltsman’s leadership in 2006, contrarians argue that the wind was at the GOP’s back in the Volunteer State.
The Tennessee GOP Message Travels Around The World
Posted on May 19, 2008 at 10:47 amBill Hobbs comes right back at Barack Obama after the candidate called his party out on Good Morning America:
You can’t send your wife out on the campaign trail to give campaign speeches and do fund-raisers on your behalf and then complain that she gets a little criticism. And if you think she ought not get public scrutiny, then you probably shouldn’t take her with you onto Good Morning America and condescendingly demand she be left out of the spotlight.
SEE ALSO:
Number 9
Roundtable
Tiny Cat Pants
Jake Tapper
The National Review
Huffington Post
Prez Vid
Chicago Tribune
Talking Points
David Oatney
The Ground Game
Donkey’s Mouth
Americablog
Obama Calls Out The “Low-Class” Tennessee GOP On Good Morning America
Posted on at 8:04 am“Whoever is in charge of the Tennessee Republican Party needs to think long and hard about the campaign they want to run.”
~ Barack Obama on the TNGOP attack on Michelle Obama. (via Braisted)
You Know How We Do: The TNGOP Makes National News Again With Its Reverse Crush On Obama
Posted on May 15, 2008 at 7:40 pmIf the goal of a communications shop is to get publicity for its organization, then the TNGOP has no equal. They did it once. Now they’ve gone and done it again.
THE FRUITS OF THE LABOR:
Jonathan Martin
Political Ticker
CNN
Fox News
Comedy Central
Huffington Post
Mark Halperin
The Associated Press
PREVIOUSLY:
The TNGOP Welcomes Michelle Obama To Nashville
Blogger Gets The High Hat From Obama Folks
Revenue Commissioner Stands By iTunes Tax Legality Despite Letter Ruling Arguing The Contrary
Posted on May 6, 2008 at 11:05 amTerry Frank posts this morning that “the fat lady has not sung” when it comes to the iTunes tax. She asserts that the Tennessee Republican Party had not jumped the gun when they asserted that the tax on digital downloads was a new tax contained in the now introduced technical corrections bill. At issue is a March 12 letter ruling currently circulating in anti-tax circles issued by the Revenue Department’s legal counsel and approved by the Commissioner himself that would seem to contradict recent reports in the media that digital downloads are taxable in Tennessee since the start of the new year.
Two weeks ago, after a Waller, Lansden, Dortch and Davis email was posted online sounding the alarm of the new tax coming down the pike, it was subsequently pointed out that Apple and other online music retailers were already collecting taxes on music downloaded online.
At the time, Revenue Commissioner Reagan Farr stated to various media outlets that the Tennessee Republican Party and Waller Lansden were in error. The new technical corrections bill now before the General Assembly was not instituting a new tax but simply clarifying language in the Tennessee Annotated Code that already authorized the taxation of downloaded music.
The Commissioner explained that the tax was authorized by code changes in the previous year and that an iTunes song was considered “pre-written computer software” [T.C.A. §§ 67-1-102 (60)] that then “performs the task“[T.C.A. §§ 67-1-102 (17)] of playing on your iPod.
However, a March 12 letter ruling by the Revenue Commissioner [available here] would seem to tell a different story.
In the letter, the Revenue Commissioner and counsel state that while songs preloaded on machine sold to consumers are taxable, songs delivered electronically are not taxable:
Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-6-102(80) (Supp. 2007) 2 defines“tangible personal property” to include property that can be “seen, weighed, measured, felt, or touched.” For example, music sold on a compact disc, or CD, is subject to the sales and use tax because the music is sold on a tangible storage medium. Music purchased on a tangible storage medium has always been subject to the sales and use tax…
…Music is non-taxable only if it is delivered electronically. Accordingly, charges for the music services and packages provided by the Taxpayer that relate to music on a tangible storage medium are taxable as sales of tangible personal property, while charges related to music delivered electronically are not.
The letter, as is clearly stated on the document itself, is binding only for the specific case addressed. However, the arguments contained within and the code and definitions cited as to how digital downloads are to be taxed would seem to contradict the reasoning Commissioner Farr previously gave Post Politics as to why digital downloads have been taxable since January of this year.
In a letter to legislators obtained by P-squared, the president of the Software Finance and Tax Executives Council, Mark E. Nebergall, states:
We believe any out-of-state firm collecting sales tax on such sales does so in error and is likely, in the wake of the March Revenue Ruling, to stop collecting taxes on future sales and could seek tax refunds for erroneously collecting taxes on past sales. In fact, some SoFTEC members are in the process of implementing changes to their systems to stop collecting sales taxes on sales of downloaded products to Tennessee customers. Firms erroneously collecting sales taxes risk consumer class action lawsuits.
Commisioner Farr, when contacted by Post Politics explained that the March 12 letter ruling had been revoked. He could not say when the revocation had taken place but that the taxpayer in question had been notified and given ample time to adjust to the revocation.
“We have a six to eight month turn around on letter rulings and this specific ruling was drafted before the new changes took effect in January. It was modified shortly thereafter [but before revocation] to reflect the new law but before we had really taken a good look at the changes. It is unfortunate that the ruling was ever released.”
Any companies ceasing collection of tax based on this revocated letter ruling would be in error according to Farr. Farr went on to emphasize, revocation aside, that letter rulings are, in fact, not broadly applied documents to be used to interpret tax law by any party other than the taxpayer addressed.
The Department of Revenue releases two different types of rulings, Letter and Revenue. A Revenue ruling is the type of document that can be interpreted as Revenue department policy, a letter ruling cannot and should not be Farr explains.
Farr said there has been no Revenue ruling on the specific case of iTunes downloads but maintained that he feels “very comfortable” with his position that iTunes songs are prewritten computer software that performs a task and thus taxable.
SEE ALSO:
Bill Hobbs
Keyed Off On Tennessee’s Digital Download Tax
Posted on April 25, 2008 at 7:56 amBoth the City Paper and the Knoxville News Sentinel write up the TNGOP’s rallying cry to prevent a new digital download tax and the subsequent revelation that the tax is already being collected:
As for the confusion perhaps caused by the Tennessee Republican Party, spokesman Bill Hobbs said he doesn’t now “dispute” that iTunes sales are taxed.
Hobbs said he based his description on a memo from the law firm of Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, which called the section of the technical corrections bill the “Digital Products/iPod tax.”
“It’s probably an unfortunate choice of a headline, but Waller Lansden called it that, and I just keyed off of what they wrote,” Hobbs said.
Click here for yesterday’s Post Politics report on the issue.
No New Tax: Tennessee Already Collecting Revenue From Digital Media Downloads
Posted on April 24, 2008 at 3:11 pmIt turns out that the Tennessee Republican Party and the rest of the anti tax crew were a little late to the party on this digital tax scare. Tennessee currently taxes digital downloads, such as songs from iTunes, and have been since the beginning of this calendar year.
A Waller Landsen email yesterday on the technical correction bill currently being drafted by the government started people talking when Instapundit linked to a section in the draft called the Digital Products/iPod Tax.
The Bill contains sweeping legislation that would subject downloaded sales of digital media, including music videos, motion pictures, news and entertainment programs, music, ringtones, electronic books, etc. to the retail sales tax. Under current law digitally delivered goods are not taxable unless delivered in a tangible form.
The Tennessee Republican Party, in the form of Bill Hobbs, whipped up a frenzy about this impending doom both in a press release and a blog post warning folks about the long reach of Johnnie Q. Tax in their digital library. Turns out however that tax is already being collected on your downloads as noted by Nashville Is Talking.
Department of Revenue Commissioner Reagan Farr tells Post Politics that the State of Tennessee began to collect revenue from digital media starting January 1, 2008. Companies such as Apple are currently charging taxes on downloads to consumers in the state of Tennessee and the Department of Revenue is collecting them.
The Department does not have any numbers for the amount of tax being collected on downloads because the Department keeps no records on line items, an iPod bought in the Apple Store in Green Hills is no different than a song downloaded by a Tennessean via iTunes.
Because Apple maintains property or payroll in the state they are subject to the sales tax where a company like Amazon, who does sell traditionally tangible products to Tennesseans, is not subject to tax.
Farr concedes that even though current law subjects downloads to sales tax that the code “needs cleaning up.” Right now, for instance, the Department of Revenue makes no distinction between tangible personal property and intangible personal property.
Downloads are considered tangible personal property by the State. According to Farr, under Tennessee code an ITunes song is considered “pre-written computer sofware” [T.C.A. §§ 67-1-102 (60)] that then “performs the task“[T.C.A. §§ 67-1-102 (17)] of playing on your iPod. It is thus taxable under Tennessee law.
Farr looks forward to fashioning a more modern definition of software that makes makes clear that downloaded songs, books, or movies, while intangible, are the digital equivalent of tangible personal property.
UPDATE: A statement and a linkable PDF timeline of the changes in the code that resulted the tax levy beginning this year, courtesy of the Department Of Revenue.
SEE ALSO:
Rex Hammock
The City Paper
Tom Humphrey
Terry Frank
Glen Harness
TNGOP Updates
Karl Rove To Keynote Statesman’s Dinner
Posted on April 21, 2008 at 7:54 amFrom Rex Noseworthy:
Rove will speak at the GOP’s “Statesmen’s Dinner,” which typically occurs at Opryland Hotel. Last year, former Massachusetts Governor and one-time presidential contender Mitt Romney was the keynote speaker.
Since leaving the White House, Rove has spent many of his weekday nights as a Fox News political analyst.
That role caused Rove and the Tennessee Republican Party to mix during the furor over the state GOP’s anti-Semites for Obama controversy.
Rove called the infamous GOP press release “wrong” to have up “in the first place.”
Now, he’ll speak at the GOP’s main fundraiser.
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