Dancing Cheek To Glasgow: Big Time Dem Supports Gay GOP Primary Voter

By Kleinheider Posted on February 19, 2009 at 4:48 pm

Pouring a bit of gasoline on the whole David Glasgow is a Republican contro, Democratic smallwig William T. Cheek, III has sent off an email recently to “about 75 to 100″ Democratic friends “in or close to” District 18 defending Glasgow against charges that his Republican primary voting record disqualifies him from serving the very liberal District 18:

This blue dog Democrat, son of former Democratic state party chair and Democratic National Committee member Will Cheek, carefully vetted and strongly supports David Glasgow. I am in agreement with David on the issues important to Council District 18. Whether he pulled the R or D lever isn’t the test for this office.

There are no political parties in our City Council. The Council often works much better than Congress or our State Legislature, where partisan bickering can lead to gridlock. Council members choose to vote for or against a law based on the merits of the law; not which political party proposed the law. One day you may see Council Members Charlie Tygard and Mike Jameson working vigorously against each other on Conservation Zoning, and find them working together the next day on tree plantings. That’s the beauty of a non-partisan legislature.

David Glasgow has earned the support of a number of life long Democrats because of his vision for our neighborhoods and our city. His experience in government gives him an edge over other candidates - he knows how to get important government projects done. We shouldn’t be distracted by whose administration hired David. We should focus on what skills he has and what he can do for our city.

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Tags: David Glasgow, District 18, gay republican, Keith Durbin, Metro Council, Republican, Will Cheek, William T. Cheek III  

$95Gs For Chip: Forrester Clarifies Internal TNDP Controversies

By Kleinheider Posted on February 13, 2009 at 10:37 am

Chip Forrester responds to a report citing anonymous sources saying that he had attempted to replace the party’s Finance Chair after that chair had attempted to cut his pay in relation to his predecessor:

It would have been nice to have the courtesy of a chance to respond to all of this prior to publishing this piece but since I did not have that opportunity, let me take a moment to help clarify this situation.

Since becoming chair, I have tried my best to be open and accessible about the Party and my actions at the Party. Since I was not give the courtesy of a phone call, let me address this specific situation.

It is customary for the new Chair of the Party to appoint new members to the Standing Committees once elected.

Will Cheek has served as Finance Committee chair for a number of years in addition to serving on the executive committee and as member of the Democratic National Committee. It has been my long held belief that leadership opportunities for members of the state executive committee should be spread among the committee. When elected Chair, I felt that naming a new Chair of that particular committee would allow me to offer an additional leadership opportunity to a member of the executive committee.

Prior to making that decision, I reached out to Metro Councilman Jerry Maynard who serves on the state executive committee and was a previous Deputy Chair under Chairman Bob Tuke’s administration, to discuss the idea of him chairing that committee. I felt that it was important to continue to elevate African-American leaders to key positions on the executive committee and since Jerry was already a member of Finance Committee that he would be an excellent chair.

Unfortunately, I had been given an outdated set of TNDP by-laws, which prior to 2006 gave the chair this authority. In 2006 they had been amended to have the Finance Committee chair serve until January of the next year. The thought behind the 2006 by-law amendment was that the new chair would benefit from the financial continuity of the current Finance Committee chair.

As chair of the Finance Committee in 2007, Will Cheek had negotiated Gray Sasser’s contract and salary and he and I entered into similar negotiations as he had done under the previous chair. In his fiduciary role as Finance Committee chair, it is his duty to husband the Party’s financial resources.

After discussions over the past week or so, he and I have agreed on a recommendation to the Finance Committee of a compensation package that has an annual salary of $95,000. This will be brought to the full Finance Committee in the near future and he and I are confident that the committee will unanimously accept this recommendation.

I hope this clarifies the specifics of this issue.

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Tags: Chip Forrester, Gray Sasser, salary, TNDP, Will Cheek  

Unnamed Sources Say Chip Forrester Is All About The Dollars

By Kleinheider Posted on at 7:12 am

Jeff Woods asserts that there is controversy afoot concerning Chip Forrester’s salary as chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party:

He wants to depose Cheek as head of the party’s finance committee. Cheek voted for Charles Robert Bone for party chairman. Cheek’s would-be replacement? Jerry Maynard, who voted for Forrester for chairman. (This is all according to Pith’s stable of smug anonymous Democratic insiders, so we know it’s true.)

Forrester’s predecessor as chairman, Gray Sasser, made $115,000 a year. Cheek is trying to cut Forrester’s pay to $75,000. Cheek thinks Forrester doesn’t deserve $115,000 because the party expects to raise only about $500,000 this year–and that’s if Democrats are lucky. That’s about half as much as the party raised and spent each year under Sasser. We’re told Forrester tried to oust Cheek but couldn’t because Cheek’s term doesn’t end for another year. Forrester apparently didn’t know that. Now he does.

First of all, I don’t know where these people are getting their figures. This meme that Sasser made in the $120,000 range has been going around (especially in the comments on this site) but the only reports I find regarding his pay are much less than that ($87,504 a year).

Second, with all the problems Forrester has already are we really expected to believe he is gonna have his first beef be about his pay. He doesn’t have any staff. As far as anyone can tell, the Democratic party is being run by Chip and several volunteer veterans of the Obama campaign and the English Only effort. They don’t seem to be living high on the hog and I sincerely doubt these volunteers would be all about Chip if they thought he was trying to fatten his pockets.

Also, why would it be all that controversial for Forrester to start out at what Sasser made? That is the job he is taking after all, yes? I mean if the job is seen as one that is dependent on money raised are these folks proposing the chairman be put on some sort of commission based salary?

UPDATE: In the comments, both Braisted and Vibinc explain that the $87,504 figure is a net one rather than a gross one which would make the $115,000 number just about right.

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Tags: Chip Forrester, Gray Sasser, salary, TNDP, Will Cheek