East Tennessee Democratic Association

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Comment by Marvin Lee Cranfield II on January 11, 2010 at 6:52pm

Brad I am a student at Chattanooga State, all candidates are invited to our debate later this month. I hope you decide to throw your hat into the ring and come to our college and give some much needed inspiration in young minds during these hard times. I believe the key to winning this election is to get the younger voter's out, and I look forward to helping campaigning for a candidate I can believe in.

Comment by Susan Acito on January 11, 2010 at 4:06pm

Thanks for the post Brad. Just wondrin, since we have so many hydroelectric dams in Tennessee, will anyone ever try to change things so that Tennesseans can use that power? I have three of those dams in close proximity to my home, but we have Appalachian Electric power, which comes from who-knows-where. People around here lost their land so those dams could be built, yet we're bringing in power from elsewhere, and is produced by blowing off the top of our beautiful Appalachian mountain range.

Comment by Brad Parish on January 11, 2010 at 8:33am

Brad Parish Forms Exploratory Committee for Tennessee’s Third Congressional District to Replace Zack Wamp

January 10, 2010

Oak Ridge, TN – Today, Brad Parish announces that he is forming an exploratory committee to look at running for the U.S. House of Representatives from the 3rd District in the November 2010 election. Parish will run as the “energy-economy candidate” for a stronger nation, innovative companies and well-paying jobs for the 3rd congressional district.

Parish stated, “Energy is power: it has brought the necessities of life to Tennessee, it has brought world changing technology to our door step, it has caused wars, and it has brought businesses here. Energy is the power that will drive the future. I don’t see a candidate running that has the qualifications that I have to move us into the energy future. That is why I am considering this historic run: for our jobs, for our families and for our national security.”

If he makes the final decision to run, Parish will seek the Democratic nomination to replace Congressman Zack Wamp, who is retiring to run for Tennessee Governor this year.

Parish, born in Oak Ridge, believes his central location is an advantage that will allow him to easily reach all parts of the 3rd District and best represent the interests of the entire district. Parish brings to this competitive race a clear strategic understanding of the District in addition to an impressive background. Parish believes that his past experience will prove valuable in recovering from the current economic situation. Parish understands that since the need for energy will continue to drive the economy, the Tennessee Valley Corridor is uniquely positioned to lead the State and the Country into the energy future. As Congressman, Parish plans to bring even more innovative companies and jobs to the District.

Brad Parish is ready to be the champion for our region, our businesses and workforce, and our families regarding the core issues facing the 3rd District:

• Economic Development and Job Creation
Parish has a long history of working to create a strong regional economy. Parish is a two-term Governor-appointed member of the State’s Workforce Development Board, where he serves as the Vice Chair of Strategic Planning. Parish has worked to reform poorly performing areas while ensuring that the State’s efforts clearly focus on key growth industries for the future and while supporting private businesses through retraining grant funding. Parish was formerly one of the key personnel for the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee. This organization worked to create regional jobs through reindustrialization strategies such as spurring growth of private automotive, transportation, environmental and technology companies.

• Education
Parish has been a leader in pushing for technical education and career planning. Parish has worked with a coalition of companies and unions such as TVA, Alstom Power, and Y-12 in aligning educational opportunities with career paths in the energy, industry, and construction sectors across the State. He has also served as Co-Chair of the P-16 Education Council developing communication strategies to keep kids in school from preschool through the completion of the college degree. One of the educational projects that Parish initiated was recently listed by UT and the Southern Growth Policy Board as one of the State’s best youth initiatives. Over twenty years ago, Parish founded a long-lasting Pre-Engineering Program that partly paved the way for technology education in the Tennessee Valley. In addition, Parish worked as an Education Program Manager with the Oak Ridge Associated Universities supporting educational initiatives such as the Tennessee Science Bowl. Parish has served on committees for local colleges, youth councils, and youth leadership committees.

• Health Care
Parish has helped change health legislation. In 2003, Parish was elected as a Board Member for the Rural Health Association of Tennessee, the largest rural health association in the country at that time. As a member of the Government Relations Committee, Parish worked on strategies to bring health care to rural areas of Tennessee through recruiting doctor and nurses, and by improving technology. In 2009, Parish was appointed by the Tennessee Commissioner of Health and Human Services to the Tennessee Technology Access Program Statewide Advisory Committee. This committee works with disabled people and their families to provide them with the tools that they need to live independent, productive lives where and how they choose. As the East Tennessee Organizer for the Campaign for a Healthy and Responsible Tennessee, Parish was instrumental in the successful anti-tobacco fight—the fight that led to subsequent legislative changes like smoke-free restaurants—through a coalition of the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, and the March of Dimes. In 2004, Parish served on the Tennessee Taskforce that established the Health Science educational standards for statewide high school curriculum.

• Science and Technology
Parish has lived science and technology. He started his career in a research laboratory for environmental sciences and recently served as a Program Manager for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory recruiting PhD scientists from across the world and managing career development programs for the Spallation Neutron Source. In 2009, Brad was appointed to the State’s Energy Sector Partnership Committee working with Chattanooga State Community College, Heat & Frost Insulators, TVA, Hemlock Semiconductor, Nissan, and other energy-related companies. For several years, Parish has been selected as an evaluator for the Federal Laboratory Consortium of Technology Transfer in which he judges technology from NASA, national laboratories, and other government agencies.

Parish has the business experience to be an outstanding legislator, as demonstrated by the fact that he grew the revenue of a Fortune 500 company’s region to $18M/year in less than three years. Recently one of the top candidates for the East Tennessee Human Resource Agency’s Executive Director, Parish is currently the Vice President of CPS, Inc., a nationwide government services firm that has supported over 150 government agencies in 44 States and 6 foreign countries.

Parish believes in responsible government and fair taxes. Parish has even taken this fight of responsible government to City Hall on behalf of the people. In 2005, he tried to hold the City of Kingston’s taxes down when city leaders proposed a massive 25% tax increase, due to unbridled spending and lack of control. Even though entrenched politicians won that fight, Parish’s resolve was tested making him stronger for any and all legislative fights on the Hill or campaign fights to represent the people of the 3rd District. With the strength to fight, Parish intends to bring that same fiscal conservative approach to Congress.

Although he is seeking his first publically elected office, Parish has aggressively worked in grassroots politics for the past two decades. In addition to the many statewide committees on which he has served, Parish’s political experience includes a term as a County Democratic Party Chair. For several years, Brad Parish was the co-host of a local TV political talk show that gave him the opportunity to listen to and talk with the constituents. Over a decade ago, Parish was given a statewide award by the Tennessee Democratic Party and continues to be very active for the Party.

Brad Parish, age 40, lives with his wife Esther, a researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and their two children Levi age 6 and Avery age 4. They are members of Morrison Hill Christian Church.

Comment by Susan Acito on June 21, 2009 at 10:56am

Thank you, Dixie. I'll cross-post that on my own blog spot for wider dissemination at Just Wondrin

Comment by Dixie Damm on June 21, 2009 at 10:10am

Regarding the Voter Confidence Act [and its antonym HB 0614]…this is a wonderful letter – long but wonderful- written by Bernie Ellis. Mr. Ellis can be thanked at tracevu@bellsouth.net (TN Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations). I sent part of this letter to my very Republican senator, Randy McNally, and said how sad that I could not compliment his decision, as I did in a letter to Senator Tim Burchett.
Hope you feel the pride I did as I read Bernie's words below....dixie from Loudon Co.

(Senator Burchett -- I am submitting this tribute to the Knoxville papers. I do hope they print it.
-----

Every Tennessee school child learns early on that our state has been blessed with heros throughout its history. Davy Crockett at the Alamo, Alvin York in the trenches of World War I Europe – we continue to revere the honorable people who sprang from our hills and hollows with the in-borne courage to do the next right thing when they were called on to do so. There are three other heros – two long-gone now and one who is still very much alive – who helped expand our franchise and, in the process, helped save our democracy. The two deceased heros were Harry Burn and Ben West. The third hero, the one who still walks among us, is Senator Tim Burchett of Knoxville.

Harry Burn was a first-term Republican state representative from McMinn county, the youngest Tennessee state legislator serving in 1920 when women's suffrage hung in the balance in our state. Back then, only one state was needed to ratify the Nineteenth amendment to the US Constitution, an amendment that would give women the right to vote. Like many legislators at the time, Representative Burn was under extreme pressure from sexist politicians back home to oppose the amendment, to keep women "in their place". Some even believed that Rep. Burn was a safe bet to vote against suffrage, since he wore a red rose on his lapel, a color then (and now) that represented exclusion and disenfranchisement. But as the pivotal vote approached, the opponents of inclusion did not know that Representative Burn carried in his coat pocket a letter from his widowed mother urging him to vote for ratification. When his name was called, Harry Burn voted "yes", the single deciding vote that ratified – for our entire nation – the Nineteenth Amendment.

Ben West was the Mayor of Nashville in 1960, when Black college students began a series of lunch-counter sit-ins in segregated department stores that were just among the many pillars of the Jim Crow South. For months, those students had been arrested and hauled off to jail. As a result, the Black community had boycotted Nashville stores and Whites had also stayed away, crippling the downtown Nashville economy. Tensions had risen to the point where the home and church of Reverend Alexander Looby, a civil rights leader, had been bombed, sending him to the hospital. Responding to that violence, thousands of Nashvillians marched to City Hall where Mayor West met them. One young Fisk student, Diane Nash, spoke quietly that day to Mayor West and pleaded with him to use the prestige of his office to end racial segregation. Mayor West's response was simple and direct: "Yes, young lady, I will do that." Years later, Ben West said that, at that moment, he had said the only thing that any moral person could say – that he had answered as a God-fearing man, and not as a politician. The next day, the Nashville Banner's headline said it all "INTEGRATE COUNTERS – MAYOR". Within a month, all Nashville lunch-counters were integrated and, with that positive role-model in the heart of the South, Jim Crow's racist days were numbered.

That brings us to Senator Tim Burchett, a Knoxville Republican and the bravest and most patriotic man I know in our fair state today. For the past three years, Tennessee voters have been working hard to correct a serious error in how we conduct our elections here. In 2006, Tennessee wasted over $30 million in federal funds to purchase touch-screen voting machines (also called Direct Record Electronic machines, or DREs), voting machines that are slow, expensive and – worst of all – incapable of being audited or recounted. These machines have been implicated in a plethora of election fraud incidents across our country, and state after state has made the decision to ban these machines in favor of paper ballots. Tennessee was one of those states when we passed the TN Voter Confidence Act last year on a 92-3 vote in our House and a 32-0 vote in our Senate to replace those non-verifiable machines with paper ballots by the 2010 elections.

But when the Republican Party unexpectedly took control of our state legislature in 2008, one of the first things their leaders announced was that they intended to weaken, delay or repeal the Voter Confidence Act. For the past five months, a small band of Tennessee voters has traveled daily to our legislature and has witnessed a highly partisan and divided legislature, with most Democrats in favor of implementing the Voter Confidence Act as intended and most Republicans in favor of our continuing to vote on insecure and untrustworthy DREs. Since Republicans now control our General Assembly (for the first time since Reconstruction), we knew that the prospects for protecting our franchise were in peril.

Yesterday evening, as our Senate debated long and hard about a bill to delay implementation of the Voter Confidence Act until 2012 and to gut the law's election audit provisions, it was clear that the vote would be close and split along party lines. When the final vote was cast, the tally was 16-14 to delay democracy by postponing the implementation of the Voter Confidence Act until 2012. At first, we were crest-fallen, thinking that we had lost. But then one of us remembered that it takes 17 votes in the Senate for a law to pass, and with only 16 votes, the measure had failed. When we looked up at the vote board, we could see that all Democrats had voted to keep the Voter Confidence Act on-track for 2010 (except one, who had abstained) and all Republicans had voted to delay and weaken democracy. All of them, that is, except one. Senator Tim Burchett, a man who has been steadfast and vocal in his support for free, fair and verifiable elections for the past three years; and whose singular vote last night in opposition to the rest of his party allowed democracy to prevail in our state.

Thank you, Senator Burchett. Your intelligence, courage and sense of honor and fairness are what this country was built on, and what we must have in order for this nation to survive. Like Atticus Finch in "To Kill A Mockingbird", your singular bravery has helped keep us free. And like the Black citizens who filled the courtroom gallery in that long-ago movie, I will, from this day forward, stand up when you enter a room. Because I will know that I am in the presence of a modern-day patriot, the latest in a long line of American heros who sprang from the hills of our Tennessee when they were needed to help keep our nation strong and safe -- and free. Yesterday, you saved our democracy.

Bernie Ellis, Organizer
Gathering To Save Our Democracy

Comment by Susan Acito on June 20, 2009 at 6:47pm

Thanks, Jill. Unfortunately, Roe doesn't care about constituents. It's about Party Unity. Heil Rush Limpbone!!! LOL.
It's too bad that Democrats don't stand together as an immoveable wall the way Republicans do. Maybe, if we stay after those Blue Dogs that betray us with every vote against Progressive policies, they might see the error of their ways. But they won't if we don't keep raising objections to what they do.
I think the betrayal of those faux Dems is what irks me more than Republicans. The Repubs might be very wrong, but they do stick together. The Faux Dems must think it's 2002 and they have to cower in the corner. Cowering just don't git it anymore!

Comment by Jill Karlsson on June 20, 2009 at 3:48pm

Thank you, Susan.
It is good to know that you continue to promote our progressive causes even to those who are committed to the destruction of most Democratic Party positions, especially those believed to be originated by our President's administration.
I wish I had your determination and thick skin.
I am on Roe's congressional email list and get sickened at the email statements that are issued from his office. Recently, there was a statement issued regarding his presentation before the U.S. House of Representatives that fully indicated that he does not even know or understand the difference between Medicare and Medicaid. I sent an email expressing my desire that he at least learn the difference between the two. I received no response.
One would hope that a practicing physician would understand these programs and their differing aspects on the lives of Tennesseans and all people in the U.S., but he doesn't. And, it is evident that he doesn't really care. He wants the status quo.....corporate hospital profits, insurance company profits, high physician income, etc.....to continue. Those of us who depend on Medicare and/or Medicaid are of no importance to him or his political comrades.
This is going to be a hard fight. Have patience with President Obama's methods of changing the system. It may not be evident on the surface, but I have full belief that he knows how to eventually manipulate the system in a way that will provide Americans, and those living legally in this country, with a system that will be far superior to the suffering we now endure.

Comment by Susan Acito on June 20, 2009 at 3:07pm

Here's great news! I send about 3 or 4 e-mails a day to Legislators, asking them to promote policies that are good for the people of Tennessee and the U.S. Of course, Roe and Corker always reply with their automated crap, and Tony Shipley replied once, and his first sentence was a reference to the length of my letter.
But Andy Berke is sending positive information today! Here's his e-mail!

Dear Friend


Because of your activism, Senate Democrats fought and won an important battle for the state of Tennessee. HB 614 (SB 872), sponsored by Murfreesboro Republican Bill Ketron and pushed by the Republican Secretary of State and his Republican Election Coordinator, aimed to delay implementation of the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act. However, Democrats stood up to this attack on fair and honest elections.

I truly believe that we were able to win this fight because of your efforts in contacting your legislators. We take notice when our constituents feel so strongly about an issue. This is why I have created Three Star PAC to support common sense Democrats who will listen to you. Help me put on notice the Republicans who seek to undermine the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act.

Unfortunately, Republicans in the legislature may bring this bill back up next year. They will continue to try and undermine what should be a common sense issue for all Tennesseans. Let's work together to make sure that does not happen.

Best,
Andy

P.S. Please let me know if there are any other issues that you feel very strongly about and would like me to focus on during the 2010 legislative session.
Senator Berke's Speech

Comment by Richard A. on May 2, 2009 at 5:42pm

Susan, Thank you for this insightful information.

Comment by Susan Acito on May 2, 2009 at 3:17pm

Thought you might want to link to an e-mail I just posted on my site Just Wondrin . The right wing Media Research Center is calling for signatures to a petition because they think the Fairness Doctrine is about to be reinstated. Always helps to know what the other guys are doing!

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