Social issues raising stakes in legislative election year
NASHVILLE (AP) — Another measure seeking to restrict abortion rights was introduced in the state Senate on Thursday and is likely to further roil a fractious legislative session dominated by debate over social issues.
The bill came a day after Republican senators forced votes on a constitutional amendment to restrict abortion and a bill to ban same-sex civil unions, on the eve of the deadline for legislative hopefuls to declare their candidacy.
The measures prompted a volley of accusations and condemnation from all sides as legislators prepare for an election season where control of the Senate is up for grabs. Eleven Democratic senators face re-election in November, and Republicans need only two seats to gain the majority.
Democrats say Republicans are pursing a “radical right wing agenda at the expense of Tennessee’s citizens.” Republicans counter that “liberal Democratic courts” forced the issues.
To top things off, neither the abortion resolution — which says nothing in the state constitution “secures or protects” the right to an abortion — nor the anti-civil unions bill has any practical effect, at least in the short term.
That’s because the federal government already allows abortions and civil unions have never been recognized in Tennessee — both facts that Democrats cite repeatedly when responding to questions about Republican attacks.
“For some reason the people on the other side of the aisle are choosing to push a social agenda,” said Senate Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Haynes of Nashville. “I think it is for the purpose of making political hay, and I’m really disappointed they’re ignoring the real issues here in Tennessee.”
The abortion resolution’s sponsor, Republican Sen. David Fowler of Signal Mountain, led what Democrats saw as an unreasonable and deceitful push for passage of his measure. He brought the resolution for debate Wednesday night after promising his Democratic colleagues he would put it off to work toward further compromise.
The Senate voted 23-6 to adopt the proposal.
Sen. Roy Herron, D-Dresden, voted against the resolution because he says it doesn’t provide any true protections for victims of rape, incest or for the life of the mother — an opinion confirmed by the state attorney general’s office.
Herron brought a bill Thursday that also would restrict abortion rights — by instituting a 24-hour waiting period before abortions could be performed, among other things — that he says would protect the state’s “most vulnerable.”
Herron said he originally believed Fowler’s motivation for the constitutional amendment resolution was genuine, “but after the last couple of days, I don’t know any senators — Democrat or Republican — who don’t think it’s a wedge issue.”
Fowler couldn’t be reached Thursday, but Senate Republican Caucus Chairman Ron Ramsey said Fowler went “above and beyond the call of duty.”
“We didn’t bring these issues up. We didn’t come up with the issue of gay marriage, we didn’t tell the Supreme Court to overturn (abortion restrictions),” he said.
Instead, Ramsey says, Democrats are objecting to the issues’ prominence because the ones they are highlighting during the election year — jobs, education and TennCare — have long been advocated by Republicans.
As for the civil unions bill, Sen. Jeff Miller brought it Wednesday for consideration by the full Senate despite the fact it had been killed a week earlier by a House subcommittee.
Miller told his colleagues there are ways around the subcommittee’s vote, and the chamber approved the measure 27-2.
Republicans already are capitalizing on one Democratic representative’s action concerning the bill. Rep. Nathan Vaughn, who represents a mostly Republican district in East Tennessee, supported the measure and sits on the subcommittee.
But when the time came for the vote that killed the bill, Vaughn had left the room to present legislation to another committee.
Following the vote, state GOP chairwoman Beth Harwell, who also is a state representative from Nashville, e-mailed the Kingsport Times-News newspaper blasting Vaughn for his absence.
“Nathan Vaughn walked out on his constituents and on Tennessee values,” Harwell said.
Vaughn said Harwell’s actions are a “smear campaign” to discredit him in the eyes of his constituents. “I don’t think it’s going to work because the people know me and they understand the values I hold,” he said.
Democratic House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh says the Republicans’ actions toward Vaughn mean Tennesseans are in for a tough election cycle.
“But we’re going to stay on, we’re going to talk about what the people of this state want us to do, and that is again to balance the budget, to provide monies for K-12 education, to make sure we have good roads so people have jobs.
“That’s where the Democrats are going to be.”