Wilder draws criticism for showing up at ethics meeting

The Wednesday meeting was going to be closed to the public, but that didn’t stop Wilder from showing up and “looking around.”

He told reporters who were waiting outside and trying to get into the closed-door session that he thought he “might sit in” on the meeting. He left after reporters quizzed him about his appearance.

The Senate Ethics Subcommittee eventually let the reporters in — and the loan made by BankTennessee to Sen. Jerry Cooper was part of the discussion. Cooper is thought to be a unindicted “co-conspirator” named in a federal indictment alleging fraud against two men involved in the sale of property owned by Cooper.

The panel didn’t take action against Cooper, deciding to wait until the federal case unfolds.

But Wilder is now drawing fire.

Some of his fellow senators, and a Vanderbilt ethicist, said it was wrong for the Democrat from West Tennessee to show up at an ethics meeting that dealt with a questionable land deal in which he was involved.

One, Dickson Democrat Sen. Doug Jackson, said the Senate Ethics Committee should now investigate Wilder’s involvement in a bank loan to the Alabama couple who have been charged in that land deal.

“I think the committee needs to look if there was any wrongdoing there, thoroughly investigate it, and hold people accountable,” Jackson said.

Vanderbilt’s Stefanie Lindquist said the lieutenant governor’s attendance, coupled with the committee’s ultimate decision not to investigate the land deal, raises the appearance of impropriety.

“The Tennessee Legislature has already been subjected to several blows as a result of unethical behavior,” said Lindquist, associate professor of political science and law who has taught ethics courses. “This is yet one more example of politicians needing to take care their actions don’t besmirch the legislature’s reputation.”

The Republican chairman of the ethics panel, Blountville state Sen. Ron Ramsey, said Wilder’s appearance at the meeting “sends the message he is trying to meddle, whether he was or not.”

Wilder was in the meeting for less than two minutes and did not involve himself in any presentations or deliberations, said his chief of staff, Russell Humphrey.

Ramsey said he doesn’t think the ethics panel needs to investigate Wilder. Ramsey ran against Wilder earlier this year, but lost after two Republicans sided with Democrats to re-elect Wilder.

“I don’t want to jeopardize a federal case by getting involved,” said Ramsey.

Cooper is not named in the indictment in the case, but court documents make reference to an unindicted co-conspirator who owned the land and used his political connections to help obtain the loan.

The Senate speaker pro tem, Micheal Williams, R-Maynardville, said he does not know the details of what happened but believes Wilder was at the meeting “to listen and learn and be informed.”

Wilder told reporters on Wednesday that Cooper approached him about having BankTennessee, which Wilder partly owns, underwrite the $1.77 million loan when the deal was first going down in the late 1990s. Wilder said he stayed out of the decision to grant the loan, which has since defaulted.

“My bank makes many, many loans to industries and industrial loans of this kind and it made the loan,” Wilder said at the time. “This loan is no different than any other loan.”

The Huntsville, Ala., couple used the money in 1999 to buy a Warren County lumber mill Cooper owned.