Convention — next steps (if any??)
I oppose Nashville hosting a national political convention in 2024. My reasons are here.
On July 12, I gave an update explaining that no convention legislation has been filed for the Council’s July 19 meeting. There are some media reports quoting Council Member Swope saying that he will bring convention legislation back for the August 2 Council meeting. Maybe that’s accurate? But keep in mind that, based on legislative track record, you would not expect a convention contract bill to have any chance of passage without there being a new, different lead sponsor.
Where does that leave us? Is the idea of the Metro Council passing convention legislation dead forever? There are three things that would get my attention about a possible change in circumstances.
To date, the Mayor’s Office is committed to deferring to the Council on this issue. If we start hearing comments from them that suggest a different path, we should be on the lookout for what’s changed.
The second thing I’ll be watching is Metro lobbyist registrations. Nashville’s lobbyist community — especially the high end ones — are typically very good about following the rules. And the rules require a lobbyist to register for each client and to identify their client when lobbying Council members. So far, there are no lobbyists registered for the Republican National Committee or the local host committee. If any serious effort to pass legislation in the Council spins up, lobbyists will register. So I’ll be watching that as well.
The third thing to watch is whether any other Council Member steps forward as lead sponsor. It would warrant attention if that were to happen.
It’s hard to know exactly when to declare a legislative effort fully dead. But there is no convention legislation pending in the Council. There are no negotiations going on. The Mayor’s Office is deferring to the Council and there are no lobbyists registered for the RNC or the host committee. I guess we’ll all keep monitoring this to see if anything changes.