Briley for Mayor?

I got a call from a self-described independent polling company last week about next year's Nashville Mayor's race. (I made sure to ask whether the poll was connected to a mayoral candidate, a political interest group, or a party. I got negative answers to all three.)

Among lots of different questions from various angles on the 3 declared candidates, they also asked me questions involving what I thought about council member David Briley running for Mayor. One question that stood out particularly was whether I thought Briley's "liberal" initiatives like starting the Metro Task Force on Telecommunications Innovation would influence my view of him. As I replied, "no," I laughed out loud at the notion that the Task Force was a liberal initiative, given that it included members of the cable industry and that it came to conservative conclusions against a Metro-supported broadband network. (I should say that the pollster asked these pejorative-type questions about each of the Mayoral candidates, so I did not get the impression that it was a push-poll type of phone call).

I was surprised that the poll included David Briley, although I am aware of rumblings out there about him running. When asked at the end how my support would lean in a 4 candidate race, I answered:

• David Briley -- lean towards supporting
• Howard Gentry -- neutral
• Bob Clement -- lean against supporting
• Buck Dozier -- I believe that my exact words were, "No how. No way."