Monday, August 06, 2007

News Media and Money Stand in the Way of Legal Challenge

Something I would love to see, given that the three Metro Council patronizers, Charlie Tygard, J.B. Loring, and Ronnie Greer, have to be in the run-off more on the basis of name recognition and less on the basis of what they have done on behalf of the Nashville community:
[On this morning's Liberadio show, David Briley] said that if he were in the position of Richard Exton, Michael Kerstetter Philip Hostettler, or Brady Banks; he would challenge the election results which put Tygard, Loring, and Greer into the At Large runoff, as a violation of the intent of the Term Limits law [given that the latter have already served two consecutive council terms].
Sean Braisted goes on to analyze problems that Mr. Briley poses with this scenario, most of which revolve around--you guessed it--the mainstream news media's framing (in the sense of spinning editorially and in the sense of contriving events to set someone up to fall) of challengers Exton, Hostettler, and Banks. Then if the media were not enough, there is that annoying matter of big legal fees.

3 comments:

  1. Whoops, I should've said Hostettler, not Kerstetter.

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  2. If Exton, Banks, and Hostettler had an issue with this, it should have been dealt with before the election. Doing so at this point would make them appear as sore losers trying to game the system to get what the elctorate didn't give them. Perhaps David Briley would like to take on the case pro bono since he has some time to kill.

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  3. Unlike the usual unknown who makes a run, Hostettler is a very sharp and accomplished guy--that's why he came so close to the run-off outright on very limited funds. I wish he had the resources to litigate, but he is close to several attorneys around town so he may be able to go forward.

    As for any blame if a lawsuit is filed, it would fall squarely at the feet of the three incumbents who tried to circumvent what appears to be the plain language of the Metro ordinance.

    This could be quite fun to watch.

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