Electing progressive leaders for a stronger community

State and Local Politics Blog

Remember you get 4 choices for Memphis City Council races

Early Voting Starts Today for Municipal Elections!

That means you’ll be voting for Mayor, City Council, Municipal Judges and Court Clerk. With City Council, you’ll be voting for FOUR different council members! You have your regular City Council District and then you get to vote for THREE positions in either Super District 8 or 9. Here’s a map to find your super district:

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The Census Fight Is Over, Now The Real Fight Begins

2020 will be one of the most pivotal races in US history.  The Presidential race obviously draws the most attention, but of equal importance are the ramifications for the 50 state legislatures that will face redistricting following the upcoming census.  The focus will be on Presidential swing states, but progressives ignore legislative races in the other states at their peril.

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Dwayne Thompson: Life After Election

In November, 2016, I was unexpectedly elected as the Tennessee State Representative in District 96 (Cordova, Germantown).  This article will give some insight into some of the aspects of learning to be a legislator outside of just passing bills.  I hope it will help others to understand some of the behind the scenes things that aid in becoming a successful office holder.

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Usury: Nashville’s Favorite Sin

The South (Tennessee included) has a poverty problem.  Even with an economy that has solid unemployment numbers, our citizens aren’t rising out of poverty.  Why that is the case involves a lot of factors ranging from lack of affordable healthcare to lack of enough good jobs paying a living wage or better consistently throughout the state. However, I want to talk about one obvious cause of perpetuating poverty that gets no attention in Nashville: predatory lending.  Equally as important, I want to talk about why this problem gets no attention.

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Robert Donati
Gov. Lee, Let Me Introduce You To Clifton Cates, A TN Hero We Should Be Honoring

Instead of Forrest, let’s focus on a forgotten hero from our state’s history that we can all admire. Let us hold up a Tennessean that everyone should agree is worthy of praise. We should be honoring Marine Commandant Clifton Cates. As impressive as his personal heroism was in WWI, he was an equally impressive commander in WWII.  He was given command of the 1st Marines at Guadalcanal.  It was his command that oversaw the marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima.  Basically, if there was gut wrenching fighting to be done in the Pacific, the US sent the Marines and the Marines sent Clifton Cates.   

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Robert Donati
Cartographers Versus Democracy

Anyone living in a gerrymandered district and wondering why they don’t have a choice at the ballot box and how that happened needs to read this.  This is what the subversion of the democratic process looks like:  a memorandum from a brilliant cartographer to his billionaire patron. 

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Robert Donati
The Legislature In Nashville Is Out Of Control, But The 2020 Project Offers Hope

2020 will be a pivotal year for Tennessee politics and this is particularly true for the state House of Representatives.  These House seats are often overlooked, but in reality, that body plays a critical function in state government.  Moreover, because the Republicans don’t just control the House, but have a “supermajority,” there has been no check on the flow of horrible policy in the past sessions.  Future901 has a plan to change that.

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Robert Donati