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Republicans quiz hopefuls for state posts By Theo Emery • THE TENNESSEAN Republican lawmakers questioned candidates for the state's constitutional offices Monday, quizzing a former deputy of Gov. Don Sundquist about his views on income taxes and a top GOP donor who wants to become treasurer about his investment business. The hearing, streamed live over the Internet, represented a sharp departure from past practices of choosing candidates for comptroller, secretary of state and treasurer, who have generally been agreed upon behind closed doors before being approved by lawmakers. Democrats have been the majority party for about 140 years, but that changed on Nov. 4, when Republicans gained a majority in both the House and Senate. Within days, GOP legislative leaders began hammering out a plan to publicly vet their candidates, who will probably prevail when the legislature reconvenes in January and fills the positions. "We're planning to work you to death," House Majority Leader Jason Mumpower, of Bristol, warned candidates, who appeared one by one to answer questions about their backgrounds and qualifications. Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, as he convened the panel, remarked on the fact that all of the applicants were men and all were white but said he hoped that the process would open the door for a more diverse array of candidates in the future. The panel questioned 14 candidates in all: one for comptroller, five for treasurer and eight for secretary of state. One candidate for treasurer dropped his bid for the post Friday. The questioning was generally friendly and rarely adversarial. Lawmakers warmly welcomed the candidates, occasionally calling them by their first names and remarking on their longtime relationships. At one point, a lawmaker joked to Ira Brody, a partner at an investment bank for well-heeled clients, that he hoped to someday become a customer of the bank. Justin Wilson, an attorney who was Sundquist's deputy for policy, the sole applicant for comptroller, said he believed in careful stewardship of taxpayer money. "I believe other people's money, particularly the public's money, should be held, managed and accounted for by the strictest principles of trust and fiduciary law," Wilson, 63, said. Wilson's duties under Sundquist included advocating for a widely unpopular income tax, which led to noisy demonstrations at the Statehouse. Facing questions from Sen. Randy McNally, of Oak Ridge, Wilson said that he spoke at the time for the administration, not for himself, and that his advocacy for the tax did not reflect his own views. "I don't believe that an income tax is appropriate for the people of Tennessee," he said. McNally also questioned Wilson about his role in exempting certain family business from state taxes in 2000. The exemption has become a political football, with the Bredesen administration seeking to end the exemption, and some lawmakers — both Democrats and Republicans — opposing the administration's efforts. Wilson said that his memory of the issue was cloudy but that the exemption was included with the administration package so as not to jeopardize other more important tax changes that year. He also denied that he personally stood to gain from the exemption, saying he had a family business that might have benefited but was dissolved about six months before the exemption was enacted in June 2000. Political ties apparent The treasurer manages the state's pension fund, which generally gets high marks for management quality. "That's my biggest job, and that's what I would basically focus on as treasurer: making sure those resources are put to good use, having the right risk, but also the right reward, so that people's retirements are safe," Brody said. Brody, a top aide to former Gov. George Pataki of New York, and a senior adviser to former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, is chief operations officer for InsCap Management, an investment bank that helps finance life insurance policies. Rep. Gerald McCor mick asked if lawmakers needed to worry about Brody's clients raising embarrassing claims down the road about InsCap; Brody said they did not. Asked about alternative investment strategies, Brody said he was open to other investments to minimize risk, pointing out that the state's pension has lost one-sixth of its value in a matter of months and could require a massive cash infusion next year. Lawmakers also questioned candidates for secretary of state, such as former House Minority Leader Tre Hargett, now a director of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority, and former state Sen. Jim Bryson, who ran against Gov. Phil Bredesen in 2006. Appointment of constitutional officers is fundamentally political; the hearing was not intended to remove politics but to make the process more transparent and establish applicants' credentials. But there was no mistaking the political ties between the candidates and the lawmakers they faced. Toward the end of questions for Randy Stamps, a former lawmaker who's now an officer with the Tennessee Republican Party, Sen. Diane Black remarked that he had been instrumental in getting her elected. "It is because of Randy Stamps that I sit here today," she said.
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