Ramsey criticizes closed talks for atty. gen.
NASHVILLE — State Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, who led the failed campaign to oust the three Tennessee Supreme Court justices on last month’s ballot for re-election, criticized the court Thursday for deliberating out of public view over their appointment of a state attorney general for the next eight years.
Speaking for the first time publicly in Nashville since the Aug. 7 election, Ramsey also said he doesn’t have a favorite among three Republican state officials being considered by the court for state attorney general. He said all three — state Sen. Doug Overbey, R-Maryville; Herbert Slatery, the governor’s legal counsel; and Bill Young, administrative director of the state court system — “could do as good or a better job” than incumbent Atty. Gen. Bob Cooper, also a candidate for reappointment to the office.
Two other lawyers are among the six finalists for the $177,000-a-year office: Eugene Bulso Jr. of Brentwood and Mark Fulks of Johnson City.
Ramsey spent at least $425,000 from his political action committee on the campaign to defeat the three Democrats on the Supreme Court — Justices Connie Clark, Sharon Lee and Gary Wade — but he told reporters Thursday “the people spoke” by re-electing them.
Those three, plus Republicans Jeff Bivens and Holly Kirby appointed by Gov. Bill Haslam, are in the process of selecting the attorney general. The court held a public hearing Monday in which the eight applicants described their qualifications and were interviewed by the justices, and the publicwas given an opportunity to speak on them.
But the justices closed the publicmeeting, metprivately and Monday afternoon announced they had trimmed the list of candidates to six.
And late Thursday afternoon, after Ramsey had spoken to reporters, the court issued a statement that it will announce its selection of the attorney general next Monday.
“I’m glad they’re holding these hearings,” Ramsey said. “I don’t necessarily like the fact that apparently they’re going to make the decision behind closed doors. I don’t like that. I guess I get frustrated at times that we (state legislators) get smacked on the hand for being accused of things like that, even though I don’t think we do, but yet they’re going to select behind closed doors.”
Former Knoxville mayor Victor Ashe also criticized the closed deliberations Thursday. “The decision by the Supreme Court to hold closed sessions on the choice of the attorney general is unfortunate and represents a missed opportunity for the court to be transparent as pledged by more than one of them during the recent campaign.
“The process has been 20 percent open and the rest closed,” said Ashe, also a former state senator who pushed for an elected attorney general. “Tennesseans were not told by what vote the court voted for closed sessions or by what vote two candidates were removed from the ballot. This makes the process political despite comments to the contrary.”
Ashe said he hopes the legislature will extend the state’s Open Meetings law to the court “when they meet in their unique role to choose the attorney general. The public needs to be part of that process,” he said.