October 9, 2006

Where is Sen Henry?

State. Sen. Douglas Henry, the only incumbent Senate Democrat facing a challenger in the November election, is not only ducking debates with his Republican opponent, he's also skipping key campaign events. As A.C. Kleinheider notes at VolunteerVoters.com, Sen. Henry skipped Vanderbilt University's big candidates forum last Friday, an event attended by many candidates running for local, state and federal offices.

Kleineider reports that Sen. Henry's campaign manager said Sen. Henry was there, but when it came time for Sen. Henry to speak, the 80-year-old veteran of 36 years in the Senate was nowhere to be found. Sen. Henry is a Vanderbilt grad, and Vanderbilt is in his senate district, so it's doubly odd that he snubbed the event.

Sen Henry's campaign hasn't issued a press release since Sept. 12 - almost a month - and his campaign website lists no upcoming campaign events except fundraisers on Oct. 16 and Oct. 23. The campaign website's photo gallery has pictures taken in mid-summer and posted August 31.

Blogger S-Town Mike has a photo of Sen. Henry attending an event in late August, accompany an August 31 blog entry. I've found no evidence in the blogosphere or the news media that Sen. Henry has attended a public event since then. Odd.

The Henry campaign just seems rather dead.

Sen. Henry also has refused to debate his opponent, Bob Krumm (photo: Krumm working on his issues-oriented campaign blog).

In fact, Sen Henry has not participated in a campaign debate with a general-election rival since 1994. Why is Sen. Henry skipping big campaign events and refusing to debate? Sure, he's running on his record of service - he's been in the Senate since the disco era, presiding over numerous tax increases as the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. But that's the past - it's the issues of today and the future that matter, and the people of the 21st district need to know where he stands on those.

For example: Last year, Sen. Henry pushed legislation designed to strip Tennesseans of the right to vote on wheel-tax increases. This November, the voters of his district also will vote on a proposed amendment to the Metro Nashville city charter which, if approved, would give Nashvillians the right to vote on future property tax increases.

I used to live in Sen. Henry's district. If I still did, I would be very interested to know if he still believes Tennesseans should lose their right to vote on wheel-tax increases.

And if Nashville voters approve the charter change will he, as the powerful chairman of the Senate Finance, Ways & Means Committee, take whatever legislative action is necessary to uphold their decision, or will he side with those who will want to invalidate the charter change and disenfranchise the people of Nashville on the issue of property tax increases?

The people of Tennessee Senate District 21 deserve to hear both candidates debating the issues in a public forum - especially the thousands of voters in District 21 who didn't didn't live in the district a dozen years ago. To be blunt, the people of Tennessee Senate District 21 deserve to know if the incumbent is still interested in and up to the job.

Because, more than anything, District 21 needs candidate - and a senator - who will be there.