Editors Note: The ‘Homes Not Hedgefunds’ Act Dies of Friendly Fire.
Tennessee Democrats: One Bill, Two Opinions, Three Hurt Egos
The ego is a fascinating aspect of human behavior. I’m reminded of what Ronald Reagan once said: “If I find someone who agrees with me 80% of the time, that’s an 80% friend — not a 20% enemy.” After more than 22 years of being around politics, I’ve learned that people could do a lot more good for others if they’d just check their pride and ego at the door.
The Democrats are at it again — debating each other with such gusto you’d think there was a prize for loudest disagreement. The funny thing is, the bill at the center of all this fuss actually sounds like a fine piece of legislation — practical, helpful, even sensible. But you’d never guess it from the noise.
Instead, it’s being buried under bruised egos and leftover hurt feelings from the last election, like a good idea caught in a traffic jam of old grudges. There’s no villain to blame here — just too many captains trying to steer the same ship in different directions.
Still, I suppose that’s politics in its purest form: a group of people who agree on ninety percent of things arguing fiercely over the other ten, convinced the fate of the world hangs in the balance. And in this strange plot twist of democracy — if it’s not sad, it’s funny. Or as Twain might have said, “It’s democracy at work — and sometimes at play.”
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Originally published in the Nashville Banner
Tensions bubbled to the surface Wednesday afternoon when the House Cities & Counties Subcommittee was asked to consider a bill by Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville) and Rep. Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) called the “Homes Not Hedgefunds Act,” which would restrict the number of residential properties that a company could purchase in Tennessee.
The bill breezed through the Senate, passing 31-1 on the floor, a rare feat for regulatory policies carried by Democrats, who are outnumbered 4:1 in the Senate and 3:1 in the House.
When it went before the subcommittee in the House, Rep. Vincent Dixie (D-Nashville) motioned to consider the bill, but it died due to a lack of a second, despite Rep. Bo Mitchell (D-Nashville) also being on the dais.
Behn said Thursday that she wasn’t expecting the bill to necessarily pass in the meeting, but had hoped to roll it while she and Oliver figured out the best path forward, including entertaining the possibility for other House sponsors.
Instead, it died without discussion, stunting Oliver’s progress.
While bills often fail — a pair of Republican-sponsored bills also failed in committees this week due to a lack of motion — the Democrats can’t afford much infighting given their position as a superminority.
The vote also exposed a rift among the lawmakers, which does not bode well for the party’s uphill battle to mobilize voters and gain state seats during an election year.
After the meeting, a screenshot provided to the Banner shows that Mitchell and Behn got into a heated text exchange.
In the screenshot, which appears to capture only part of an exchange in a group chat with other Democrats, Mitchell sends only partially visible text about the bill.
Then the pair have the following exchange, uninterrupted by other members of the group:
Behn: “Fuck off”
Mitchell: “When you own a home you might understand”
Behn: “Go fuck yourself”
Mitchell: “Very crude”
Behn: “You’re a sore loser for losing a primary and that makes me very sad for you”
Mitchell: “Your a liar with no integrity”
Behn: “This wasn’t about me, this was about Charlane and the generations of families who would have benefited from this legislation. Hope it was worth it when you’re put on blast”
Behn later said she believes Mitchell deliberately hindered the bill as retaliation against her, after she beat him, Dixie and businessman Darden Copeland in a heated primary last fall when Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District became suddenly available in a special election. During that election, Behn also targeted Mitchell by questioning his relationship to and donations from the owner of Advance Financial, a controversial predatory lender based in Tennessee.
Rep. Bo Mitchell (D-Nashville) listens during a State and Local Government Committee meeting earlier this week. Credit: Martin B. Cherry / Nashville Banner
Asked about the meeting, Mitchell said Thursday that he said he didn’t support the bill for strictly policy reasons, specifically that he believes it would hinder homeowners’ ability to get “top prices” when they sell property, and he believes it is too similar to President Donald Trump’s affordable housing executive order.
When asked about the texts, Mitchell told the Banner that he did not want to “get involved” in a story about the exchange, adding that he doesn’t “see it as a conflict.”
“I mean, I wish there wasn’t,” Behn later said of Mitchell’s comment.
Behn said that she was “outraged” when she texted Mitchell because she doesn’t believe their interpersonal conflict should get in the way of Oliver’s bill, noting that she “could not believe that a white male legislator would undermine the labor of a black female legislator.”
“I’m sad that the story isn’t that Senator Oliver passed a bill that made its way with bipartisan support through the Senate,” Behn said, noting that the U.S. Senate also passed similar legislation.
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