President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign released an updated list of its top fund raisers today, and five Nashville men are still on it.

Leading the way is attorney Charles Robert Bone, who has raised between $200,000 and $500,000 – the second-highest range – for the campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

In the $100,000-200,000 bracket are Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester, real estate executive Bill Freeman and state party treasurer David Garrison, also an attorney.

Also on the list is venture capitalist Andrew Byrd, who has raised between $50,000 and $100,000 and hosted a fund raiser that Vice President Joe Biden attended last fall.

No one from any other part of Tennessee made the list, which does not provide specific amounts raised by each bundler. And no one from any part of Tennessee is in the most elite range of bundlers, the more than 60 men and women – including movie moguls Jeffrey Katzenberg and Harvey Weinstein and Vogue magazine’s editor, Anna Wintour – who have raised $500,000 or more.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas was the overwhelming winner of a presidential straw poll held Saturday by the Tennessee Republican Assembly, but former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania won the group’s endorsement even more easily.

Paul received 200 votes in the straw poll, easily outdistancing Santorum, who received 62 votes. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman – who dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination two weeks ago – also received votes.

But Sharon Ford, the group’s first vice president, said the straw poll was a fund raiser open to anyone who was willing to pay for a chance to vote as often as he or she wanted.

A much smaller group participated in the endorsement process, Ford said. When more than 50 dues-paying members of the assembly gathered for that vote, more than two-thirds of them voted for Santorum on the first ballot.

The Tennessee Republican Assembly, which bills itself as “The Conservative Wing of the Republican Party,” held its annual convention at the Hotel Preston on Saturday. About 170 people paid $40 each to attend, Ford said.

Sharron Angle, a favorite of tea party groups who lost a U.S. Senate race in Nevada to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2010 and then formed a political action committee, gave the keynote speech after an introduction by U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Ford said.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn isn’t making any friends at Google lately.

After backing the Stop Online Piracy Act, the anti-piracy measure that rankled Google and other Internet companies, Blackburn issued a statement today blasting the company’s new privacy policy.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn

“After all the controversies Google has become entangled, the question people keep asking is – how can we ever begin to trust Google?” she said in the statement, saying the Internet giant is inviting government regulation.

Blackburn and seven House colleagues – five Democrats and two other Republicans – sent Google chief executive Larry Page a letter today demanding answers about the privacy-policy changes the company announced Tuesday.

Google said it will consolidate user data from its various products, such as Gmail and YouTube, as part of a plan to create one universal privacy policy.  According to Google, the change will allow the Internet giant to customize search results and make the privacy policy easier to use.

But lawmakers are asking Google how the information will be used and whether users will be able to opt out of having their data collected.

Blackburn said the change could wipe out consumer choice.

“I’ve always said private industry needs to take the lead in providing consumer choice and transparency before big government rushes in to regulate,” she said in a statement. “But Google’s move to eradicate consumer choice all together across their various platforms raises additional questions about how the company’s monopoly power might hurt competition and how their action might unilaterally and unnecessarily invite even broader government regulations on everyone else.”

With just a few hours to go until President Barack Obama delivers the last State of the Union address of his first term, Capitol Hill is abuzz with lawmakers issuing statements, meeting guests, and making last-minute seating plans. Here’s what members of the Tennessee delegation are up to.

Whom they’re bringing:

• After making a political statement at the last joint session of Congress by bringing Gibson Guitar CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, Rep. Marsha Blackburn will bring a less controversial guest tonight: Stuart Tutler, headmaster of New Hope Academy in Franklin.
• Rep. Diane Black will bring Sgt. Kevin D. Pirtle, an Iraq War veteran and Tennessee native.
• Sen. Lamar Alexander will bring a longtime staff member, Sarah Fairchild of Morristown.
• Rep. Jim Cooper is bringing his wife, Martha.

Where they’re sitting:

• Cooper and Rep. Stephen Fincher will sit together, part of a growing number of lawmakers who are coupling up with colleagues from across the aisle in an effort to promote bipartisan civility.
• Rep. Scott DesJarlais will probably sit with his fellow GOP doctors, including Rep. Phil Roe of Johnson City, spokesman Robert Jameson said.
• Alexander plans to sit up front with Republican leadership. It’s his last State of the Union as a member of leadership – he’ll step down from his position as the No. 3 Republican in the Senate tomorrow.

What they’re saying:

• Alexander, in his final remarks as a GOP leader today: “We know the state of the union: The state of the union is that we’re in the midst of the Obama economy. The country is in trouble.”
• Sen. Bob Corker: “I hope he talks about tax reform that does away with most, if not all, of the $1.2 trillion of tax expenditures in the tax code each year and allows us to lower everyone’s rate and broaden the base.  The best thing we can do to create jobs and foster economic growth is to embrace that kind of tax reform combined with deficit reduction and entitlement reform that ensures Social Security and Medicare are solvent for the long haul.”

Reps. Scott DesJarlais and Jim Cooper don’t often see eye to eye. But they agree on one thing – Congress shouldn’t be paid if it can’t pass a budget on time.

Rep. Scott DesJarlais

DesJarlais signed on today to Cooper’s “No Budget, No Pay Act,” which – as its name suggests – would deny members of Congress their paychecks when they miss deadlines for budget and appropriations bills.

Under the legislation, if lawmakers don’t pass spending bills before the beginning of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, they would not be paid until both chambers of Congress approve spending measures. Cooper’s legislation would also prevent lawmakers from being paid retroactively.

Rep. Jim Cooper

Rank-and-file members of Congress make $174,000 a year. Party leaders make $193,400 and the Speaker of the House makes $223,500.

“Any family or business owner in my district will tell you that the first step to financial success is creating a budget – the same holds true to running the federal government,” said DesJarlais, of Jasper, in a statement. “It is simply impossible to get our nation’s unsustainable spending under control without a long-term plan in place.”

But the measure may not gain much traction on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers miss budget deadlines more often than they meet them. It’s been almost three years since Congress passed a full budget measure through the normal legislative process. And according to the Washington Post, Congress has only managed to pass the entire federal budget by the scheduled deadline of Sept. 30 four times in the last 30 years (in 1977, 1989, 1995 and 1997).

With one day left before the voting, South Carolina presidential primary voters may have learned more than they ever expected or needed to know in the past week about Bain Capital. That’s the private-equity firm Republican front-runner Mitt Romney led for 15 years, making millions of dollars through corporate transactions that are getting new scrutiny from Romney’s ever-shrinking field of rivals for the GOP nomination.

One thing those Palmetto State voters presumably aren’t hearing is that the firm’s namesake, William W. Bain Jr., has some strong Nashville connections.

Bain majored in history at Vanderbilt University and has been one of the university’s trustees since 1989. The Vanderbilt Board of Trust’s web pages show Bain is vice chairman of the board’s academic programs committee and also serves on three other committees: governance and board affairs, investment, and budget.

Bain started management consulting firm Bain and Co., where Romney worked before co-founding Bain Capital, in 1973. Bain Capital, a separate company, started in 1984, and Romney worked there until 1999, when he left to run the Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City in 2002.

State House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, and House Republican Caucus Chair Debra Maggart, R-Hendersonville, are the latest to endorse former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney’s bid for the presidency.

“Governor Romney knows and is strongly committed to the principle that the states should take the lead on a variety of domestic policy issues which will help us right-size the federal government and protect our Tenth Amendment rights,” Harwell said in a statement released by the campaign this evening. “I strongly support and endorse Mitt Romney for President, and I look forward to working with him to help get America back on the right track.”

The Romney campaign also announced endorsements from state Reps. Harry Brooks, R-Knoxville, and Phillip Johnson, R-Pegram. Gov. Bill Haslam, U.S. Rep. Diane Black, R-Gallatin, and former Gov. Winfield Dunn are among those that had previously endorsed Romney.

South Carolina may be make or break for Newt Gingrich’s presidential bid, but the former House speaker has gone ahead with organizing his campaign for the March 6 primary here in Tennessee.

Conservative blogger Ken Marrero, who is serving as the Tennessee campaign’s media director, released a complete roster Wednesday (dated Jan. 14, however) of Newt 2012′s Tennessee leadership team.

The list shows state Rep. Tony Shipley, R- Kingsport, and state Sen. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, as the campaign’s co-chairman, as expected, but it also includes a couple of other notable names.

Mark Winslow, a former Tennessee Republican Party chief of staff who worked on former Tennessee GOP chairman Robin Smith’s failed run for Congress in 2010, is listed as political director and as a member of the campaign’s executive committee. Winslow has been engaged in a legal fight with U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann and aide Chip Saltsman, also a former Tennessee GOP chairman, over the airing during the Fleischmann-Smith race of a confidential termination agreement that Winslow signed when left the state party in 2010.

Also on the list are state Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver, R-Lancaster, and Bob Schwartz, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination to face U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, in 2010. (The complete list follows the jump.)

The list was released as Gingrich’s campaign has again been on the rise. Polls in South Carolina showed Gingrich as closing the gap on former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney. Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced Thursday he’s dropping out and asked his supporters to throw their weight behind Gingrich.

But Perry’s most prominent Tennessee supporter, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, said wasn’t ready to do so yet. He told reporters Thursday that he was going to go through a period of “grieving” before deciding whether to support anyone else.

“We’ll see where we go from here,” he said. “I don’t know who I’m going to be with. I really don’t.”

The presser:

Newt 2012 Announces Tennessee Leadership Team

January 14th, 2012

Atlanta, GA – Newt 2012 today announced its Tennessee leadership team as it heads toward the March 6 Super Tuesday Presidential Primary and the key role Tennessee will play in selecting a Republican nominee for President of the United States.

The statewide coordinators for Newt 2012 are state Rep. Tony Shipley (TN-02), state director and campaign co-chairman; and state Sen. Stacey Campfield (TN-07), deputy state director and campaign co-chairman.

Members of the executive committee of Newt 2012 in Tennessee are:

Susan Witcher, Volunteer Coordinator and Past President of the Tennessee Federation of Republican Women
Chris Gallaher, Deputy Volunteer Coordinator
Ken Marrero, Communications Director
Mark Winslow – Political Director, Former Chief of Staff, Tennessee Republican Party
Bob Schwartz, Executive Director, Platform Committee Member, 2008 Republican National Convention
Newt 2012 in Tennessee also announces its Congressional District chairs for many of its Congressional Districts. They are:

Sullivan County Commissioner John Gardner, District 1
John Stanbery, DDS, District 3
John Gentile, District 4
Tony Roberts, District 5
State Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver (TN-40), District 6
Tim Skow, District 7
Mike Peery, District 8
Willis Ayres, District 9

Newt 2012 also is proud to announce county chairs in the following counties in Tennessee:

Bedford County – Barbara Blanton
Cheatham County – Sharon and Ken Blank
Clay County – Monica Davis
Cumberland County – Annette Sapp
Davidson County – Chad Jackson
Hamilton County – Andy Jungels and Valerie Morris
Hickman County – Bill Dockery
Johnson County – Former Mayor Kevin Parsons
Loudon County – Monta Hirzel
Macon County – Jon A. Wells
Madison County – Mike Peery
Maury County – Lyle Worsham
Monroe County – Linda Hall
Overton County – John Houser
Robertson County – Donna Fike
Rutherford County – Jane Davis
Shelby County – Willis Ayres
Smith County – State Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver (TN-40)
Sullivan County – Commissioner Matt Johnson
Sumner County – Alane Anno and Arlene Cunningham
Unicoi County – Bill Gaines
Washington County – Kim Dahlgren
Williamson County – Gary Mann and Tim Skow
Gibson County – Susan Taylor
Franklin County – Dennis (Denny) Basmajian

“Tennessee has an amazing team, and it is clear we have a strong ground game by the way this team has continued to grow and get Newt delegates on the ballot,” said Maria Strollo Zack, Southeastern political director for Newt 2012. “We are working hard to make sure Newt is our nominee when we get to the convention in Tampa this summer.”

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It’s a new tradition in the making: bipartisan seating at the State of the Union address.

Tennessee Reps. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, and Stephen Fincher, R-Frog Jump, have signed on to sit with colleagues from the opposite party at the address on Jan. 24, according to the centrist group No Labels.

Thirty-one other House members and 13 senators also have agreed to sit across the aisle, and the list is growing, according to the group.

The practice of sitting next to a “date” from the opposite party at the State of the Union began in an effort to promote civility at last year’s address, which took place two-and-a-half weeks after Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot. Some lawmakers and analysts linked the shooting to an increasingly hostile, partisan political atmosphere.

Cooper crossed party lines at last year’s address, too. So did other Tennessee lawmakers, including Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen and Republican Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr.

No Labels, which aims to reduce partisan gridlock in Congress, has released 12 proposals “to make Congress work.” Bipartisan seating is one of them. The group is promoting the idea with a”full-page ad“in the New York Times, it said Friday.

Updated at 2:30 pm.

The Senate approved the revised Republican plan on a 20-12 vote after rejecting two alternative Democratic proposals, one of which would have redrawn Davidson County’s three Senate districts to more closely resemble their current configuration. The House is scheduled to take up the Senate districts later this afternoon; it is unlikely to make any changes.

Original post

The state Senate approved plans to redraw districts for the state House of Representatives and Congress in a pair of lunchtime votes.

Both plans passed without any changes from the maps the House approved Thursday afternoon. The votes send the bills to Gov. Bill Haslam.

Senate Republicans also made a few changes to their plans for the Senate. Among them is moving state Sen. Jim Kyle, the Democratic leader, from a Republican district to that of fellow Democratic Sen. Beverly Marrero, of Memphis.

Senators also moved Lewis County into the new 28th Senate District, which is moving from Memphis (and is now represented by Kyle) to Middle Tennessee to account for population shifts. The change would open the way for state Rep. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, to run for Senate.

But senators have not yet held a vote on the revised Senate plan. Kyle plans to present an amendment at 1 p.m., but clerks have not yet finished printing out copies of his proposed map.

State Sen. Kerry Roberts, R-Springfield, withdrew his proposal to redraw the 18th Senate District to include his home. Roberts said he had been unable to come up with a plan that was acceptable to other lawmakers.

State Sen. Eric Stewart, D-Belvidere, likewise dropped a proposal to make changes to the 4th Congressional District. He said he had been unable to build bipartisan support for his plan.

Senators rejected an amendment that would have altered proposed boundaries for the 9th Congressional District in Memphis. U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, who is Jewish, has complained that the Republican proposal leaves prominent Jewish institutions out of his district.