A Progressive Candidate In Nashville… Meet Mary Mancini

Let me introduce you to David Bither, a senior vice-president of Nonesuch Records, where he signed Emmylou Harris, Wilco, Ry Cooder, Buena Vista Social Club, T Bone Burnett and the Black Keys. I first got to know David when he worked at Elektra Records and helped launch successful careers for a diverse group of incredible artists, from Laurie Anderson, Youssou N'Dour and Sam Phillips to Billy Bragg, Tracy Chapman and Allen Toussaint. One of our old colleagues from the music business, Mary Mancini, is running for a Nashville state senate seat and I asked David if he'd write about the race for DWT. Here's this report:

As some of you might know, Blue America’s Howie is Howie Klein, current tireless advocate for progressive candidates across the country but in an earlier life an important figure in the music business, first as the founder of the noted SF independent label 415 Records and later as a key part of the Sire and Reprise labels. It was in that world where, as part of Elektra Records as the late ‘80s turned to the ‘90s, I met Howie. It is also when I first made the acquaintance of Mary Mancini.

Mary worked for Elektra as a youngster, first in publicity and later in A&R (artists and repertoire), the department where artists are signed to a label and records are made. She impressed me in those days as being smart, articulate, passionate…a good spirit and a thoughtful influence at a label known at the time for being the home of an adventurous roster of artists that ranged from the Pixies and 10,000 Maniacs to Steve Reich and the Kronos Quartet to Metallica and Bjork.

Mary moved on, literally, to Nashville. At first she remained true to her music roots, owning and operating Lucy’s Record Shop, a prominent music venue and record store. She also married Kurt Wagner, leader of the great Nashville alt-rock band Lambchop. She worked at two local technology startups. She became part of her new community.

I lost touch with Mary, hearing from old friends that she was doing good work in Nashville. Then one night, to my surprise, I saw her familiar face backstage at a Billy Bragg concert in NYC (what better evidence that Mary’s heart was still very much in the right place?). We caught up and I found out more about what Mary had been doing in Nashville.

It's not easy to be a Democrat in Tennessee. There are pockets of blue believers across the state-- this is the home of the Gores, after all-- but it has become increasingly difficult in recent decades to imagine the state producing a national Democratic leader. It was in this environment that Mary co-hosted Nashville’s local progressive talk radio show, Liberadio! with Freddie O’Connell. It is where she co-produced the documentary film Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections, and became a staunch voting rights activist, organizing large scale voter registration drives and creating Davidson County’s largest poll watching operation.

It is where she organized labor rallies with hundreds of union members and lobbied to stop Governor Haslam’s attacks on Tennessee’s worker’s compensation system.

And it is where, for the past three years, Mary served as the Executive Director of Tennessee Citizen Action, a progressive non-profit advocacy organization, where she helped lead the fights to protect workers who are injured on the job, to stop the attacks on teachers’ unions, and repeal the photo ID to vote law. She was a guest on MSNBC to discuss the photo ID to vote law, she published columns in newspapers across the state, and she organized Tennessee’s first progressive priority day at the state capitol.

She has spoken with a voice that reflects not just her commitment to progressive policies but also her experiences before she became involved in politics. When she speaks about issues that affect working men and women, she knows what she’s talking about because she’s been there. She’s been a temp worker, knowing what it’s like not to be sure a paycheck will cover your bills at the end of the month. She’s owned her own small business, and seen large corporations get tax breaks, while her business struggled to keep its doors open. She’s known what it’s like to not have access to quality affordable healthcare and when she speaks about the importance of expanding Medicare, she speaks from experience, having paid an astronomical price for insurance because of pre-existing conditions.

Many Tennessee Democrats have become demoralized or apathetic because they are convinced that there is nothing that can stop the Republican legislature’s right wing agenda. They see the now-familiar Republican priorities of increasing tax breaks for corporations but not increasing the minimum wage for working Tennesseans; of expanding access to guns but not healthcare; of privatizing public schools at the expense of students and teachers.

The Tennessee State Senate has become a bastion of ultra-right wing ideology, a testing ground for ALEC inspired legislation and a place where “the wants of large corporations are put before the needs of the people of Tennessee” and big business and Tea Partiers take priority over the needs of all Tennesseans.

All of this has persuaded Mary that to change the priorities of the state legislature will require Tennessee Democrats to elect leaders who stand without reservation for shared Democratic values, leaders with a transparent agenda, who can inspire Democrats to take action and help them do it.

In her words: “If we want lasting improvements in the lives of Tennesseans, we must elect leaders not to simply sit in the senate chamber as just another politician, but to stand up on the floor as an advocate for Tennesseans who need a voice. We have been silenced for too long, and it’s time for us all to stand up for what we believe in.”

So…Mary is running for the State Senate in Tennessee’s 21st District. Due to gerrymandering it is a heavily Democratic district; the primary will almost certainly elect the next State Senator from the 21st. The seat is currently held by Senator Doug Henry, who is retiring at the end of the current legislative session. Mary has been endorsed by SEIU Local 205 and the Women’s Campaign Fund, a non-partisan national network dedicated to achieving parity for women in public office.

To return to a musical message: Nashville has in recent years become home to artists and styles of music that are proudly alternative and independent. It is the home not just of Music Row and the commercial country music establishment but also of the Americana Music movement, of the Black Keys and Jack White and Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. It is becoming ever more progressive a musical home; it can be the same politically. Mary Mancini offers a fresh and committed voice.

Mary is Blue America's first-ever endorsed candidate from Nashville, a city we all love. You can contribute to her campaign here and you learn more about it at her official website. Supporting Mary means building a progressive farm team in a state that really needs one. Remember, solidly blue Nashville-- in 2012 Obama won Davidson County 138,899 (59%) to 94,464 (40%)-- has a dreadful Republican-leaning Blue Dog congressman, Jim Cooper, who gets away year after year without a primary. Here's a debate she had in 2011 with far right Hate Talk Radio host Steve Gill on his insane Republican Party talk show: