Eli Motycka

Metropolitik is a recurring column featuring the Scene’s analysis of Metro dealings. Nashville used to have too many choices for mayor. Today there are too few, leaving Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s office with nothing to fear. Without a credible challenger, ... See more

When Justin J. Pearson talks about his 6-month-old congressional campaign, convincing voters sounds like the easy part. It’s the other demands — constant travel, daily fundraising, missing his wife and dogs — that grind the 31-year-old state representativ... See more

Major aspects of Tennessee’s Aug. 6 election correspond with low turnout. It’s not a presidential year, for one, and it’s a primary — not even a real partisan showdown. Yet Davidson County residents are beating turnout by 35 percent compared to the same s... See more

In the hours after Tennessee’s Republican supermajority redrew the state’s nine congressional districts — eliminating Memphis’ safe Democratic seat, previously protected by the Voting Rights Act — one spreadsheet laid out the likely path to complete GOP d... See more

Arsenio Williams apologized for the foul language. He was just relaying the honest words of Hendrell Remus, former chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party. “He told me, ‘I got a bit of a clusterfuck in here,’” recalled Williams, who took over as the TNDP’... See more