Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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Oddest of Assortments

Among Victor Ashe’s five colleagues as visiting fellows at the Harvard School of Government’s Institute of Politics this term are Gary Flowers, the vice president of programs at the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, and the celebrated former Navy Seal, professional wrestler, and Minnesota Gov. Jesse “The Body” Ventura. The threesome lend more than simple credence to the institute director’s understatement, “This impressive group brings a diverse range of [political] experience.” They served together on a forum, “Why I’m Jazzed about Politics,” last month. Wish we’d been there.

Whip Him? Whom? How?

On the same day that the first, underreported story broke in the News Sentinel about state Rep. H.E. Bittle’s, uh, misfortune in Nashville, former County Commissioner Scott Davis picked up a qualifying petition to run against the longtime 14th District representative. That was before the word got out that the incident was a barroom brawl. If Bittle stands for reelection, it could get interesting, since Davis, a real estate developer, is known for aggressive, in-your-face campaigning. Parky Strader is another Republican who’s picked up a petition for the seat. Strader is remembered for being caught with a gun in his pocket in a city of Alcoa traffic stop several years ago.

Now, That’s Non-Competitive

When Knox County paved a surface parking lot on its embattled and denuded State Street space, the county spokespeople said charges for the spots would be at “market rates.” We weren’t sure what they meant, because there’s a diversity of choices in the neighborhood: Across Union Avenue, the city’s attended State Street garage charges $3 a day. Across State toward Gay, the Promenade garage, which also employs an attendant, charges $4. The unattended metered spaces down along Central, just a few paces from the new State Street lot, go for about $1.20 a day.

But what does the county want for this unattended lot? Five bucks a day, of course. Their “market rate” is, as near as we can tell, the most expensive lot in that quarter of downtown. At 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, the county’s 283-space lot was parking exactly nine cars. Maybe it’ll catch on.

Lotto Fun, Too

Cynthia Moxley gave out nearly 300 lottery tickets at the annual Moxley-Carmichael bash Feb. 27. It’s probably safe to bet that the tickets were purchased at a Pilot store (since Pilot is a Moxley Carmichael uberclient). M-C is a public relations and communications firm specializing in a few big-ticket clients, including the state lottery itself. Even if nobody got lucky, the late-winter gathering gave lots of business, political and media types a chance to get together and have a few laughs, a couple cocktails and a lot of good food, which included Lucky Seven vegetable trays, Scholarship Fund Fromage, Millionaire Mushrooms, Powerballs (marinated steak pinwheels stuffed with fire roasted red peppers), Tennessee Treasures (smoked salmon pinwheels on cucumber coins) and Tennessee Millionaire (a spinach thingie); followed by a chocolate extravaganza of Instant Winners (chocolate truffles, white chocolate macadamia nut and double chocolate decadence cookies).