Stockard on the Stump: Blackburn camp blasts Registry for seeking AG probe

That tree you heard falling in the forest produced no sound, except for a subsequent grating from U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s gubernatorial campaign.

Blackburn’s people ripped the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance this week after it forwarded a complaint by a Blackburn surrogate to the Attorney General’s Office for investigation, as board member Tom Lawless speculated, “It’ll be buried there.”

The board could have subpoenaed people, which would take months, if not years. Besides, it doesn’t have the resources to find the people behind a dark-money group’s ad that targeted Blackburn during the gubernatorial primary. And, she won the Republican nomination anyway after demanding the ad be pulled because, clearly, it was gaining traction.

That didn’t stop campaign spokesperson Abigail Sigler from issuing a scathing comment, “This shady, dark-money group failed to meet basic transparency requirements defined in Tennessee law, and this morning, the Registry failed to fulfill its most basic responsibility to Tennesseans, who deserve to know who is actually funding these AI deepfakes. By refusing to do its most basic job, the Registry is complicit in concealing the truth from Tennesseans.”

Heaven forbid. Or should we ask: Why such anger?

Blackburn’s campaign must have forgotten that the Registry board, Tennessee’s campaign finance watchdog, took no action on a complaint filed by Knoxville Republican activist Gary Loe against Blackburn saying she used federal campaign funds to supplement her gubernatorial campaign. 

Loe said Blackburn’s spending was “deceitful” and noted that voters could see what happened.

Yet the Registry board dropped the matter in March after receiving word that no transfer of money took place. Blackburn spent more than $10 million to capture reelection to the U.S. Senate in 2024, then spent another $3.2 million from December 2024 to August 2025 when she announced a run for governor, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Back to Blackburn’s complaint. Chip Buck of Pall Mall filed the complaint in July against Alexandria, Virginia-based American Exceptionalism Institute, a dark-money group that pounded Blackburn with TV ads calling her “queen pharma mama,” in reference to “60 Minutes” and Washington Post reports on a pharmaceutical law — written by a pharmaceutical lobbyist — she co-sponsored. It was designed to make sure patients received their medication but wound up stopping DEA agents from intercepting large drug shipments with opioids during a national epidemic. 

Blackburn’s campaign demanded TV stations stop running the ad during the gubernatorial primary, which she captured by 10.5 points over U.S. Rep. John Rose with state Rep. Monty Fritts playing a spoiler role with 23.5% of the vote.

Even though Buck filed the complaint, Blackburn campaign attorney Brandon Smith made the argument before the Registry to go after the dark-money PAC for using AI-generated ads and failing to disclose required information such as the identity of those controlling expenditures.

Blackburn’s legal people sent “takedown letters” to various news stations raising questions about the ad, as well as potential violations of the Tennessee Political Public Transparency Act, Smith said. 

The web is getting tangled here.

According to campaign finance records, didn’t a political action committee operated by officers of the conservative pro-private school voucher group Club For Growth spend $4.81 million backing Blackburn’s gubernatorial bid, months after she donated a nearly identical amount to the organization’s primary PAC?

Smith failed to mention that tidbit.

Instead, he called the Virginia PAC a “straw” group made up of people who pump out such misleading ads frequently. He also said the Federal Communications Commission told Blackburn’s campaign it launched an investigation into TV stations owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, E.W. Scripps Company, Gray Media and Nexstar Media Group related to “improper reporting” on PAC expenditures and ads.

Registry board member Paige Burcham Dennis warned him to use the words “possible improper,” since the matter remains an allegation. 

The FCC did not respond immediately to questions by the Lookout.

But Registry board member Hank Fincher, a former Democratic lawmaker, was miffed, to say the least, by the Blackburn campaign’s statement.

Maybe the board should have forwarded the case to the state agriculture commissioner’s office instead, Fincher surmised.

“We sent this to the chief law enforcement officer of the state to investigate it,” Fincher said. “I must assume that the staff member who made this ridiculous assertion doesn’t understand what the attorney general does or how powerful his office is.”

Fincher said he would ask the board at its next meeting to investigate all the dark-money campaigns involved in this year’s Republican primary “where both sides seemed to benefit.”

“Dark money has no business in Tennessee, and the beneficiaries of it have very little moral standing to complain about its use by others, in my opinion,” Fincher said.

Selective editing?

While the Blackburn campaign is going after the PAC that ran the “queen pharma mama” ad, it started attacking independent governor candidate David Hatley recently with online posts of him wearing jail fatigues in reference to a 1998 bank fraud conviction. We’re not sure if AI was used in the attack or if someone used paint by numbers to put him in black-and-white striped clothes.

Either way, Hatley, who reported on his legal problems at length in a book, has turned it around well enough with a hot tub business to put $7 million into his campaign and could wind up being a thorn in Blackburn’s side at the ballot box.

If he wins 20% or more of the vote and Green grabs 40%, the leading Republican could be in trouble.

If you can’t beat ’em …

Democratic state Rep. T.J. Hardaway announced this week he will not continue his write-in candidacy for the District 93 House seat in Memphis, saying instead he will back Kyler Gilkey in a new write-in campaign.

Hardaway was appointed this year to complete the term of his father, Rep. G.A. Hardaway, who died in April. T.J. Hardaway said in a release he will pursue a law degree and drop his election campaign. He took office shortly before the legislature held a special session to redraw congressional districts and slice the majority-Black city of Memphis into three seats.

Gilkey lost to former Rep. Joe Towns in the August primary and was passed over for a spot on the ballot last week. Just one member of the Shelby County Democratic Party’s executive committee selected Matthew Szalaj as its nominee for the November general election following Towns’ resignation to serve as Shelby County Criminal Court clerk. He won that election in August.

Officials said executive committee member Coleman Thompson chose Szalaj because he called him first, which is always critical.

Conservative viewers beware

State Rep. Justin Pearson started running two TV ads this week for his 9th Congressional District campaign on Fox News and Newsmax. He plans to follow up with cable channels and digital and streaming sites in his campaign against Republican state Sen. Brent Taylor of Shelby County.

But hitting ultra-conservative folks immediately is an interesting strategy. Will he be wasting money on people who wouldn’t vote for him if he were the last candidate on the planet, or will he be able to woo MAGA voters to his side? The latter is not likely.

Cowboys country

A group of Tennessee GOP state senators visited President Donald Trump’s midterm rally in Dallas last week, including Shane Reeves, Jessie Seal, Ed Jackson and, interestingly, two Senate speaker candidates, Majority Leader Jack Johnson and Paul Bailey. 

The prez proffered all sorts of ideas to keep Republicans in control this November. Most notably, Trump said he would give $5,000 to everyone in the country if Republicans regain the House and Senate, setting off a firestorm of criticism. 

The proposal largely fell on deaf ears, though some would say Trump’s policies have cost them a lot more than five grand over a year and a half.

“I understand the appeal of putting 5K back into American pockets, but with a $40 trillion national debt, it doesn’t seem very fiscally responsible,” Reeves said.

Bailey, who paid for the trip out of his campaign account, took a similar view, saying he’s “not a fan” of the proposal.

“If we’re going to pay out $3.3 trillion, we should be paying it toward the national debt,” Bailey said.

Likewise, Johnson used his campaign account to make the trip, and even though he hasn’t taken a position on Trump’s $5,000 giveaway, he has “serious concerns about the impact it would have on the federal deficit,” spokesperson Molly Crawford said.

Tennessee lawmakers love to brag about balanced budgeting every year while Congress just passes spending resolutions to keep the money flowing. The difference is the Tennessee Legislature is required by law to balance the budget, which is why it hides a boatload of money in every department.

“Don’t you ever feel guilty when you come up short / Man you better be careful, you’re gonna get caught” – Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers – “The Criminal Kind”