Pictured: Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell Image Credit: hownashvillemoves.com & NashvilleMoves / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
The Tennessee Registry of Election Finance is ordering the group responsible for the funding of a pro-transit campaign in Nashville to register with the state and disclose where donations are coming from.
The Registry sent a letter to Nashville Moves Action Fund on Tuesday, demanding that the group register as a referendum committee before Election Day. They also ordered them to provide financial disclosure statements.
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s “Choose How You Move” transportation plan recently filed a disclosure report showing that over $2.1 million was received from the Nashville Moves Action Fund. The pro-transit campaign in question directs visitors to its website hownashvillemoves.com to give all donations to Nashville Moves.
The exact source of the money received by the pro-transit group is unclear, but $190,000 of it was given by political action committees. Those PACs are required to disclose donations, which is how some of the donors have been identified. Most of the money came from those involved in the architecture and engineering industry.
The campaign is registered under the Green Lights for Nashville PAC, which does file disclosure statements but the source of their funding is not included in those reports. They do show that all cash donations from the Nashville Moves Action Fund.
Because the Registry has determined that the campaign is acting as a PAC on its own, they are requiring that they register as such. They notified the group of this on October 15.
According to Lauren LaRue Topping, general counsel for the Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance, the group “have taken the position, up to this point, that Nashville Moves Action Fund should not be required to register. They have not complied with our October 15 letter, based on this position.”
A second letter was sent to Nashville attorney Ben Gastel, the group’s treasurer, giving them a deadline of November 5. It also stated that failure to comply would end with the matter being “presented to the Registry of Election Finance at its January 23, 2025, meeting for further action.”
Nashville residents will decide on Election Day whether funding will be specifically allocated for improvements to area transit, including updated traffic signals and sidewalks and extended bus routes. The plan is expected to cost just over $3 billion.
