In this episode of Backroads & Backstories with Paul Bailey, Senator Bailey sits down with Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally. The two discus McNally’s tenure with the state legislature and reflect on some of his biggest accomplishments throughout his career.
Guest:
- Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the Senate Randy McNally, https://www.capitol.tn.gov/senate/speaker.html
Transcript:
Announcer: For the politics of Nashville, to the history of the Upper Cumberland, this is the Backroads and Backstories podcast, with Senator Paul Bailey.
Sen. Bailey: Welcome back to the podcast. I’m your host, Senator Paul Bailey. In today’s episode, we have invited Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally to sit down and have a discussion. The focus of our discussion today will be his experience as the current lieutenant governor of Tennessee, and what it has been like serving as a legislative leader for nearly 40 years. But before we get started, I would like to invite Speaker McNally to tell us a little bit about himself and give us his backstory. Welcome, Mr. Speaker.
Lt. Gov. McNally: Glad to be here. Glad to be here, Senator Bailey. Appreciate you doing this.
Sen. Bailey: And we appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to visit with our listeners in the Upper Cumberland and all points in between. Talking about your backstory, I found it very interesting that you were actually born in Boston, Massachusetts.
Lt. Gov. McNally: Well, I wanted to be close to my mother is why I was born there.
Sen. Bailey: [laugh]. I’d say we all want to be close to her mother at that point in time. So, how many years did you live in Massachusetts?
Lt. Gov. McNally: Four.
Sen. Bailey: Four years?
Lt. Gov. McNally: Dad had just graduated from MIT and was in a teaching position, and somebody from Oak Ridge National Lab came up and hired him away, and we moved to Tennessee. It was myself and I had a brother who was a year younger and a sister who was two years younger and another on the way. Not for me; for my mother. [laugh].
Sen. Bailey: [laugh]. So, was that—during the time that you moved to Tennessee, was that right after World War II, or was that during, or right before?
Lt. Gov. McNally: Right after.
Sen. Bailey: Right after?
Lt. Gov. McNally: It was 1948.
Sen. Bailey: And so the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, your father went to work there.
Lt. Gov. McNally: Uh-huh.
Sen. Bailey: And I assume he retired there—
Lt. Gov. McNally: Mm-hm.
Sen. Bailey: —and then so you grew up in the Oak Ridge area, then?
Lt. Gov. McNally: Right. Yeah. I attended school in Oak Ridge and graduated from Oak Ridge High School.
Sen. Bailey: I think that’s one of the things you and Speaker Sexton have in common. You both graduated from the same high school.
Lt. Gov. McNally: We, [laugh] we have.
Sen. Bailey: Just a couple of years in between.
Lt. Gov. McNally: A few. [laugh].
Sen. Bailey: And you’ve been happily married to your wife Janice for many years now, and so tell us—
Lt. Gov. McNally: Fifty-three.
Sen. Bailey: Fifty-three. Well, congratulations on that. And so tell us a little bit how you met Miss Janice.
Lt. Gov. McNally: Well, that’s that’s an interesting story. I was a student in pharmacy school. And so I had to have so many hours working in a drugstore, so I had a job working in a drugstore. And also, before that, I had a job at a restaurant as a maître d. And it was mostly on weekends, and it was in the evening. And they provided me with a very good salary and free meals, which it was a very upscale restaurant and a tuxedo so—
Sen. Bailey: Oh, wow.
Lt. Gov. McNally: So, I like to say I met Jan in a card game, but I was coming in from work and didn’t have a car, so I wrote the Memphis bus down to where the legislature is, and I’d been invited to meet her and a few other friends. And they needed a fourth for bridge, so she and I were partners in bridge and I kind of bluffed my way through it.
Sen. Bailey: Oh, okay.
Lt. Gov. McNally: And I think it was tux that got her.
Sen. Bailey: Oh, yeah.
Lt. Gov. McNally: I’d just came in from work and wearing a tux, she [laugh] she thought it was very nice. She was a teacher at the time. And then see what the nursing school after the kids got in school and became an intensive care nurse, and then an intensive care manager, then a nursing manager, and on up the road and into—eventually she was a hospital administrator.
Sen. Bailey: So, you received your bachelor of science degree from Memphis State University, and then you went to pharmacy school at the University of Tennessee. And so I’m assuming, did you meet her in Memphis?
Lt. Gov. McNally: It was in Memphis while I was in pharmacy school.
Sen. Bailey: Okay. Okay. So, then I know that, once you become a pharmacist, and—I think you’ve retired. Have you retired—
Lt. Gov. McNally: Mm-hm.
Sen. Bailey: From being a pharmacist?
Lt. Gov. McNally: I worked a short time in retail pharmacy. And that was an experience and then I transferred over to hospital pharmacy. And towards the end of my career, they had us doing a lot of things in the area of patient care like would [dose 00:05:23] some of the antibiotic drugs. We were trained in advanced cardiac life support and participated on the code teams when they hit a Code Blue, Code Red that type of thing.
Sen. Bailey: Wow. So, were you and Jan at the same hospital?
Lt. Gov. McNally: Yeah, for a while we were. At that time I was working for Cardinal Health, which manages some of the pharmacies, and she was working for Covenant, which was at the hospital I was at.
Sen. Bailey: Wow. Very good. So, I understand you have a passion for lacrosse. And you’ve—
Lt. Gov. McNally: I do.
Sen. Bailey: —you’ve also played as goalie.
Lt. Gov. McNally: Well, I started as a defensive player—they call them long sticks because their sticks are longer than the other players—and then I—the people got a little too fast for me, and so as a goalie, you’re not running as much. And I enjoyed that part, and plus, I took up a lot more room than some of those skinny kids at the goal. So. It’s a fun game.
Sen. Bailey: I know you still like to play today.
Lt. Gov. McNally: Well, the last time I played was in 2019. They had a twenty-four-hour lacrosse game in Kennesaw, Georgia. And it was for Wounded Warriors, and so we raised over $10,000, I think, for Wounded Warriors. And I played in two games, and the first game I played maybe about 15 minutes, and then the second game, I played the whole game. So, it was fun. We had a very good defense, so there were only two shots that were taken on me, and I blocked one, and on one, they scored.
Sen. Bailey: Oh. Well, you were 50 percent on the game then.
Lt. Gov. McNally: And that’s the best I’ve ever been. [laugh].
Sen. Bailey: [laugh]. So, I also understand and certainly see your Facebook post, you have a love for Golden Retrievers. And your current golden retriever is Shadow.
Lt. Gov. McNally: Right. When we got him—we’ve had for over about a 50 year period, and they live about ten years. And we got Shadow about three years ago. And the rescue people told us that they named him Shadow because he was afraid of his own shadow.
Sen. Bailey: Oh, okay. [laugh].
Lt. Gov. McNally: And he must have been caged most of his life and was afraid of everything. Every little sound made him very anxious. And eventually, we got him to a fairly good state; we still have trouble with him on a leash, but I can turn him loose and he’ll come. And we also have an invisible fence so he can go out in the yard when he wants to. But he’s a good dog. Went to the beach with us and the big time.
Sen. Bailey: Well, I saw some photos about you being at the beach and having Shadow there. He probably had as good a time as you did.
Lt. Gov. McNally: Yeah. At first the waves scared him. He had been to lakes and ponds where it’s calm, and he’d start to go in the water, and a wave would come and crash and he would run back. And then he started going up there and when the wave would come he would bark at it.
Sen. Bailey: Oh, okay.
Lt. Gov. McNally: That didn’t do any good. So, then he kind of zigzagged around where the waves were curling, and he had a big time. He got out there, swimming, and had a big time.
Sen. Bailey: Well, I think you had a good time watching him.
Lt. Gov. McNally: I did. I did. It was fun. Funny. [laugh].
Sen. Bailey: And you mentioned that he was a rescue?
Lt. Gov. McNally: Rescue. All the dogs. All the Goldens we’ve had over the 50 year period have been rescued.
Sen. Bailey: Wow. Wow. That’s a great story within itself to be able to find Golden Retrievers and those type dogs and rescue them and give them a good home. So, growing up, did you see yourself ever getting into politics?
Lt. Gov. McNally: Not initially. I had an interest in history, but mostly I studied biology and chemistry in high school, and continue through college. But in college, I got involved in some of the elections, and actually, when I graduated from pharmacy school, I called Winfield Dunn, who was a candidate for governor running from Memphis, and told him that I’d like to help him out. I thought that a Republican from Memphis could take the Memphis area and part of West Tennessee, and East Tennessee normally goes Republican, and he’d win. And that was partially correct.
The Democrats were divided that year. That was the year John J. Hooker ran. And some of the Democrats were very neutral on him. He was a young upstart at that time. And I worked with some local people and really enjoyed what I was doing.
And then worked in Senator Brock’s election, Jane Hardaway’s election when she ran for Public Service Commission. And then, an opening came, Keith Bissell decided to run for Public Service Commission, in the 33rd district where I lived. So, I ran and was behind until I started doing a lot of door-to-door right after the primary. And that turned it around, and I was able to win.
Sen. Bailey: And that was in 1978?
Lt. Gov. McNally: Right.
Sen. Bailey: Right. Now you’re the longest-serving member in the—
Lt. Gov. McNally: Well, I wish I didn’t have that distinction. [laugh].
Sen. Bailey: [laugh]. Well, that’s an honor. Your constituents have seen how hard you work, and they’ve continued to send you back. And so you served in the house for—
Lt. Gov. McNally: Eight years.
Sen. Bailey: Eight years. And then—
Lt. Gov. McNally: Four terms.
Sen. Bailey: —and then from there, you ran for the Senate and certainly served the rest of your time in the Senate. And so tell me what the biggest difference in the legislature then, as compared to today.
Lt. Gov. McNally: I think today there’s a lot more professionalism in the legislature. There’s not as much of the fooling around and certainly not as much of the drinking, and partying, and that type of thing. But the legislature—and when I started I think Governor Alexander was governor at that time; Speaker McWherter was the Speaker. The Democrats in the legislature were mainly from West Tennessee, and they were very conservative, fiscally conservative. And so, that’s where I began to learn about the state budget and served on the Finance Committee my last four years, I believe, in the house. And then I think I had probably about 26 years in the Senate Finance Committee service.
Sen. Bailey: And part of your first statement, the difference between when you first began to serve and today, you talked about that there’s more professionalism today than there was back then. Do you think social media has played a part in having members be more responsible?
Lt. Gov. McNally: It has. It has. It holds people to a higher standard, and also the people in the legislature, there used to be sort of an unwritten code that you didn’t talk about certain things that happened. And I think that’s gone now, and people, when they do see something that’s wrong, they report it to the proper people.
Sen. Bailey: Who would you say your mentor was for the legislature?
Lt. Gov. McNally: Well, I had a couple. Ben Atchley, Senator Henry—he was a Democrat and chaired Finance for a number of years. Ben was a Republican leader in the Senate. And Ron Ramsey, who preceded me as a Speaker. But all of them were different, but all of them were very professional gentlemen. They were very knowledgeable about the process and very fair in doing things.
Sen. Bailey: Senator Henry, I only had the opportunity to serve with him a very short time when I came to the legislature, but what a gentleman. Who was and someone that truly, truly loved the state of Tennessee—
Lt. Gov. McNally: He did.
Sen. Bailey: —and always wanted to make sure that it was fiscally sound. And would you say that because of him, that is one of the reasons Tennessee—he set the stage, early, as chair of finance and basically trying to make sure the state of Tennessee was fiscally sound?
Lt. Gov. McNally: He did. And, along with John Bragg, who was a representative and chaired House Finance, and Leonard [Donovan 00:15:11], who was vice-chair of Senate Finance, those three people put the state, I think, are very good course, and they made sure that they redid the pension system, made sure that when you passed a bill that increase benefits that the state paid for. And then, previous to that, bills were being passed and it would take effect some years down the road. So, there was an initial cost. And they change the law so that the final, the actual cost to the state, in the end, would be reflected in the fiscal note.
Sen. Bailey: I think you told a story one time about Senator Henry, when he was first elected that he wanted a copy of the state’s budget.
Lt. Gov. McNally: Right.
Sen. Bailey: And so tell that story, I think our listeners will find that very interesting.
Lt. Gov. McNally: He served as a representative before coming to the Senate, and it was his first appropriations bill that was being passed. And back then they didn’t have all the transparency that we have now, and he went to the governor’s office and asked the secretary there if he could see the budget. And she pulled open a drawer and took out a piece of paper and looked down the piece of paper. And she said, “I’m sorry, Representative Henry, you’re not on the list.” [laugh]. So, he said he went and dutifully voted for it, sight unseen. [laugh].
Sen. Bailey: Well, the good news is, you don’t have to be on the list today to be able to see the budget.
Lt. Gov. McNally: Yeah, and the public can see the budget.
Sen. Bailey: [laugh]. Exactly. So, you were a key part in Operation Rocky Top. Tell us just a little bit about your role and how that affected your career here in the legislature as well.
Lt. Gov. McNally: In 1986, I realized that there were some things that were not going on in the enforcement of the Bingo regulations. There were companies that would come in and play, and it was supposed to be charities that were playing. And they were also violating the prize limits and the number of days you could play. So I’d gone to the Secretary of State’s office to obtain information; didn’t get anywhere. In fact, when I’d complained, they’d investigate legitimate charities in my district and leave the storefront operations is what we call them—the crooked ones—they’d leave them alone.
And I realized I wasn’t getting any help from them. I looked at the charter on the storefront operation, and it was chartered under Army and Navy Union, and it was out of Chicago. And the man who signed the charter—one of the gentlemen—who I guess, was the executive director, he had a rather strange name so I was able to locate that name in the Chicago directory. And called him up and I didn’t get an answer. I did call him for about a week or ten days and no answer.
Finally, he did answer, and he said that that was the right number for the organization, which was a little strange, his home number. And he said that he had been in the hospital as why there was no answer. So, that was also strange that there was just one person there that headed the organization. And I asked him about getting a charter and he said, all I needed to do was get three people to sign and send them I think it was $100 or something like that, and he’d sent me a charter. Well that’s [laugh] that’s not how you do things.
And I went to the FBI because I didn’t get anywhere with the state. And I was a little bit concerned about the TBI. But an FBI and TBI agent met with me, and they told me that they had seen a lot of smoke but no fire and asked me if I’d cooperate with them, and they told me what I could and couldn’t do and that I could only record, like, the people that were in charge of the enforcement and lobbyists that was with the Bingo Association. And so it went on for a number of years and, I think, ended in winter of ’90. It started, I think, in the spring of ’87, I guess.
And it was a fairly long investigation, and when they finished, there were about 80 people that were indicted and all but one were convicted. And the crimes range from income tax fraud, just regular fraud, bribery, extortion, kidnapping, assault—
Sen. Bailey: Kidnapping?
Lt. Gov. McNally: Yeah. They took one of the bingo operators who had been skimming and drove him around and—forced him in a car and then drove him around and took him out someplace and tuned him up a little and then [laugh] brought him back, and.
Sen. Bailey: So, this was full organized crime, then?
Lt. Gov. McNally: Yeah. The FBI and TBI called it the “Cornbread Mafia.”
Sen. Bailey: Okay. [laugh].
Lt. Gov. McNally: So [laugh].
Sen. Bailey: So, don’t know how organized they were, but they certainly bringing the strong arm against some.
Lt. Gov. McNally: Yeah. Luckily, nothing ever happened to me. And some of my colleagues in the legislature were very complimentary about what I did, and there were others that kind of shunned me a little, [laugh] as you can imagine. So, it took a while to get through that. And I have a very great respect for the FBI and the TBI, and the way that they handle that particular case.
Sen. Bailey: So let’s come forward to today. And as you know, there’s been a FBI probe of some members in the house in regards to some spending that’s taken place and some, what they’re calling ‘Shadow companies.’ How do you compare today’s probe, FBI probe investigation to what took place during Operation Rocky Top?
Lt. Gov. McNally: It was very similar. I think the key element in Rocky Top was that a legislator would get close to a lobbyist and become very friendly with that individual. And in turn—usually, it was a legislator that had power. And in turn, when there was a vote that was very close, then that lobbyist would go and try to barter the legislator’s vote. And one bill they tried that on was a horse racing bill, and they actually—I was told by the lobbyist that we were going to split the money, and it was I think $20,000, each would get 10.
And we found out later that it was really $25,000 and he got 15, and I got 10. But I never did because I was against that particular bill. I couldn’t vote for it. So, we kind of strung him along and then at the end, told them, “Well, I’m getting too much pressure from back home, and I can’t vote for it.” And he said, “Oh, that’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” And then there was an undercover FBI agent that was working him also, and he let the FBI—undercover FBI agent know that he was very upset with me and called me a few choice names.
Sen. Bailey: [laugh]. Let’s come forward to 2017 and you were elected Speaker of the Senate, which also holds the title of Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee. Tell us how you felt on that day.
Lt. Gov. McNally: That was a very special day. I had my family and brothers and sisters that came down, and mom and dad, of course, had passed away at that time. And it was one of the highlights, I think, having my family there and going through the roll call. And I think I was selected 27 to 5 or something like that. There was some that passed and some voted for another candidate, but when I went up and Ron and I kind of hugged—a man hug that is—
Sen. Bailey: [laugh].
Lt. Gov. McNally: —there wasn’t any kissing or anything. But it was very emotional. And when he handed me the gavel and he stepped down, and it was a little bittersweet because I had worked with him and I knew that he was going home. He had planned to stay about ten years and then go home, and he wanted to be with his family. He had about eight grandchildren at that time.
And he wanted to get out on the farm and ride the tractor with his grandsons, and really enjoy the rest of his life without some of the pressure. And it was a very emotional day for me and for him, also. And one thing we did—the Speaker has a driver, and when he was not the Speaker anymore, he didn’t have a driver. [laugh].
Sen. Bailey: Oh, yeah. That’s probably hard to get used to.
Lt. Gov. McNally: So, we sent Bill with him—one of the highway patrol people that drive for the Speakers—we sent him with Ron for that last drive home. And it was bittersweet, but mostly, mostly sweet.
Sen. Bailey: You hold three titles: you’re Speaker of the Senate; you’re lieutenant governor, and you’re also a senator. And many times that call you Governor, many times I call you Mr. Speaker, but mostly I call you my friend.
Lt. Gov. McNally: [laugh]. Thank you.
Sen. Bailey: So, just kind of a personal story, and maybe you remember this, is that when Governor Ramsay announced on the floor that he was going to retire, you and I were walking down Motlow Tunnel back into Legislative Plaza, just the two of us and I said, “Mr. Chairman,” I said, “Who’s going to be your next leader?” And you said, “What are you doing for breakfast in the morning?”
Lt. Gov. McNally: [laugh].
Sen. Bailey: I don’t know if you remember that or not, but you and I met at—
Lt. Gov. McNally: That’s right.
Sen. Bailey: —the Hermitage, just the two of us, and we had breakfast and you told me that you were going to seek that position. And I’m sure there were others that knew of that, then I felt that was a very special day for me, for you to confide in me that you were going to see the Speakership and the position of Lieutenant Governor. So, I wanted to thank you for sharing that with me on more of a personal basis than just openly. So, thank you for that.
Lt. Gov. McNally: Well, you were—I could tell you were a rock star.
Sen. Bailey: [laugh]. Well, I don’t know about that. [laugh].
Lt. Gov. McNally: And we had an opening on Transportation, for the chairmanship, and that’s where I wanted to put you. And it was a tough committee, and it was a tough year in Transportation.
Sen. Bailey: That was the year that we—
Lt. Gov. McNally: Had the Improve Act.
Sen. Bailey: We had the Improve Act.
Lt. Gov. McNally: And you did, you did a stellar job. And so, when an opening came in the Commerce Committee, which is probably one of the better committees to be on—Commerce or Finance—and I asked you to chair that committee. And you’ve—
Sen. Bailey: Well, thank you.
Lt. Gov. McNally: —you’ve done very well, I appreciate it. I think the key to my success is not me, but it’s the chairman and the members that we have in our caucus. They’re great individuals, and they do their homework, and they’re experts in the field that we point them to, and it’s just—makes my job pretty easy. [laugh].
Sen. Bailey: And again, I certainly appreciate your confidence that you’ve placed in me and as a freshman senator, and also being appointed by you to be chair of Transportation and Safety, often say you placed a lot of confidence in me to help Shepherd the Improve Act through, which has been very beneficial to Tennessee and to the citizens of Tennessee. So, again, thank you for that. And the Commerce Committee is certainly a rewarding committee, but my goodness, I didn’t realize how much work was going to be involved in that. [laugh].
Lt. Gov. McNally: They have a lot of bills, a lot of important bills.
Sen. Bailey: And diversity.
Lt. Gov. McNally: Yeah.
Sen. Bailey: One minute you’re talking about insurance issues, and then the next you’re dealing with labor issues, and the next you’re dealing with TennCare. So, it is very, very diverse and you certainly learn a lot about state government in regards to commerce. You’ve had the lead through some extraordinary times, both last year and now going into 2021. How do you think COVID has impacted the state and local politics?
Lt. Gov. McNally: We really are just kind of learning about the impact of it, and how the economic impact, the impact of families in Tennessee, and what it has really done. And the numbers were very high and—extraordinarily high over the holidays, but then they’ve started drifting down. And hopefully will continue to go down. It’s interesting, some people have it and have very little symptoms, and some people have it, and they end up in intensive care and can die. And I think as we see the numbers go down, it’s because of Trump was able to get two vaccines through the pipeline.
There’s a third and a fourth that are in the pipeline that should be coming out soon. And as we get people vaccinated, and as people have been exposed to it, and built up immunity, I think we’ll see the death rate and the hospitalization rate continue to fall. I hope we’re seeing that now. But it’s had a dramatic impact. We saw our revenues, it was like a vee, it just went right down to the bottom, and then, believe it or not, in April it started picking up and it picked up fairly quickly.
And so we do have additional revenues this year. We’re concerned that a lot of those revenues were in things like housing, construction, appliances for houses, cars, big-ticket items. And we know that people won’t be purchasing those again for a number of years. And so it’s difficult to say that all the revenues that we’ve taken in this year are going to recur for us year after year, that a lot of them will be non-recurring. And I think the governor has recognized that his budget.
Sen. Bailey: Internet sales tax, I think, has played a huge part in [crosstalk 00:32:31]—
Lt. Gov. McNally: It has. We’ve seen retail sales—brick and mortar—down, but I think internet sales are up. Restaurants are probably hurting the most, I think. And some tourism is down, too.
Sen. Bailey: What has been your biggest challenge as lieutenant governor?
Lt. Gov. McNally: Biggest challenge. That’s, that’s interesting. [laugh]. I haven’t really thought of that one. But I think it’s, it was the same, I think when I was first elected. And when I was first elected, I started getting all these letters from these important people. And they’d say “The Honorable Randy McNally.”
And people would call me and thank me and said what a great race and what a great representative I’d be, and your head starts to swell. And I remember one lady came up to me in the drugstore—I was working in retail drug then—and she said she was bragging about how good it was to know me and everything like that, and she really did appreciate putting myself forward to run. And then she said, “And I’m so sorry you lost.” [laugh].
Sen. Bailey: [laugh].
Lt. Gov. McNally: I don’t know whether she confused me with my opponent, Tom [Layton 00:33:54] or not, but when you’re first elected and people start calling you, Governor, of course, I started looking around to see where Governor Lee was—or Governor Haslam at the time—and it can go to your head. And I think the challenge was making sure that you were grounded and that you are a servant of the Senate and not the dictator of the Senate, not the general, or whatever, but you were there as a servant.
Sen. Bailey: Very good. So we’re getting close to closing out and you and Miss Jan have two children—
Lt. Gov. McNally: Two girls.
Sen. Bailey: And you have three grandchildren?
Lt. Gov. McNally: Three.
Sen. Bailey: Three grandchildren.
Lt. Gov. McNally: Two have, I guess I got my chemistry gene, but they’ve gone into biochemistry in grad school.
Sen. Bailey: Oh wow.
Lt. Gov. McNally: One at Emory and one at [Vandy 00:34:53]. And one’s about a year off from graduating. One, Trent, has just started. And then the other grandchild, Morgan, is in ballet and she is in some of the ballet productions and has been and also teaches some ballet. But that’s hard to do, right now. [laugh].
Sen. Bailey: Yes it is. So, when you decide your time is up here in the legislature, after a long and successful career, what do you hope people will remember most about your time that you spent as a legislator?
Lt. Gov. McNally: Well, I think the legacy that I hope to leave is that I kept the state in good financial shape. That’s the only duty, constitutionally, legislature has, is to pass an appropriation bill that’s balanced. And that we maintain our Triple-A rating, that taxes are low, keep taxes low, keep debt low, make sure the pension system is stable. And I hope that they remember that it wasn’t me, it was the Senate that did all these things, and that I was just part of it. And I enjoy what I do and enjoy working with people like you, and we have a great membership in the Senate, ladies, and men, and black, and white, and they all work very hard, and they all have done some great things. And I’m very appreciative of it.
Sen. Bailey: You know, one thing that I’ve learned, coming to the legislature is that, although we’re all Tennesseans, we have different perspectives, from—
Lt. Gov. McNally: We do.
Sen. Bailey: —whether we’re from East Tennessee, Middle, or West Tennessee. But we all come to a general consensus and do what’s right for Tennesseans, and I think that’s most important. We may not always agree on every piece of legislation that comes through, but that’s the good legislative process.
Lt. Gov. McNally: Right.
Sen. Bailey: And we come to consensus and agree on it, and we do things that’s in the best interest of the state.
Lt. Gov. McNally: And the people in the legislature are not angry. We might not agree, we might argue different points of view. But after it’s over, we’re not mad at each other. And I think that’s—if Congress could be more like that, I think it’d be great.
Sen. Bailey: Absolutely. I think they’ve lost… I think they’ve lost their way [laugh] in Washington. And I tell my constituents all the time if Washington could be—if Congress and Washington could be more like Tennessee, we could really make America great again.
Lt. Gov. McNally: We could. We could.
Sen. Bailey: Well, Governor, it’s certainly been an honor and a pleasure having you on the podcast today, and I thank you for taking the time to be with us and for our listeners to learn more about you. Do you have any final thoughts as we close out?
Lt. Gov. McNally: Well, we’ve been through some very tough times and probably the toughest times that Tennessee’s been through since the Civil War. And I think the reaction from the people in Tennessee has been tremendous. And we’ve had tornadoes, we’ve had floods, we’ve had riots, we’ve had protests, we’ve had the Coronavirus and people dying and people sick in hospitals. We’ve had our economy shaken. But Tennessee remain strong. And the spirit Tennesseans carry forward, I think, is so marvelous, and just, Tennessee strong. That would be my final words. Thank you.
Sen. Bailey: Well, thank you. You’ve been listening to Senator Paul Bailey along with [BLANK 00:39:12]. Thank you for listening to Backroads and Backstories. You can keep up with the latest on the podcast, at backroadsandbackstories.com, and subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. And we’ll see you next time.
Announcer: Thank you for listening to the Backroads and Backstories podcast, with Senator Paul Bailey. You can keep up with the latest on the podcast at backroadsandbackstories.com. And subscribe, rate, and review the show on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Thanks again for listening, and we’ll see you next time on the Backroads and Backstories podcast.