NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Another secret recording obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates reveals how Tennessee lawmakers are facing pressure to send your tax dollars to the state's private schools.
In the recording, the lead lobbyist for a well-financed group lobbying for school vouchers warns a reluctant lawmaker that his job could be at stake if he doesn't vote the way she wants him to vote.
"I can't protect you if you ain't on the right side of this," said Tori Venable, the Tennessee state director for Americans for Prosperity.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates was there recently when school vouchers came up for a vote in a House committee. It was a critical vote for Gov. Bill Lee's hotly contested piece of legislation to send taxpayer dollars to religious and other private schools across the state.
Planted on the front row were lobbyists for Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a group originally funded by the billionaire Koch Brothers that is now pushing school privatization across the country.
For some, it was seen as a brazen display of political muscle by AFP Tennessee state director Tori Venable and her team.
NewsChannel 5 said to Venable, "You were right up front. Was that intended to send a message that 'we may come after you if you don't vote the right way?'"
"No, I'm interested in the bill," she claimed.
Republican Rep. Todd Warner, from Marshall County, has found himself facing pressure from the Americans for Prosperity team that chosen the most prominent seats in the committee room.
"In your mind, was that coincidental?" NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked.
"Nah, intimidation tactic," Warner responded.
The Chapel Hill Republican said that, when he ran for office in 2020, he promised public school educators that he would not vote to send their tax dollars to private schools.
"I give those teachers my word back then, those school administrators and parents, that I would not take money, support any legislation that may take money from our public school system — and I'm going to stand on my word," Warner said.
At the time of the vote, NewsChannel 5 Investigates had heard rumblings about Venable and her lobbyist allies potentially threatening reluctant Republicans that they could be targted by AFP and its allies.
We asked Venable, "Have you threatened members?"
"Not threatened," Venable said. "No, that's not my style, but sometimes people think I'm a little bossy and, you know, it doesn't always come off as the best look for me."
Just ahead of the debate, Venable's deputy director, Michael Lotfi, had sent out a memo to legislators noting that some Texas lawmakers who had dared to vote against Americans for Prosperity — and school vouchers — no longer had jobs.
We followed up with Venable, "Have you ever suggested, 'That's a nice political career you have, it would be a shame if something happened'?"
"Not like that," she answered. "But I totally did retweet Michael Lotfi when he was pointing out how it went down in Texas."
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked Warner, "Has Americans for Prosperity threatened you?"
"Well, I mean, I don't know," Warner responded. "What do you think, Phil?"
"Well, I have a recording where you were talking to Americans for Prosperity and someone who was in the room with you recorded it. Can I play that for you?"
"Yeah, sure, Phil."
In that recording, Venable can be heard telling the Marshall County Republican, "We're going all in on this."
"I can't protect you if you ain't on the right side of this," Venable continues.
"Do what?" Warner asked.
"I said I can't protect you if you are not on the right side of this."
"Well, I'm not going to be for it, so I hope you don't come after me."
Asked about the recording, Warner agreed — "That was a threat. I did, absolutely, take it as a threat."
Before we had obtained the recording, NewsChannel 5 Investigates had told Venable that we had "heard complaints by members that they felt threatened by you."
Her response: "I am a strong independent woman with red hair. What can I say?"
In fact, AFP has used its resources to send this mailer out to Warner's district, asking: "Will your lawmakers stand for parents' rights?" A text message — claiming Warner is "standing in the way of parental choice" — was blasted out by another group working with AFP.
"It basically sends a message that Todd Warner is not for school choice," Warner said.
"Well, Todd Warner is for school choice, but I don't support taking money from our public schools."
And just as we finishing up the interview, we spotted a new ad attacking Warner — claiming "he's working with radical liberals like the Tennessee Three" — this one paid for by the American Federation for Children.
That is another school privatization group also funded by billionaires.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates noted to Venable, "You have billionaires behind you. Does that not skew the process?"
Venable appeared to be trying to avoid the question. We interjected:
"You have the Koch network, c'mon."
"I mean, I also have lots of Tennessee donors," she answered.
"But you have billionaires behind you. Does that not skew the process?"
"Good ideas get funded and bad ideas don't. I don't know what to tell you about that."
NewsChannel 5 Investigates said to Warner, "Americans for Prosperity, they're backed by the Koch Brothers network."
"Billionaires," Warner responded.
"Billionaires. So when you don't vote with Americans for Prosperity, you're risking billionaires coming after you?"
"It is definitely big money trying to control government. That's the best way I can explain it."
This follows another secret recording that we had obtained in which a longtime school privatization advocate had boasted of targeting key lawmakers for defeat as a sort of what he called "public hangings" to send a message to others.
"You go back into session, people are saying you need to steer clear of these guys just like you steer clear of the NRA because they are clearly able of taking down people who leave the reservation," said Mark Gill, an active member of the American Federation for Children.
NewsChannel 5 asked Venable, "There's been some talk about the public hangings. Do members need to worry about that if they voted against it?"
"I think we are going to have to wait and see what the final bill is, right?" She responded.
Ironically, in the call with Warner, Venable seemed to acknowledge that he usually voted with her side on most issues.
"You are at the very bottom of people I would have to take out," she told Warner.
He responded, "We'll agree on everything else, but I made this promise, I made this promise [that] I would not support school vouchers."
Warner said he now knows that Americans for Prosperity is trying to recruit someone to run against him for the Republican nomination this year.
"I've had people from my district call me and tell me that they are trying to find a primary opponent because I will not bow down to these school voucher lobbyists."
Spring Hill alderman Matt Fitterer confirmed that a couple of school choice groups have unsuccessfully tried to draft him, promising that, if he would run against Warner, they would come up with big money to try to defeat the Republican incumbent.
Fitterer said he thinks Warner's position on school vouchers is the one favored by his district.
"Several groups have suggested that there would be plenty of resources available to run a competitive campaign," Fitterer said.
"More than a hundred thousand dollars?"
"I think we're seeing races that are up to ($250,000) now."
But when the votes were counted in committee, Warner stood up to Americans for Prosperity — as well as House Republican leadership, who seem determined to ram the school voucher bill through this session of the legislature.
"You are voting the way you feel your district wants you to vote." NewsChannel 5 Investigates said to Warner.
"Yes, sir," he replied.
"Do you feel like Speaker Sexton and Republican leadership is standing with you?"
"Well, let me tell you, Phil. I'm not leadership's b*tch," Warner said. "And I didn't come down here to vote for leadership. I came down here to represent the people of the 92nd district and the people of this great state. I'm noting to fall to my knees to stand for leadership. I'm not going to do it."
The bill still had the votes to pass out of that committee.
Now that this bill has moved to the House Finance Committee, NewsChannel 5 Investigates has been told, Republicans there are facing the same sort of pressure campaign from Americans for Prosperity and other groups to vote for the bill.
SPECIAL SECTION: Revealed
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