City buzzing about Cooper seat

National outlets return to OMB speculation as local names abound as potential replacements

Email | Print By NashvillePost.com Staff

It is a certainty the Congressman Jim Cooper is headed back to Washington, D.C., but the question remains in what capacity.

Cooper won re-election this week by a healthy two-to-one margin to Tennessee’s 5th District Congressional seat. But with the ascendancy of Barack Obama to the presidency, national media outlets are speculating that Cooper will be appointed to the Office of Management and Budget.

The OMB is the White House office responsible for devising and submitting the president's annual budget proposal to Congress. It is also policy wonk heaven – an area of Washington D.C. where Cooper seems to be an archangel.

The Dallas Morning News, The Washington Post, along with David Brooks in a New York Times column, both mentioned Congressman Cooper’s name as a possible office of budget and management director. The Associated Press listed Cooper as a potential director in an article published Friday afternoon.

Cooper dismissed the idea outright in a statement issued to NashvillePost.com this afternoon.

“This is an old Washington parlor game played with no information, just a bunch of speculation,” Cooper said. “It’s flattering, but I hope Nashville won’t get sucked into it. I’m excited about representing Middle Tennessee in Congress and honored that my neighbors are giving me another chance to do it.

"I believe I can get a lot done — restarting the economy, reforming health care, restoring fiscal sanity to government — from my position as a veteran House member. And being a longtime ally of the new president will only help me achieve those goals.

“My family and I live in Nashville, and we’re not planning on moving,” Cooper added. “I haven’t had a single conversation about leaving this job, and I’m not looking to have one. In fact, this week I’ve already been laying the groundwork to represent Middle Tennesseans next year in Congress, which is exactly what I want to be doing in 2009 and beyond.”

Even though he has repeatedly rebuffed the speculation that an appointment is in the offing and has issued previous statements that he is not interested in the job, local politicians are salivating at the possibility that his congressional seat might be opening up sooner rather than later.

Names being bandied about by the city’s chattering class include former Metro Vice Mayor Howard Gentry, Metro Council members Megan Barry, Jerry Maynard, Greg Adkins and Jason Holleman, former Metro Councilman David Briley and Deputy Governor Stuart Brunson.

Also mentioned as a potential replacement for Cooper is former Metro Mayor Bill Purcell, though political observers say it is unlikely Purcell would leave his post at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government to be a member of Congress.

Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Gray Sasser, also mentioned as a possible candidate, refused to speculate on an open 5th District race because he firmly believes there won’t be one.

"Jim Cooper is a great congressman,” Sasser said. “I'm proud he represents me. He said many times that he has no intention of taking a job in an Obama administration and I take him at his word."

Other potential candidates are being less bashful. Metro Councilman Erik Cole, who earned a reputation this past year as an advocate for Mayor Karl Dean’s administration, admitted interest in the job if it opened.

“I would explore the opportunity if it opened up,” said Cole, who interned for Congressman Cooper in Washington. “It’s not something that I would go out and seek right now. He’s a great congressman and I’m pleased to have him representing us in D.C.”

Briley, who ran for mayor last year, was complimentary of the job Cooper has done, but said it was “premature for anyone to be worrying about it.”

“I think one of the things I learned while I was on Metro Council is it makes more sense to be focused on the business of Council than the next office you’re running for,” Briley said. “I’m focused on my law practice right now and not focusing on anything else.”