Rural legislators in Tenn., increasingly drowned out by urban and suburban interests, organize

Tennessee is a relatively rural state (36 percent in the 2000 census) but its population is increasingly suburban, and rural legislators have organized to make sure their voices are heard on problems ranging from water lines to unemployment. "Meant as a counterbalance to Tennessee's increasingly powerful cities, these rural caucuses will fight to bring more money back to smaller communities," reports Chas Sisk of The Tennessean.

However, there is a Republican rural caucus and a Democratic rural caucus, and partisanship is a powerful force. "Whether the caucuses prove effective will depend on their ability to build coalitions across party lines," Bruce Oppenheimer, a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, told Sisk. "Otherwise, they'll simply be minor constituencies within their own parties, with no more power to influence policy."

Neither caucus has set an agenda. With $573 million in federal stimulus money coming to the state for highway and bridge work, several rural members have identified those funds as a way to bring down unemployment. According to the Center for Rural Strategies, a Kentucky-based advocacy group with an office in Tennessee, unemployment in Tennessee's rural counties is one-third higher than its urban counties. "And even that understates the severity of the recession in some parts of the countryside," adds Sisk. "Water use is also a pressing concern for rural lawmakers. The state's farmers suffered greatly in the droughts of the last two summers, but little attention is being paid to how water is distributed through the state over the long term." (Read more)

IRJCI Director Al Cross adds: The caucuses are another milepost on the road to less rural influence in politics, a trend in which Tennessee played a major role 47 years ago. In the Tennessee case of Baker v. Carr, the U.S. Supreme Court opened the door to federal lawsuits challenging the apportionment of districts. Cases from Georgia and Alabama led to the principle of "one person, one vote" and the end of rural control in states where rural residents were a minority.