DeLanis
Although its website doesn’t reflect it yet, the Davidson County Election Commission has a new member – and yet another lawyer.
James DeLanis, an attorney at Baker Donelson, participated in last Thursday’s commission meeting, less than a week after the State Election Commission approved his appointment by the county’s Republican legislative delegation. DeLanis replaces former Metro councilman and state Rep. Jim Gotto, a Republican who announced his resignation just before his colleagues voted to fire Election Administrator Albert Tieche on May 9.
Gotto, who cast the only dissenting vote on Tieche’s dismissal, may have had the shortest tenure in election commission history. He and three other members of the five-person panel had been appointed just a month earlier.
DeLanis’s appointment means there are now four attorneys on the commission. The other two Republicans, Chairman Ron Buchanan and Jennifer Lawson, are both lawyers, as is Democrat Tricia Herzfeld. The other Democrat, Tennessee AFL-CIO official A.J. Starling, is the lone exception.
Starling also is the only member who had served on the commission before this year. He started in 2003.
