How the campaign for Nashville's Amendment 1 police oversight trounced the well-financed opposition

They were outspent nearly 30 to 1 by their opposition, led by the Nashville Fraternal Order of Police, in the fight over Amendment 1. 

But the campaign for Nashville's community oversight board said they had something more powerful than money and television ads that propelled them to a lopsided victory Tuesday.

It took a community organizing effort across a wide range of social advocacy groups, old-fashioned word-of-mouth among friends, a steady ground game and, perhaps most importantly, the right message for turbulent times in Nashville — accountability, according to backers. 

Nashville's historic ratification of Amendment 1 to the Metro Charter ultimately wasn't close, with 134,135 Nashvillians voting for the measure compared to 94,055 against it, or 59 percent to 41 percent.

Election 2018:Nashville's Amendment 1 passes overwhelmingly

What you should know:Nashville approves police oversight board

The vote for the progressive-backed policy reflected the city's Democratic political leanings with liberal areas including North Nashville, southeast Nashville and neighborhoods near the city's urban core voting for ratification.

It lost in conservative areas around the county's edge such as Forest Hills and Belle Meade as well as Hermitage, Bellevue and Old Hickory. 

'David versus Goliath' 

The campaign was led by activists, many who are African-American. Passage of the amendment, inspired by heightened claims of racial bias in the police force, will change the Metro Charter by forming a new 11-member panel with investigative and compulsory powers to review arrests and police actions. 

"It was definitely a David versus Goliath type of battle," said Gicola Lane, campaign coordinator for Community Oversight Now, adding that the movement for Amendment 1 gained momentum over 20 months that saw setbacks and triumphs. 

Over that time, protests over fatal police shootings of two African-American men brought added attention to the cause. An ordinance early this year that sought to create the panel legislatively failed in the Metro Council. But supporters later won a petition drive to add the measure on the ballot, overcoming a legal challenge by the Nashville FOP. 

Those events only rallied people behind the effort, Lane said.

When the short campaign got underway in September, the Nashville FOP organized a political action committee that quickly bankrolled a series of television ads that — instead of targeting the concept of police oversight — called the panel a $10 million tax hike. The attack was the basis of the opposition campaign even though the amendment does not raises taxes.

To operate its campaign and commercials, the police union hired a consultant from Columbus, Ohio, that works with fraternal orders of police around the country. 

"Honestly, I don't have an answer to that question," James Smallwood, president of the Nashville FOP, said when asked why he believes the amendment passed so overwhelmingly.

"I'm not going to point fingers on what caused the margin," he said. "Obviously, the voters gave their opinion and they've spoken to the city. I have no idea why there's a margin so wide."

High turnout might have given amendment a boost

Some structural factors might have helped Amendment 1 on Tuesday. 

The charter amendment coincided with massive voter turnout in Nashville spurred by the midterm election — 245,676 voters overall, just shy of Davidson County's pace for the 2016 presidential election.

Although Republicans easily swept statewide races in Tennessee for U.S. Senate and governor, the midterms rallied Democrats in droves in blue-leaning Davidson County.

The amendment performed the best in Nashville's Democratic strongholds, especially  African-American neighborhoods, where the combination of a high-profile Senate race and the police oversight issue made turnout especially strong.

Five other charter amendments were on the table, too, and each passed except a proposal to increase council term limits.

"If you look at the transit vote (in May), the typical kind of political scenario is that if you want to win, you want a low turnout election," said Sekou Franklin, a Middle Tennessee State University political scientist and activist for Community Oversight Now.  

"But when we began talking about the referendum, our argument was this is going to be a high turnout election and Democrats are going to be energized, and this could actually be  to our advantage."

Referendum's partisan leanings might have hurt FOP

Sekou said the Nashville FOP, which was supported publicly by the Davidson County Republican Party, might have hurt themselves by making the Amendment 1 fight "a hyper-partisan" election in a blue city.

"We wondered whether it was a way to drive up Marsha Blackburn's numbers in Davidson County, as a way to potentially balance out any numbers Bredesen may receive in East Tennessee," he said.

While the Nashville FOP spent heavily on TV, the pro-Amendment 1 coalition paid less than $5,000 for a singe TV ad, instead focusing more of their efforts on digital ads and grassroots efforts.

To reach their voters via door-to-door canvassing and phone-banking, Community Oversight Now organizers say they tapped into the networks of allies such as the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and Black Voters Matter.

They targeted veterans, young people, Latinos, African-Americans and progressive white voters.

As a result, Lane said she believes Amendment 1 attracted many Nashvillians who don't typically go to the polls despite the vote colliding with the midterm election.

"There were people voting who don't normally vote who came out and voted for Amendment 1 as well," she said.

Victory came despite mayor not supporting amendment 

The push for the oversight board goes back to the 1970s, when black leaders first started demanding the oversight board following a high-profile police fatal shooting of an African-American Tennessee State University student.

Talks rejuvenated again following the February 2017 death of Jocques Clemmons, a 30-year-old African-American man who was shot and killed in the James A. Cayce housing projects by white police officer after a traffic stop. 

Making Tuesday's result more intriguing is that the amendment lacked support from Mayor David Briley, who raised concerns about the referendum's language. Briley is up for re-election next August. 

Briley's predecessor, former Mayor Megan Barry, had also expressed reservations publicly about moving forward with an oversight board.

Although Briley said he supports the concept of community oversight, he cautioned against "budgeting by amendment." The amendment carries an estimated $1.5 million annual price tag.

In a statement following its passage, Briley said "the people of Nashville have spoken," adding that he will support the amendment as promised and start by meeting with involved parties as earlier as next week.

"I have always asserted that civilian oversight is essential to ensuring that we have a 21st-century approach to policing," he said. "Thankfully best practices exist to help us chart a path forward, and I will do all I can to help ensure the Community Oversight Board is successful."

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Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236, jgarrison@tennessean.com and on Twitter @joeygarrison.