Blount mayor ready to move past ‘monkey’ comment

By Joel Davis
of The Daily Times Staff

Blount County Mayor Jerry Cunningham wants to move past the furor about his comments at the Lincoln Day Dinner on Friday night when he apparently compared Democrats on the Blount County Commission to monkeys.

“It’s an issue that needs to go away instead of being whipped up,” he said on Tuesday. “I’m just not going to comment on it any further.”

As reported in Saturday’s edition of The Daily Times, Cunningham, during his comments, had been recounting a conversation that took place on a night when he was upset with the three Democratic commission members — whom he didn’t name.

“It was one of those nights that I was mad at those three on the commission, and I had a committee meeting and all three of there were on it,” he had said. “And I said, ‘Well, I’ll go to the bottom of the hill and I can turn right and go to the Knoxville Zoo, or I can turn left and go to that committee meeting. And I can see the monkeys at the zoo or I can see them at the committee meeting. This next election ... do us a favor and turn those three Democrats out to pasture, for God’s sake.”

County Commissioner David Ballard, one of those Democrats, was philosophical about the comments attributed to Cunningham.

“It’s a Republican dinner, so you are going to say things to fire up and motive the troops,” he said. “I can understand that, but, in contrast, at our (Democratic Party) Roosevelt Dinner a couple weeks ago, we were more or less in the mind-set of providing free and equal treatment to all kinds of people and looking forward to moving into the future and doing better things.”

Ballard said there are more constructive approaches to politics.

“It just seems to be me the same old Karl Rove type of politics that have left this country in the divisive state it is in,” he said. “I pretty much find it par for the course. We all need to be figuring out a way to be moving forward together rather than having to put each other down to get ahead anywhere.”

Democrat County Commissioner Wendy Pitts-Reeves said what bothered her more is that Cunningham seemed to be distancing himself from the comment.

“If he is brave enough to make those comments in front of 350 people, he should either be willing to stand by what he said or he should apologize,” said Reeves. “That bothers me more than anything that he’s not standing by his words.”

Commissioner Bob Proffitt, the third of the commission Democrats, said he tries to operate in a non-partisan manner on the County Commission.

“Though a Democrat, my election in no way was accomplished entirely along party lines nor do my votes adhere closely on party lines,” he said. “Many issues come before the commission of 21, and, without exception, my fellow commissioners have treated me with professional respect even when we disagree. Most of us are good friends.

“His remarks ... crossed the proper line, in my opinion, even in a strong partisan setting. My long interest and participation in competitive sports is a continual reminder that no one team wins all the time. When the political scene becomes overly abrasive, the real losers are those who are discouraged to seek public office or even to vote. Even though it was said in jest, the readers do not realize that. It is taken seriously.”