A “preliminary review” of the sworn complaint of John Avery Emison against the Vote Yes on 2, LLC committee will be considered at the TN Registry of Election Finance Board at its next regular meeting on March 11, 2015.

Emison filed a complaint with TREF on Feb. 2, 2015 on the basis that there has been no meaningful disclosure of the $1,225,000 in “dark money” that was donated to the Vote Yes on 2 LLC committee by an apparently affiliated entity, the Tennessee Business Partnership Corporation, both of which share the same “principal address” which is the office suite of Bass, Berry and Sims law firm in Nashville.

Gov. Haslam and the members of the Tennessee Supreme Court endorsed Amendment 2 and campaigned across the state under the auspices of the Vote Yes on 2 LLC committee. Emison’s position is that every politician (which seems to a reasonable man to be reasonable) everywhere knows who gives them a million dollars. Emison believes it is not a credible position that they did not know who actually donated 74-percent of the funds raised by the Vote Yes on 2 committee. Therefore, Emison called on the Governor and the judges of the Tennessee Supreme Court to reveal who donated the money, and why a contrivance was used to evade proper disclosure during the election and afterwards. Emison contends that the senior office holders in two branches of state government participated in a scheme to avoid disclosing who was actually behind the effort the enact Amendment 2 is shameful or worse.