Monday, 03/05/07

English-bill sponsor used to controversy
Crafton has faced recall drive, death threats, but he's unfazed

By JENNIFER BROOKS
Staff Writer


The dust has barely settled on the English-first debate in council and Councilman Eric Crafton is already spoiling for the next fight.

"That's going to fire them up, huh?" he said, signing his name with a flourish to draft legislation in the council chambers earlier this week. It's a bill that would gut the property values of the owners of the Bellevue Center mall unless they start talking with the city about sprucing up the old shopping center. "I can't wait 'til this hits."

The 39-year-old councilman from Bellevue has made national headlines with his attempt to eradicate bilingual city services in Nashville and over the course of his two terms in office has survived a recall petition, been voted out of office and won those voters back, and has legislated on the existence of Jesus.

He's had death threats. He's been burned in effigy — although that was back in his first term, at the hands of outraged football fans after he voted against the stadium plan. He has more Google hits on his name than almost any other member of council — with the possible exception of Councilman Robert Duvall.

His family wishes he would keep a lower profile. His mother worries when she sees his name in the paper. Sorry, Mrs. Crafton.

Crafton himself is unfazed.

"As long as I'm doing what I feel is right, as long as I'm doing what my constituents ask of me, that sort of thing isn't going to bother me."

He has friends, enemies

On Tuesday, Crafton found himself in the same room with Mayor Bill Purcell, who used the first veto of his administration to kill the English-first legislation. The two proceeded to ignore each other with single-minded determination.

"The mayor doesn't talk to council members," Crafton said.

Purcell confirmed that he and Crafton haven't spoken directly in some time.

"To my knowledge, he has not been much involved in things my administration is invested in — things like public safety and the status of our schools," Purcell said dryly.

Not all of Crafton's political foes turn into personal enemies. East Nashville Councilman Eric Cole fought Crafton tooth and nail on the English-first ordinance but describes Crafton as a friendly colleague who was one of the first to welcome him and show him around when he was elected.

"But I think all of us wish Nashville was (making national headlines) for things like being the best-managed city in America," Cole said. "English-first is probably not that."

Craftonmay be one of the council's most polarizing figures, but he also is one of its more intriguing characters. The man who fought so hard to get rid of the "press 1 for English, press 2 for Spanish" voice mail option himself lives in a bilingual household. He studied Spanish in school and speaks fluent Japanese.

His brother-in-law is a Mexican immigrant.

"The people who disagree with me, it kills them that they can't say I'm doing this because I'm a racist," Crafton said.

He works in construction, an industry notorious for tapping illegal immigrant labor. Not Crafton.

"I've got a couple of guys working for me. I've got legal citizens. They're both white males," he said.

If he had been born in Mexico, though, Crafton says he would be the first one in line to sneak across the river to find work.

"I don't blame the illegal immigrants for coming here. If I were in their shoes, if I were trying to support my family, I'd be doing the same thing," he said.

He stands behind plan

His Japanese-born wife and his sister's Mexican-born husband supported his English-first ordinance, he said, although neither is eager to speak about the issue in the media.

He takes great pride in his brother-in-law's decision to take his driver's license test in English, trying three times before he passed the test.

"I think that speaks to his character," he said. "He does a wonderful job taking care of my sister, he's a hard worker. But when he walks down the street, people are going to think, 'Here's another illegal immigrant.' "

Opponents of English-first worry that the legislation only feeds that sort of discrimination and suspicion against all immigrants, legal and illegal. The bill drew fire from the Chamber of Commerce, and city officials worried that it would damage Nashville's image as a welcoming, inclusive city.

Abelardo Moncayo, an entomologist with the Michigan Department of Health, said the English-first debate was enough to get him and his wife talking about moving away from Nashville.

"When we moved here from Ohio, (the recruiter) talked about Nashville as being very cosmopolitan, very open. This has actually gotten us talking about leaving," he said. "We have to ask ourselves whether we should leave so our kids can live in a more civilized community, or whether we should stay and fight."

Crafton insists that there is no reason for Hispanics or any immigrant group to feel unwelcome because of his bill. New immigrants who truly want to become American will do what his wife, Miko, did when she moved to Nashville to marry him in 1995 — learn English and rely on friends and relatives to translate for you until you do.

By pushing the legislation, Crafton believes he's doing what he was elected to do — listen to the concerns of his constituents and act on them.

He was elected at 27

He was just 27 years old when he was first elected to city council in 1995. Lewis Lampley was on the citizen steering committee that urged the young developer to run, despite his lack of political experience.

"Bellevue needed a council person who would stand up for what was right," said Lampley, who remains one of Crafton's biggest boosters. "He had integrity, he was responsive to the people, and he would do what was right."

Almost immediately, the new councilman began attracting controversy. He fought the stadium deal and supported a controversial plan to construct a Walmart Supercenter near a school on Charlotte Pike.

By 1997, there was a full-blown recall drive on to remove him from office. The drive fell apart after a judge ruled that organizers would have to collect signatures from the entire city, not just his district — but the first-term councilman was voted out in the next election.

Crafton was born and raised in Nashville and after traveling the world, he'd concluded that there's no finer place to live on the planet than Bellevue. It's a tranquil, affluent bedroom community of 34,809 people — only 633 of them Hispanic, according to the 2000 census.

He graduated from Vanderbilt University with high honors and degrees in mathematics and economics. He enlisted in the Navy. After four years of active duty in the Navy, he moved to Japan to study at Keio University in Tokyo. He returned to Nashville in 1994 to help his ailing father.

The Metro Council is a part-time job to him, a form of community service. He also serves as a deacon at his church, a coach for his little girl's basketball team, and his name's down as a volunteer Bingo caller at the Bellevue YMCA.

During the Gulf War, Crafton won the Navy Achievement Medal for steering his ship away from a mine floating just 100 feet off its bow.

He has shown considerably less interest in steering clear of political land mines.

The fact that Crafton doesn't shy away from controversy will surprise exactly nobody who has followed his career. But it does seem to surprise Crafton himself.

"I don't think I'm a controversial person," he said. "It's amazing to me, what I think are common-sense issues turn out to be controversial."

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... /1001/NEWS