A group of Red Bank citizens recently formed Red Bank Forward, a political action committee that supports “progressive” policies and candidates seeking office on the Hamilton County City Commission and School Board.
A political action committee is a tax-exempt organization that raises and spends funds to support or oppose candidates or ballot measures.
Members of Red Bank Forward said they created the committee in response to an increase in outside funding from Republican sources for candidates for the city commission, a nonpartisan body, in the last election in 2022.
Red Bank Forward’s website describes the group as “a powerful collective of Red Bank residents and neighbors supporting progressive candidates to create meaningful change in our community.”
According to the committee’s website, membership requires a minimum contribution of $5 per month, but non-members are welcome to attend meetings or make one-time donations.
“We all have our own plans,” said membership director Drake Pertuit of the group’s members.
Some members want more pickleball courts or crosswalks on Dayton Boulevard, a library or curbside recycling facilities – or at least answers to why these things don’t exist yet, Pertuit said in an interview.
“But we are not as organized as people with other intentions,” he said.
Pertuit said the Hamilton County Republican Party’s support of some candidates for Red Bank’s City Commission in 2022 “went against the grain” for him.
“We believe in low taxes and sound judgment, and even though this is a nonpartisan election, I believe our job is to put the best fiscal conservatives in office that we can find, and that’s exactly what we’re trying to do,” Arch Trimble IV, chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party, said by phone in 2022 when asked why the party was supporting candidates in the nonpartisan race.
(READ MORE: Citizen criticizes lack of transparency in Red Bank candidates’ campaign flyer)
The county Republican Party’s goal of keeping taxes low at all costs is the exact opposite of what Red Bank Forward members want, Pertuit said.
“We see the progress that’s being made, and we also see that Red Bank is in danger of losing a lot of progress made by people like Arch Trimble,” Pertuit said. “They don’t want new city services. They’re opposed to comprehensive planning because they don’t want money to be spent on it. They want this kind of reactionary management of city services, and it’s because all they care about is low taxes.”
Red Bank Forward plans to present and recruit potential candidates for the Red Bank Commission who share the organization’s values and support its campaigns, Pertuit said.
Members’ interests include the future of the former Red Bank Middle School property at 3715 Dayton Blvd., which is vacant and owned by the city of Red Bank, as well as increased funding for public education and improvements to stormwater infrastructure and multimodal transportation, he said.
In its supplemental year-end report for 2023, the group had 24 donors. Contributions ranged from $5 to $350, for a total of nearly $2,000. The first quarter 2024 report showed 24 donors gave between $5 and $150 each, for a total of $941.
All but one of the contributors live in the 37415 zip code, which includes the city of Red Bank and parts of the city of Chattanooga.
Red Bank Forward uses ActBlue Charities Inc., a political action committee and fundraising platform for Democratic and left-leaning politicians and nonprofits, to process its donations, but the committee considers itself nonpartisan, Pertuit said.
“Since it’s one of the few nonpartisan elections in our district, we wanted to make sure that stayed that way and that we focused on issues that would improve our community rather than things that are being discussed nationally,” Corey Petree, vice chair of Red Bank Forward, said by phone about why he felt the city needed a political action committee. “It was disturbing to see the Republican Party start pouring money into local elections, especially as we felt we were gaining momentum and starting to put together some good plans.”
The measures supported by the group are consistent with goals the city commission set during its strategic planning process, such as improving access to parks and recreation areas and improving the safety of city streets for pedestrians and cyclists, Petree said.
“It’s just a group of citizens who are really excited about the direction Red Bank is going and the forward-thinking nature of some of our leaders, and we just want to find a way to capture that momentum and keep it going,” Petree said.
Another goal of the committee is to combat disinformation, he said.
“I feel like there is unjustified fearmongering going on here. We’re really trying to make sure citizens know what’s actually going on and how things are impacting them,” Petree said.
False information that spread online when the commission raised the city’s tax rate in 2023 was an example of what the organization wants to combat, he said.
(READ MORE: Red Bank commissioners approve 52% tax hike)
“It would have been really nice if we had the opportunity to send out emails to inform citizens what the increase actually looks like for them, rather than some numbers floating around on the internet,” Petree said. “We will definitely try very hard to focus on the facts and leave out any partisan statements.”
The group holds monthly public meetings, sometimes featuring guests such as Leslie Johnson, who answered questions about her duties as the city’s deputy director of public works and her role in the city’s comprehensive planning efforts, Pertuit said.
Expenses reported in the organization’s financial reports include credit card processing fees, bank fees and advertising. No payouts were made to political candidates.
Two of the five seats on Red Bank’s City Commission are up for election in the November 5 election. Two candidates, Vice Mayor Stefanie Dalton and Terri Holmes, have qualified to run, and Michael McCain has filed his papers.
Ben Connor, a Democrat who represents Red Bank on the Hamilton County School Board, ends his four-year term in August 2026.
Contact Emily Crisman at [email protected] or 423-757-6508.
