When I worked at the @TNHouseReps, almost everyone there knew a woman or an intern who was being sexually harassed by a Representative or had a Rep cross the line with them. However, not one of those women wanted to go to HR to report the member. Why? A 🧵

@TNHouseReps Tennessee is a "right to work" state. At the @TNHouseReps, that phrase is especially laughable. When you get hired there, you don't actually work for the office that hired you. For ex., I worked for the @TNDemocrats but was told that I worked "at the pleasure of the Speaker."

What does that mean? It means if the Speaker doesn't like something you said, did, posted, WHATEVER, you could be fired for no cause at all with zero recourse. My own Chair told me there was little he could do to protect me if the Speaker wanted to fire me.

How does this apply to the issue at hand with Rep. Campbell? Simple. After the Jeremy Durham sexual harassment expulsion, HR rules were rewritten. While I was there, we were supposed to report any allegations of sexual harassment to HR OR TO THE SPEAKER'S OFFICE.

Now, let's think about that. Let's say a Dem staffer was harassed by a Repub member. The Democratic staffer, who was told when she was hired that she worked "at the pleasure of the Speaker," had to report the harassment to the REPUBLICAN SPEAKER'S OFFICE. See the problem there?

Additionally, if the harassed staffer wanted to sue the member for harassment and it her claims were deemed unfounded, SHE HAD TO PAY THE HARASSER'S COURT COSTS AND TREBLE DAMAGES. We referred to this as "Jeremy's Law." tennessean.com/story/news/pol…

As Rep. @VoteBo stated, "...the law would have a 'chilling effect' on potentially legitimate suits." @RepMikeStewart stated, "It is deliberately designed to silence victims." Mitchell introduced legislation to repeal the measure and it failed. Big surprise, right?

In the 50-page AG report that detailed Durham's actions, the AG found that they affected his relationship not only w/lobbyists, but also interns. Several interns came forward, saying they felt “super uncomfortable” & didn’t want to be “that girl” who stood up to a legislator.

"Intern Jane Doe No. 44, after being the object of Rep. Durham’s advances in 2015, stated that she informed legislative staff but didn’t want to file a formal complaint bc she wanted to keep herself out of it. She, too, had hoped for a legislative career.” tinyurl.com/ym363jda

And how did Speaker Harwell handle the situation? BY BLAMING THE INTERNS. Rather than get her House in order, she prohibited interns from attending receptions/events related to the legislature, and by instructing them not to give their phone #s out to the reps they worked for.

As @AuntB noted, "Any policy or precautionary measure that curtails the behavior of potential victims and doesn't curtail the behavior of the perpetrators is never going to work." And clearly, it didn't. nashvillescene.com/news/pithinthe…

And so here we are again, right back where we started, with Rep. Scotty Campbell being found guilty by the bipartisan House Ethics Comm of sexually harassing two interns. And odds are he won't be expelled, bc as another user noted, he didn't use a bullhorn when he did it. ###END

NB: Luckily, I was never harassed by a legislator when I worked there - but not everyone was that lucky.

@TNHouseReps See the receipts:

https://twitter.com/kjchambers/status/1649154759025213440?s=20