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September 29, 2006
District 33 Update
The ever-eminent Tennessee Politics Blog alerts us to the withdrawal of one Michael Floyd from the District 33 Senate race. Floyd is a Republican who had intended on facing former Sen. Kathryn Bowers in November, but who instead was up against Bowers' replacement, Reginald Tate. It sounds like the GOP barely missed an opportunity to name a replacement candidate, and that now Tate will be the only name on the ballot.
My question is, what exactly are the rules regarding names appearing on ballots after an election's withdrawal deadline has passed? Do counties have separate rules? I'm pretty sure that Jim Hall will appear as an opponent to Bo Watson in the District 11 race, even though Hall announced his withdrawal quite some time ago. The reason his name will still be there is that he withdrew after the deadline, which is a few weeks after the qualifying deadline, in Hamilton County. I was wrong. Hall's name is not on this document.
But I know that sometimes names stay on the ballot. Mine did, in 2002, even though I had moved to another district. I disqualified myself from serving in that district (it turned out to be 28, though when I started preparing to run it was 27 -- dontcha love gerrymandering? I lived in the same house). I did everything I was told to do regarding withdrawing, except that I couldn't withdraw; it was past the deadline. I even had to keep sending finance reports to Drew Rawlins and his crew, even though every report had zero on it, through the post-election reporting period. (I'm not complaining; I promote disclosure. I just would rather have been able to withdraw fully from all considerations about that race, since I had moved out of the district.)
So what are the rules? I don't believe that Jim Hall withdrew before the deadline (but I could be wrong), and I know that Michael Floyd's decision is well past it. I'm not sure of exactly what drives all of these maneuvers, but it seems to me that this is yet another case for non-partisan (as opposed to bipartisan) election commissions, at the state and county levels. I'm all for candidates being removed from ballots when their being there would confuse and distract voters from the actual choices; but I'd rather the process occur through simple, open means than through whatever deal-making happens among the party leaders and election commissioners across the state.
State Senate Elections | By joe lance | 02:58 PM