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September 15, 2008
A shakeup, a shakedown, and a breakdown in the race to control the Tennessee Senate
The Nashville Post's A. C. Kleinheider -- hereafter called the Kleinheider 5000, as I'm convinced it's a machine, not a man -- has been virtually nonstop in covering some rather sordid developments in the struggle over an evenly divided state Senate.
In the district currently served by the General Assembly's only independent legislator, there are revelations of an affair between Senator Mike Williams' GOP opponent, Mike Faulk (a divorced attorney from Church Hill), and Kelli Walker (a married schoolteacher in Hawkins County, and erstwhile president of the local Young Republicans group).
Will this help "the maverick of Maynardville" (i.e., Williams)? That remains to be seen. It cannot but damage Faulk's chances, if only slightly. Part of the formula lies in how Faulk handles the situation from here, especially as Williams himself hasn't always been perfect, as David Oatney reminds us.
Faulk is not the only Senate candidate with an adulterous mess on his hands. Randy Camp, a Democrat who is running for the seat long held by former Lt. Gov. John Wilder, has admitted to one as well. And Camp's former brother-in-law has made sure to disseminate plenty of the details as widely as possible, in order to detract voters from choosing him.
Moving on, then, to the really lowdown and dirty story of recent days: the decision over whether Senator Rosalind Kurita's knife-edged victory of nineteen votes over primary challenger Tim Barnes was enough for her to hold the seat. (There is no further opposition, so the primary victor wins outright in November.)
In January 2007, Sen. Kurita, a Democrat, cast her vote for the GOP nominee for Speaker of the Senate, rather than for the senator from Mason (and from her own party) who'd held that seat for over three decades. As a result, Republicans control the chamber for the first time in modernity. Tennessee's Democrats went after Kurita to teach her a lesson, and put a lot of effort into the insurgent Barnes campaign.
However, the election was declared for Kurita -- so Barnes challenged the result. The state Executive Committee met over the weekend to decide what to do, and voted by a three-to-one margin (with two abstentions) to refer the matter to a joint committee made up of party leaders in the three counties that make up the district. All indications are that this next group will name Barnes the nominee, and therefore the de facto winner.
The gist of the challenge by Barnes sounds a note readers will recognize after the GOP primary in the First Congressional district, when outgoing U.S. Rep. David Davis claimed that the primary won by Phil Roe was infiltrated by Democrats. So, too, came the claim that District 22 Republicans interfered in the Barnes-Kurita match-up.
There's only one problem. The opportunity provided by law to prove malicious intent by a crossover voter is limited to a direct challenge in the polling place. (This is made difficult, one would imagine, by the prevalence of early voting.) The state Senate election was certified as a victory, albeit narrow, for Rosalind Kurita, and the state Executive Committee has chosen to ignore that fact. The only apparent reason for their choice is, in my opinion, petty partisan revenge.
So a few Republicans voted in the primary? Tennessee has no party registration, and has open primaries. It would be hard to show that a voter has not simply had a "change of heart" -- but even beyond that, with no candidate of their own, were Clarksville Republicans supposed to just sit on their hands? I think I may have heard that some -- gasp -- Democrats voted in the primary between former Rep. Jim Vincent and current Rep. Jim Cobb in House District 31. Were they trying to spoil an election, or were they just trying to participate in their representative government?
Though they don't mean anything, the connections between the principals in these three stories are interesting. Sen. Williams got into trouble with the Republicans last session (2005-06), when he did what Kurita did this time, and voted for Gov. Wilder. Two years later, after Kurita effectively handed the gavel to Senator Ron Ramsey, Williams then voted for Ramsey; but shortly thereafter left the party and declared himself Independent. And, of course, it's Wilder's former seat that Randy Camp is trying to win.
Political News , State Senate Elections | By joe lance | 7:20 AM
Comments
Well stated, Joe. If we had registration by party, this would have been a moot point, and Barnes would have won on his own. As much as I wanted Kurita beaten for what she did, I still don't think this was the right thing to have done.
Posted by: LeftWingCracker at September 15, 2008 11:31 AM
How can I personally contact
Joe Lance? I need to talk with him.
Thanks, SR
Posted by: Stephen Ruf at September 24, 2008 8:47 AM