The Rochelle Curse

Harold Ford Jr. is a man of few mistakes or contradictions. He says what he means and means what he says, never contradicts himself, but is always willing to take the blame for his own mistakes.

Heh...OK, seriously now. Jeff Woods is still looking at Harold Ford's new book "More Davids Than Goliaths" in which he takes Herculean efforts to cast himself as some sort of outsider and "David" to the "Goliaths". In it, he apparently is willing to admit two mistakes in his campaign for Senate:

[Ford] acknowledges two that hurt his '06 Senate campaign: (1) confronting Bob Corker like a petulant brat outside an airport hangar in what became known as the Memphis Meltdown and (2) attending a fund-raiser for the state Senate candidacy of income tax proponent Bob Rochelle.

I will give him that first one, it surely hurt his campaign to look like a child next to Bob Corker when he pulled that stunt. But is he seriously blaming his loss on attending a fundraiser for Bob Rochelle? Fact is, while he didn't do much fund-raising on his behalf, Phil Bredesen endorsed Rochelle for his 2006 Senate bid and also attended a breakfast with Rochelle towards the end of the campaign. And yet Bredesen went on to have the biggest Gubernatorial victory in Tennessee, while Ford narrowly lost his challenge.

Are we to presume that had Bredesen not endorsed Rochelle he would have gone on to win by an even larger margin? I thinks not. No, ultimately the name John Ford, the Memphis Meltdown, and Jr's own inability to seem the least bit genuine cost him his election. Maybe now that he is living in New York and doesn't have to pretend to be a Tennessee Good Ol' Boy those three factors won't be as much an issue in the future. But this book certainly isn't helping him get over that latter hump.

Wilson County : Bredesen 65-34% Bryson; Corker 58-41% Ford

Mike's Too Butch

Besty Phillips takes umbrage with "our next Governor" Mike McWherter's campaign theme of "Mike Works!," in which he dons a blue-collar shirt (get it?) with his name tag on the front and a seemingly redundant campaign sticker. According to B, he needs to pump a little estrogen into his campaign:

When does McWherter go do a job that's not so much about how manly he is? When do we see him shadowing a kindergarten teacher? Or working in a daycare? Why doesn't he get on the line with some of the gals at Tyson? Or sweep up at a hair salon? Or follow around an administrative assistant? Or bag some groceries?

Women have blue-collar jobs too. Aren't they worth doing?

In fairness to Mike, he did call bingo at a retirement/assisted living facility.

Whether this was him trolling for votes or him playing the role of an orderly I don't know...but its certainly not the definition of manliness. Granted, many of his other roles do involve McWherter in agricultural, manufacturing or restaurant capacities, but it goes more with his "blue collar" theme (though I've never seen a waiter wearing a blue collar, but I digress).

Burden To Be Lightened for Neighborhood Restaurants

I meant to post on this a while back but plumb forgot...Councilman Jamie Hollin [that's Hollins to you Pam] and Erik Cole are trying to make it easier for neighborhood restaurants to serve beer if already approved for the sale of liquor by the state.

The measure would set aside zoning restrictions requiring restaurants to go through a lengthy council process if seeking a beer permit for a place of business within 100 feet of a "church, a school or its playground, a park, a licensed day care center or nursery school or their playgrounds, or a dwelling for one or two families," so long as the state gives them approval for a liquor license (see: Taco Mamacita).

Ben West Backs Sam Coleman

Despite flirting with the Republican party in his endorsement of CeCe Heil, retiring Rep. Ben West Jr. isn't gonna go all Judas on his friends in the House Democratic Caucus...via a presser:

“I am casting my total support behind Sam, because he understands the needs of Hermitage, Donelson and Antioch,” West said. “I plan to work tirelessly to ensure that his transition into the state house is a smooth one. I know that he will continue to serve the district in a fine manner.”

Going Green To Save Green

Random thought here, so bare with me...

This past election day I took time off from work to volunteer on the Yarbro and Turner races. When I got to the Yarbro HQ's I got drafted into phone banking. While there was nothing much eventful on my end, just leaving a bunch of messages, a fellow phone banker ran into a rather angry voter who was "appalled" at the amount of mail she'd gotten from the Yarbro campaign over the past few months. She was, from what I could tell, a dirty hippie whose heart wept for all the screaming trees cut down in the prime of their life so that Jeff Yarbro might be the next State Senator for District 21. While I was rather dismissive at the time (and still am to an extent) the caller did have a point...mailings during a campaign can get to be obnoxiously voluminous.

So, here's an idea...why not have an opt out feature? Pretty much all campaigns have some sort of ID to go with the name and address, so why not print the ID on the mailer and have a note on the bottom saying, "If you'd like to reduce waste and get emails instead log onto ..." Obviously, they could opt out altogether without signing up for emails, but for those who are interested the campaigns could get those email addresses (far cheaper than postal mail) and the person in question would be compelled to go to the campaign site and perhaps see something they like not printed on the mail piece.

Seems like a win-win, with a low implementation cost and in line with progressive dirty hippie values.

Dickerson Gets Some Ink

Believe it or not, Sen. Henry is not re-elected yet. Despite all the hullabaloo over the Democratic Primary, there is one GOPer left standing in the form of Steve Dickerson, an anesthesiologist, who like all of Henry's opponents, loves him some Doug Henry:

"(Henry) served admirably since the first time he ran, when President Truman was in office," Dickerson said from his office inside the Hendersonville Medical Center. "What I offer, and the reason I'm running, is not in any way to disparage him, but rather to offer the perspective of a physician."

In terms of money, the race is all but over. Sen. Henry has seemingly unlimited resources (called his bank account) while Dickerson has fluctuated from having damn near $50,000 to now sitting on about $5k. How this happened isn't entirely clear. Back when Dickerson posted his first Q2 report he had a mysterious looking set of contributions, all in increments of $869.57 totaling about $20K dollars. All the givers worked for an LLC called Phydata, which had its contributions adjusted (given) back in his pre-primary report. Dickerson also in his Pre-Primary report showed a $30K contribution from Phymed Mgt in Nashville, but that was adjusted to zero in the same report.

When we zero out these $50K in contributions we are left with a handful of decent sized checks from various contributors and a $32K personal loan from the candidate. I contacted his Treasurer, Troy Brewer, back in July for details on the Phydata contributors but never received any response...the report was subsequently adjusted to remove the names of the individual contributors totaling $20K.

While Sen. Henry may suffer a bit from lower enthusiasm by the more liberal/progressive Dems in his district who aren't thrilled with our Guber nominee and aren't quite jazzed about Sen. Henry seeing his 40th year in the Senate...in all likelihood he'll make up the difference from the Haslam supporters who are OK with a Conservative Democrat like Henry and won't know much, if anything, about Dr. Dickerson. I'd expect about a 57-43 margin of victory for The Senatuh.

Once Again, The Lotto Eludes

Waiting for the results of the Yarbro/Henry recount has been like sitting on a powerball ticket. In your head, you know you probably aren't gonna win, in your heart, you start spending the money.

Either way, according to Nate Rau the results of the recount have actually increased Sen. Henry's lead from 11 to 17, thus closing the book on this primary season, and more than likely ushering in another four year term for The Senatuh. Congrats to he and his staff, and thanks to Jeff Yarbro for well representing Nashville's young progressive community in a hard-fought contest that came up just short of victory. Very much looking forward to what he has in store for the future.

Omni Hotel Coming To Nashville

Mayor Dean is right now presenting the new convention center hotel specs to a press conference at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Michael Cass is reporting via Twitter that there will be an 800 room, $250 million dollar Omni hotel built to go with the convention center. The hotel is projected to create 300 full time jobs, with 200 of them filled by Middle Tennesseans. According to Omni, the hotel will be a Four Diamond venture that fits in with Nashville's theme.

Councilwoman Emily Evans and Local Curmudgeon Mike Byrd have their questions about this proposal. Most importantly about what the incentives from Nashville Metro will be and what the conditions are for whether we'll be on the hook for a million bones should the deal fall through.

Update: Cass has more details on the proposal, which includes a fairly heft obligation by the Metro Government general fund should revenues fail to come to fruition:

Irving, Texas-based Omni plans to pay cash to build the hotel rather than financing it by taking on debt. In return for Omni taking on all of the construction and operating risk and committing to maintain the hotel at a four-diamond level, Metro government plans to give the company about $103 million in sales tax revenues and other monies generated by the facility over a period of 20 years, as well as about $25 million in additional financing to repay Omni for its land acquisitions.

The city would pledge to use non-tax revenues in its general fund to pay Omni if the tourism revenues--which are committed to paying off convention center debt first and foremost--fell short.

Michael Cass has more details on the deal with regards to the Tax Increment Financing.

A Classy End

Gail Kerr takes a trip down memory lane in the soon to be determined race for the Democratic nomination in the 21st Senate District.

Henry is a beloved old-school character who is conservative enough to make Republicans happy, while being a staunch defender of democracy and an expert on state finances. Yarbro is an optimistic, hard-working up-and-comer who ran a tough campaign and unabashedly takes stands on issues far to the left of Henry.

Yes, Yarbro did come out unabashedly opposed to marital rape...damn lefty. Oh, and this: "Yarbro supporters pointed to Henry's age: He has grandbabies older than Yarbro's child. They called for new blood."

Must've missed that talking point, because if I had seen it, I would have ridiculed the shit out of it. I mean, my Grandfather (Mom's side) has great-grandchildren older than Jeff's son Jack and he's about 15-20 years younger than Sen. Henry.

But Gail Kerr does have an interesting idea as to what Sen. Henry should do if he wins the recount:

And as part of his victory speech, Henry should announce his retirement after this term. No, not because of his age — yes, he is moving slower, but his mind is still sharp as a Swiss blade.

He should retire after one more four-year term because the voters in his district are clearly divided. Serve this term, and then retire with all the respect and accolades he is due, leaving on his own terms.

No, that he'd be 88 years old should have no bearing on his decision to retire, simply that he only narrowly won his primary...I mean, by that logic, Barack Obama should've announced that he wasn't going to run again in 2012 due to his narrow victory against Hillary Clinton.

Maybe I'm being too hard on Kerr here, ultimately her article is nice in its sentimentality of the way this race is ending. Jeff Yarbro has worked hard to remain respectful of The Senatuh both during his campaign and now, while Sen. Henry, personally, has been gracious and understanding of Yarbro's challenge to both him and the election results.

Barring a recount ending in a tie we should know by the end of the work day who is the Democratic nominee. Obviously, the odds are in Sen. Henry's favor, but the failures of the election commission thus far make the possibility of an upset very real. We shall see soon enough.

Republicans Turning Ire Towards Lobbyists

The Republicans, feeling confident in a complete takeover of State Government this November, have launched a website explicitly designed to target Democratic or Democratic friendly lobbyists up at the Capitol. Two initial targets will be Nathan Poss, a former aide to Sen. Bob Rochelle, and Anna Windrow, formerly with Sen. Jim Sasser and Governor Bredesen.

This move, trying to root out political loyalties and get Democratic lobbyists fired, is similar to the "K Street Project" initiated by Tom Delay after the GOP takeover in 1994 of Congress. A project that led to the complete corruption of the Republican party up in Washington and the retaking of Congress by the Democrats in 2006.

No word on who specifically is behind this website. The domain is blocked by a proxy company, but its most likely either someone with the party or the caucus trying to scare lobbyists and PACs away from giving money to the Democrats this year.

(h/t JR Lind)

Recount Most Likely Tomorrow

Michael Cass is twittering from the Election Commission meeting where they have just certified the results of the primary election, despite trepidations from at least one member who said he was "embarrassed" over the errors in the Yarbro/Henry race.

The EC has decided to hold the recount tomorrow around 1PM, assuming the State Democratic Primary Board calls for it later today, which in all likelihood will happen. The paper (absentee and provision) ballots will be counted at the election commission HQ, while the machines will be "recounted" over at the warehouse where they are stored.

MOU And Me

"Our next Governor" Mike McWherter spoke to a visibly enthusiastic group of union members to give them the skinny on what he's gonna do for them come 2011 when he's the Governor of Tennessee. A snippet:

McWherter welcomed the opportunity to “give more than a 30 second soundbite” and started by saying that he fully supported the right of public employees to organize. He also thought that M.O.U’s (memorandums of understanding) should be legally binding for both the employer and employees, even in a right-to-work state like Tennessee. “To me, an M.O.U. is a contract,” McWherter said. “I would support MOU enforceability”. McWherter expressed concern about the perception among many Tennesseans who have no real knowledge of unions that “when they hear the phrase ‘collective bargaining’ they think you mean ‘the right to strike’”. McWherter specifically said that he would support the kind of collective bargaining bill that Rep. Mike Turner and other pro-labor Democrats sponsored in the last session of the General Assembly – one that had a “no-strike” clause.

McWherter, who worked his way up from nothing and never had anything in life handed to him, took on ol' Richie Rich...“I like Bill Haslam - he’s a nice enough guy. But he comes from wealth and just has no clue about what an average Tennessee family faces today." He reiterated his calls to cut the sales tax on groceries and have targeted tax cuts for small businesses to create jobs.

The Post In Which I Kinda Sorta Defend McWherter

Mike McWherter is catching some flack from Jeff Woods and other liberals/progressives over a comment he made about mosques. In short, he criticizes Republicans for trashing the Bill of Rights and then proceeds to go into why the Murfreesboro Islamic Center might be going in the wrong spot for zoning and traffic reasons.

Now, in so far as that goes, what McWherter said really isn't that bad. After all, I remember a great deal of the urban liberal/progressive community getting all fired up about opposing the May Town development on account of it conflicted with the rural nature of the Bells Bend area and could result in traffic congestion problems. At the time, my feeling was more or less that its private property and private funds and I thought that the traffic issues could be dealt with accordingly over time...but I was evidently in the minority on this one.

Now, we've got a situation where religion is involved but generally speaking similar principles are at stake. You've got a local community worried about disruptions to their vision of the area, as well as concerns about congestion, and you've got a private landowner trying to use their land for specific purposes.

Here's a picture of the proposed development.


We've got tennis courts, a soccer field, a playground, and a meeting/religious facility in the center. Altogether the drawing proposes about 200 or so parking spaces for the facilities. The area in question is at the intersection of two, two-lane roads. Assuming that all 200 spaces are filled up during times of assembly or activities, could this pose problems? Sure. I bet at certain times this cultural center could be disruptive to local traffic and sometimes down right inconveniencing. For some locals it could add anywhere from five to potentially ten minutes to their weekend trips to Wal-Mart.

But that's life folks. Backed when I lived in Antioch/Brentioch there were many occasions where my trip to the grocery store or whatever on a Sunday was unnecessarily inconvenienced by one of the many, many, many Churches whose congregations were letting out. They had their own rent-a-cops directing traffic, stopping us heathens in our tracks in order to let out my more pious neighbors. I'm sure that there were times when I got mildly annoyed at the situation.

My solution wasn't to write an angry letter in protest, or to attend some neighborhood or city council meeting to whine about this travesty of justice to my Sunday morning routine. No, I just sighed and went about my day. Wouldn't it be nice if more people did the same? There are many aspects of daily life that can be inconveniencing...you can either let them consume you and become a bitter angry person or you can just go with the flow and realize that sometimes in life you gotta accommodate others.

So, in a round-about way, Mike McWherter is right that there are local zoning issues at hand. But this proposed Islamic Center does not pose a major problem to the people of Murfreesboro (hence its zoning approval). It is nowhere near as grand in size as the plethora of mega Baptist and Evangelical churches, and so the only argument left after you take away basic traffic and zoning issues is that they are Muslim and that just ain't kosher with the locals. And that is an argument or line or reasoning that should not be entertained by elected officials anywhere.

Guns, God, and Senior Citizens

State Sen. Roy Herron is expanding his repertoire from conservative social issues to include that mainstay of Democratic mainstays, Social Security. He's apparently got Fincher so scared as to get the teabagger gospel singer to defy his conservative loyalists by coming out against Social Security privatization...which is a basic tenet of GOP philosophy for the past 20 or 30 years.

Now Frog Jump has been endorsed by the Club for Growth, the anarchist organization dedicated to the destruction of all policies favorable towards consumers and the working class, including the elimination of social security. From a Herron presser:

“Another day, another million dollar advertising promise to Stephen Fincher in exchange for his support to privatize Social Security and ship American jobs overseas to scratch the backs of his buddies on Wall Street,” said Brandon Puttbrese, campaign spokesman for Roy Herron for Congress. “Stephen Fincher’s policies will leave middle class Tennesseans out of work, and he will try at all costs to hide his risky plans for privatization and his support for outsourcing.”

So Is McWherter Going To Endorse Wine in Grocery Stores?

"Our next Governor" Mike McWherter is none too pleased with evil oil tycoon Bill Haslam's family's company's environmental record which includes various dings by state agencies over failure to maintain underground gas tanks and cases of "effluent exceedance" relating to the oil side of the company. Says son of Ned:

“Clearly, Bill Haslam cannot separate his ownership of a billion dollar oil company from the interests of Tennesseans,” said Shelby White, spokesman for Mike McWherter. “His company’s poor environmental record indicates yet another reason why he is unfit to be governor of this state. Tennessee needs a Governor who looks out for its citizens and not for the profits of his family’s massive oil business.”

Lord Forgive Me For I Have Sinned

I have hate in my heart. Yes, I do. I hate Maury Davis with a passion. He represents all that is wrong with the world and with the Evangelical Christian movement. Here's a murderer...a vicious and brutal killer of old women, who got off damn near Scot-free because he's a charismatic murderer who conned some jury members into believing his sob story of finding Christ. He never found Christ, he found a way to get out of jail and make a butt load of cash.

Now, this two-bit huckster and scum of the Earth is questioning the President's religious faith because he's "pro-Islam," tweeting..."If the Pres is Christian then WHY is he so pro-Islam? Can't imagine Christ saying one good thing about any other faith. He said they're evil"

First off, how in the hell did Jesus Christ say that Muslims were evil? The Muslim faith didn't start until about 610 AD when Muhammad started writing and preaching. That's about six hundred years after Christ took one for the team. I'm pretty sure the Bible says absolutely squat about Muhammad, Muslims, or the Koran.

Second, Barack Obama is no more "pro-Islam" than George W. Bush, who time after time tried to convey, as our President has, that America is welcoming of, not antagonistic towards, Muslims.

Third, just where in the hell does he get off? I mean, seriously. You know, I've never slashed an old woman's throat myself. But saying that I had, and saying that I'd gotten a second chance, I can't imagine that I'd be going around collecting millions of dollars peddling this story all whilst condemning other people for various "faults" that don't involve butchering defenseless old women. If Maury Davis truly was repentant, I have to imagine there might be a shred of humility coming from his narcissistic and self-righteous mouth...there is not.

I just pray to God, Allah, Yaweh, Nemesis, Kali or any other deity remotely interested in the matter that turnabout is fair play when it comes to Maury Fucking Davis.

(h/t JRLind)

See Also: The Onion ghost-writes for Maury.

Quick Hits

A few random tid-bits.

Bill Haslam is super stoked about an endorsement from a car dealer. I'm guessing though that Beaman would not get similar love from the Mayor of Knoxville.

Mike Byrd smells a CONSPIRACY! Apparently of the 13 people Diane Neighbors appointed to chair committees, 12 of them voted in favor of the convention center. Of course, the majority of those not appointed as chairs also voted in favor of the convention center, seeing as about 76% of the Metro Council supported the measure. Fact is, Diane Neighbors has been pretty fair about committee appointments, trying to place as many people as possible in the past four years...this is really a non-issue.

Chip Forrester thinks for some godforsaken reason that having paper ballots would've cleared up the current electoral confusions we have. To which I ask, have you seen what happens in a paper ballot recount? Case in point, Norm Coleman vs. Al Franken. A damn near year long contest where every ballot was questioned, contested, poked, and prodded. While yes, the Election Commission recently found a voting machine that wasn't tallied on election night, the biggest point of contention in the Yarbro/Henry race is over Absentee (i.e. Paper) ballots.

Ya Can't Win for Trying

The most maddening thing about this whole "Ground Zero Mosque" or Park51 Community Center debate has got to be all the misinformation floating around there. I'm assuming by now most people reading this blog have the facts (thanks Jon Stewart!). Namely, its not just a mosque but a community center (similar to a JCC or YMCA) with a mosque also included. Its not at Ground Zero but two blocks away from the World Trade Center. There has been a long-standing Mosque just two blocks away from this facility which hasn't seemed to be a problem...etc...etc...

Now, there is the Obama factory. First, it was Obama was avoiding the subject like the plague. Then, at a regularly scheduled "Iftar" dinner he spoke about the issue in a roundabout way saying that we respect religious freedom and if someone owns private property in lower Manhattan and wants to put a Mosque there, we can't go arbitrarily stopping them because they are Muslim...that turned into Obama is a cheerleader for the "Ground Zero Mosque". When they pointed out that he wasn't endorsing the plan, just the right to do it, it became, "Obama is furiously backtracking". Now, you've got people like Ben Smith saying that Obama was the one who "nationalized" the debate, which is probably true if you hadn't been watching cable news, listening to talk radio, or reading newspapers in the weeks that preceded Obama's only public statement on the matter.

Ultimately, this is a win for the Republicans. Are they right? Hell no...but enough people are confused by the misinformation surrounding this project that they are opposed to it. Its a similar strategy that was employed effectively during the Health Care debate. It doesn't matter what Obama said, its a matter of what he's perceived to have said or done. Likewise, its not what the Park51 project is, but what its perceived to be. If its perceived to be a Muslim version of a YMCA two blocks away from the World Trade Center, probably not a big deal. If its perceived to be a giant Muslim FU to the 9/11 victims replete with minarets and daily burnings of the American flag...then it'll elicit a stronger opposition.

There is no coming back on this debate. Facts, reporting, and information which mitigates the claims of detractors will not change the feeling of the general electorate. Once they've got it in their heads that this is some sort of "provocation" or "outrage" relating to 9/11, any new information they hear confirming this idea will be believed, any new info rebutting this notion will probably be ignored.

Conservadems Not Sitting Pretty

A couple bad pieces of news for Democrats running in rural areas. A new poll put out by the Fincher campaign puts his campaign ten points up ahead of Roy Herron, 47-37. Fincher survived a fairly nasty primary winning damn near 50% of the vote against two other challengers, meanwhile Herron won his relatively non-existent primary with only 69% of the vote, losing some counties like Montgomery to his unfunded and largely unknown absentee challenger. Clearly the enthusiasm for Herron is not what you might call palpable, perhaps he should ramp up the God, Guns, and Trucks theme.

In other news, the Cook Political Report is on a downgrading spree for Democrats. Lincoln Davis' district has gone from Likely D to Lean D as he faces Scott DesJarlais in the November election. DesJarlais is one of the many Physicians running on the Republican ticket this year who will claim that their livelihood is in danger whilst putting in tens of thousands of their own money into winning.

Yarbro Makes It Official

Jeff Yarbro has officially filed his petition with the State Democratic Executive Committee to expedite a recount in his race to unseat incumbent Sen. Douglas Henry:

Yarbro filed a Petition for Recount with the Executive Committee today and requested that the body hear and decide the request as soon as possible. Sen. Henry’s representatives have stated that the Senator would not oppose a recount.

"With the cooperation of the candidates, the Executive Committee, and the Election Commission, the recount could be concluded as early as next week," said Kathryn Sasser, Yarbro Campaign legal counsel.

"We have an opportunity to demonstrate that close elections like this one can be resolved without drama and without delay," Yarbro said. "Voters deserve to have confidence in the results of this election, and there’s no need for that process to drag on for weeks."

Hopefully the party will move forward quickly with this effort so as to determine once and for all who is the Democratic nominee going into November.

View the full petition here. (h/t ACK)

Another Day Another Tally

The Election Commission, though not recounting the ballots, has found a voting machine that was not counted in one of the various iterations of vote totals for the 21st Senate Democratic Primary.

The current number after an "audit" shows Henry up by 11 votes, down from the previous 13 votes, but still up from the previous tie.

The election commission can certify the results whenever they like up until August 23rd, at which point a recount request will be heard from Yarbro.

Not For Any Part[y] of Tennessee

Bill Haslam has a new ad out which for some surprising reason didn't run in the primary. I don't know why, I suppose maybe its the ads adoration for former Governor Ned Ray McWherter and current Governor Phil Bredesen. Yep...you don't see that too often. The man who created TennCare gets a shout out from a GOP contender for the state's top job.



Without a hint of irony, "our next Governor's" campaign flack came back and said that "Haslam is desperately trying to hijack the legacies of Ned McWherter and Phil Bredesen..." which is seriously pissing off the candidate who ends every campaign commercial with "endorsed by Governor Bredesen".

(h/t JR Lind)

Time To Recount

Team Yarbro goes through the hurdles to getting a recount as soon as possible. Primarily, the Davidson County Election Commission has to certify the results before Yarbro can contest the results to call for a recount...seeing as they aren't actually doing any new counting, that should be easy for them to do. But with Republicans in control, they have no real incentive to make this process go smoothly.

“Nothing in the statute prevents the Election Commission from certifying the election prior to August 23 if they are capable of completing their work earlier with due care,” said Kathryn Sasser, Yarbro Campaign counsel. “Without opposition from Sen. Henry, the Executive Committee should be able to make the decision quickly and we would hope that the Election Commission would be able to commence the recount the next day. We are communicating with officials at the Election Commission and the Executive Committee to discuss this process to ensure that the recount is conducted with appropriate care and concluded as soon as possible.”

"There's no reason why this election should drag out for six weeks or longer," Yarbro said. "I will ask for a recount to be done as quickly as possible. Senator Henry's campaign representatives have indicated they would not oppose a recount and I hope he will agree with me that the recount should be done right away.

If, for whatever reason, this needs to go to the full Executive Committee, they are meeting on August 28th of this month. I'd say its probably unlikely to get them all in the same room before then, but that may or may not be necessary...the laws are murky.

Ultimately, if there isn't anyone fighting Yarbro on the recount, there shouldn't really be any problem here. The Election Commission and TNDP can operate under an obscure legal rule called "common sense" and just get it done in a timely manner.

Nashville Best Of

The annual Nashville Scene Best Of awards are being voted on. There is a category for Best Local Political Blog...not saying I deserve it, but if you wanna vote for me anyway, it would be appreciated.

Your New Tennessee Democratic Executive Committee

The Tennessee SOS has the numbers up for the Democratic and Republican Executive Committee elections. Listed below are the Democrats. Some noteworthy elections, David Briley is now the Committeeman for District 20 (Chip Forrester's former seat), Jerry Maynard staved off a challenge to his title in District 19, and Kevin Gallagher defeated long time member David Upton in Memphis. Also, Chris Anderson, former TNYD President and YDA Vice-President, took the seat in District 10 and Adrienne Pakis-Gillon, who lost to Brian Kelsey in a race for the State Senate, joined the committee for District 31.

District	Exec Committee Man	Exec Committee Woman
1	Mike K. Hampton	Marjorie Ramsey
2	Bruce Dotson	Linda Dotson
3	Thomas Jessee	Pamela J. Harris
4	Derrick R. Dalton	Joyce S. Hopson
5	H. Richard Dawson	Beth Hickman
6	Harold G. Woods	Sylvia S. Woods
7	Bill Owen	Gayle Alley
8	Dan Lawson	Barbara Wagner
9	Empty	Sally Love
10	Chris M. Anderson	A. Chantelle Roberson
11	Terry L. Lee	Sandy Lusk
12	Brad Parish	Martha Beaty Wiley
13	Guy Z. Derryberry	Brenda Ables
14	Paul Davis	Betty N. Fraley
15	Dale Welch	Geeta W. McMillan
16	Mark Farrar	Kristen M. Cullen
17	David R. Harper	Mary A. Patterson
18	Bill Bassett	C. Jeanette Jackson
19	Jerry L Maynard, II	M Inez Crutchfield
20	David Briley	Angelia Cannon
21	Will T Cheek	Doris Medlin
22	Keith Jackson	Kim Smith
23	Jon Faill	Elisa D. Parker
24	Toney G. Campbell	Paige Burcham-Carlton
25	Richard H. Dunavant	Martha Shepard
26	Micheal G. Kiddy	Diane Davis
27	Don Farmer	Patsy Garey Johnson
28	J.M. Bailey	Gale Jones Carson
29	Henry Hooper II	Joyce Moore Adams
30	Kevin Gallagher	Maura Black Sullivan
31	Dwayne Thompson	Adrienne Pakis-Gillon
32	Roger W. Warmath	Gladys Crain
33	Sidney Chism	Hazel Moore

Click here for a list w/ contact info

TNDP Chair Accuses Sec of State of "Manipulation"

TNDP Chair Chip Forrester is none too pleased with the elections mishaps across the state, ranging from voters being turned away in Memphis, to voters being kicked off voter rolls in Benton County, to (unsaid in the release) mysteriously disappearing and reappearing tally sheets in Davidson County:

"Secretary of State Tre Hargett and his election coordinator Mark Goins have continued to show their willingness to manipulate vote counts to keep their party in power," Forrester said. "People across this state, regardless of their party affiliation, expect their votes to be counted correctly.

"Using wrong voter files, miscounting ballots and opening voter precincts late do not give too many of us confidence in the election process, which is the bedrock of our democracy. I appreciate Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons' request that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation take a close look at what happened on Election Day in Memphis last week."

Best Ag Commissioner Eva!

Earlier today "our next Governor" Mike McWherter announced that Agriculture Commissioner Ken Givens will be stepping down from that post in order to take on the title of Senior Adviser to the McWherter juggernaut. Givens was formerly the State Rep. for District 9 out of Rogersville in East Tennessee and has a Masters in Political Science from East TSU.

Jeff Woods has more on the press conference in which McWherter stated unequivocally that he has been in Frog Jump (which is now code for bumfuck apparently) but never in Nantucket.

Update:

It would appear that Commissioner Givens has his work cut out for him, at least, so says a new Rasmussen Poll:

2010 Tennessee Governor Election
Bill Haslam (R)	56%
Mike McWherter (D)	31%
Some other candidate	3%
Not sure	10%

Pride Cometh Before A Windfall

Ehh..

Umm...

Ahhh....

OK, it appears that Rep. Jim Cooper just joined two of his fellow Democrats in voting against aid to the states, $433 million of which $194 would've been geared towards teacher salaries, saying:

Cooper said the state had done a good job of bal­anc­ing its bud­get with­out count­ing on the addi­tional fed­eral help. “Ten­nessee doesn’t need a fed­eral bailout, so why should Ten­nessee tax­pay­ers be asked to bail out other states,” Cooper said.

I guess he's right. I mean, its not like we're all in this thing together. Hell, I bet the Governor and Legislature won't even know what to do with all this superfluous cash coming our way...we've got our shit locked down.

Remind me again, I forgot...was Rep. Cooper against the Race to the Top education funds that singled out individual states for education grants? I'm sure he must have been, but otherwise I could see how maybe some people in the other states not privleged enough to get a piece of that action would be a little miffed to hear our Rep. tell the rest of the country to bugger off.

Anywho, Tanner didn't vote, the rest of the Democrats in Tennessee said "yeah, we could use the money," while the Republicans hate public education.

Concerning to Say The Least

Joey Garrison has some more information on the Yarbo/Henry election debacle. Yarbro's legal counsel called the results "concerning" and Henry's finance chairman said that their side would be open to a recount given the irregularities, but that they are confident of a win.

Garrison goes through the timeline of Henry's mysteriously increasing lead despite no new votes cast, and ends by saying that an "audit" of the results will occur regardless before the election is certified. Whether that "audit" includes an actual recount of the absentee ballots or simply rechecking some tally sheets, I'm not quite sure. From what I can tell, it would simply be rechecking some tally sheets which have been mysteriously inaccurate throughout the entire process.

Just got a message from the Yarbro campaign:

"With so much confusion surrounding the returns, especially the absentee vote count, we need to get some clarity about the results of this election. The thousands of voters who went to the polls deserve as much. Over the next few days, we will continue to talk with the Henry campaign and determine the best way to move forward," Yarbro said.

A recount appears to be in order. Before certifying this election, voters should know with certainty there were no irregularities in the voting or counting process. Then, no matter who is named the Democratic nominee in the 21st District -- Jeff Yarbro or Senator Doug Henry -- all can stand together and support the nominee. The Yarbro campaign will continue to work with Senator Henry and the Election Commission to do everything possible to assure an accurate counting of all eligible votes, including the canvass that is still ongoing.

Update: Henry obviously prefers the latest calculations of the election commission.

Questions I Have

If Henry won, so be it...but the new information coming from the election commission produced more questions than answers.

First, I want to know who is releasing these vote tallies. On election night, it went from Yarbro +18, to Henry +2, to now Henry +15 (-2 with provisional ballots). The new "re-canvassed" results added 3 votes to the total. Were these absentee ballots?

Is the new tally the result of hand-counting or machine counting the absentee ballots? If the former, who miscounted the original number so badly? If the latter, than the obvious solution is to have a hand count with all the interested parties present.

My other question is, based on what I've read in the Tennessee Code, any recount has to be triggered by a contest of the election results. Is this true? If so, does that mean the Democratic Party is responsible for recounting, or is it the election commission?

Ultimately, I don't think there is some conspiracy to cost Jeff Yarbro the election. I really don't believe there is any malicious fraud going on here, all I can tell is that there is a lot of poor counting or reporting of counts going on at some point in the process. We need to be absolutely sure what the real results are, and I don't think the current information from the election commission will satisfy.

Sen. Douglas Henry Unofficial Winner

Well, despite all the drama surrounding the "TWO FUCKING VOTES" that separated Jeff Yarbro from Doug Henry, it looks as if the election commission had the wrong total all along. From Nate Rau:

Recalculation of Thursday votes put Henry ahead, 5,649 votes to Yarbro's 5,634, @tnnaterau reports from the election commission HQ.

The previous total was 5,641 to 5,639 with two provisional ballots left to be counted.

Given the discrepancies between the various totals, it would be well within Jeff Yarbro's rights to contest the results in order to have a recount, which would have to be handled by the Tennessee Democratic Executive Committee. We'll see what they have to say, but absent such a challenge, congrats to Sen. Henry and his supporters.

Update: More (and still confusing) details...

Henry started today with a two-vote lead and two provisional ballots outstanding, but the recalculation of votes that had been counted by hand last week put him ahead by 15 votes, election officials said this morning.

We also learned that both provisional ballots went to Jeff Yarbro. So, Henry's margin is now at 13, yet, when the absentee ballots were counted by hand, the results would be a tie. Of course, I'm assuming the "re-canvass" which upted Henry's lead was due to a recount of absentee ballots...I don't know.

We need more information, and I'm sure the Yarbro team is weighing their options as we speak. I'm not terribly sure what to think at this point, other than we have what is often referred to as a clusterfuck on our hands.

Tick Tock

This just in...Both provisional ballots were legitimate in Henry-Yarbro race; will be counted in next 30-60 minutes, @tnnaterau reports

Update: From Nate Rau

Both of the provisional ballots were legitimate, meaning they could bring Yarbro into a tie with Henry, who currently holds a two-vote lead, Greer said. But commission officials also have recalculated vote totals from Thursday's Democratic primary, and those could have an impact on the results. Greer said Election Administrator Ray Barrett would release a statement about the state of the race within the hour.

Campfield Kissed His Cousin Thursday

Rep. Stacey Campfield, who has narrowly won his primary to be the next State Senator in the 7th district, describes how it feels to win without a majority of the votes:

Also, while a win is a win, I don't think any true competitor likes a win with less then 50% of the vote. It is sort of like kissing a cousin. An instant run off is a possible solution. One of the only down sides I see at first glance is the additional cost of running another race by a candidate or funding the cost of another election by the state. Some more ideas on how to fix this problem are welcome.

Of course, I think Stacey doesn't understand the concept of an "instant" run-off, which is done by giving voters the opportunity to vote for more than one candidate at once, compared to a traditional run-off which takes place weeks after the initial election.

Campfield faces Democrat Randy Walker in the general election in one of the few places where the Dems think they might be able to pick off a Republican seat.

Yarbro Thanks Supporters

As we await the final results of the election, which currently stands (according to the election commission) with Yarbro down by two votes and two provisional ballots that need to be verified as valid, and counted. He thanks his supporters and the voters of the 21st District:

First and most importantly, I need to thank the people of the 21st District, so many of whom put their trust in me last Thursday. When I started this campaign, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. But folks welcomed me into their homes and businesses. They shared their fears and their hopes. And along the way they constantly reenergized my faith in the people of Tennessee and in the democratic process.

I cannot say thank you enough to my staff, volunteers, supporters, contributors, family and friends who gave so much to make this campaign possible. From the beginning, you believed in our goal of bringing people together to solve the problems facing our state instead of playing politics, and you believed in our commitment to running a positive campaign based on ideas. You knocked on doors, wrote postcards, made phone calls, put up yard signs, and persuaded your friends and neighbors one-on-one. Each contribution of money, time, and effort made a difference on Thursday.

Yarbro Makes The National Blogs

Ben Smith over at Politico makes an interesting point about Yarbro's predicament, being two votes down in the latest unofficial results...he worked on behalf of Al Gore during the Floria recount.

Interestingly, if Davidson County had made the switch over to paper ballots as the state was supposed to, we very well could have been staring down the barrel of a hotly fought recount war. In this situation, really the only thing to be "recounted" or recanvassed would be absentee and all two provisional ballots (assuming they are either valid or for the Democratic primary).

Team Yarbro Statement

From the campaign counsel, Wally Dietz:

Jeff is so thankful to the voters of the 21st District who came out and made this one of the closest races in Tennessee history yesterday. He is proud of this campaign. And I'm happy to report that we have had nothing but positive interactions with the Henry campaign over the past several hours.

In an election this close, where the margin is approximately one-hundredth of 1%, it will take some time to determine who won the most votes. The candidates, the Election Commission, and the voters deserve to have confidence in the final tally.

There are several outstanding questions that will need to be addressed in the coming days. First, there are a couple of provisional ballots that were cast in this race that still need to be processed. Second, there are a few issues surrounding the count of absentee ballots. Due to an apparent power failure, the absentee ballots were not counted by machine as is the standard practice but were hand counted. The original count of the absentee ballots that was provided to the campaign was 128 votes for Sen. Henry and 82 votes for Yarbro, which would have resulted in an 18-vote margin in Yarbro's favor in the unofficial count. Subsequently, the count of absentee ballots that was delivered to the Election Commission was 148 votes for Sen. Henry and 82 votes for Yarbro, which resulted in a 2-vote margin in Sen. Henry's favor in the unofficial count.

At this point, we have a question of math, not politics. We look forward to the canvass of the returns that begins on Monday and to working with the Election Commission and the Henry Campaign to ensure that Nashville citizens have the most accurate count of the ballots possible.

Wamp Didn't Secede But He Did Concede

Zach Wamp in this concession speech shows himself to be an arrogant, bitter, delusional and narcissistic douchebag.



Tennessee really dodged a bullet there.

C'est la vie

Well shit...where to begin. I had a series of predictions about last night, some were pretty dead on, David Smith got exactly 55% of the vote, David Hall won the TN05 Congressional primary in large part due to generic name familiarity and top of the ballot placement. Haslam won the GOP primary with 47% instead of the 45% I thought he'd get. Tommy Bradley lost to Sam Coleman in the 60th which likely means Gotto will be the next state rep in that district. I was also right about Diane Black, Stephen Fincher and Steve Cohen.

Where I was wrong...Ben Lemming lost to Brett Carter, a Nashville attorney who lives in East Nashville but is moving into the 6th District to run against Black. Robin Smith lost to Chuck Fleishman by a little over a thousand votes in the 3rd district. And Jack Bailey lost to Scott DesJarlais in the battle to face Lincoln Davis in the 4th.

Oh, and then there were races that mattered (to me at least)...

Steven Turner, despite running a hard campaign against long-time incumbent Mary Pruitt, did not come away victorious. It was close, Pruitt won by 167 votes, but damnit if nobody got out to vote in that district. In 2006 there were 3,400+ votes cast to 2010's 2,500+. Polls in the 58th were dead pretty much all day. In districts that were in the 21st Senate District, voter turnout was much higher. I don't have the stats at the ready for how many people actually voted, but looking at vote totals of people who pressed a button...Gilmore's 54th got 3,602, Odom's 55th got 3,456, and Kenigson's 56th got 3,152 votes...and that's not counting the number of people who just didn't press a button. If Turner's district was in the 21st, we might be having a different conversation right now...but it is what it fucking is. Incumbency and name ID won the day and the 58th will have a lackluster State Rep. for at least another two years.

And then there was 21. What is there to say other than TWO FUCKING VOTES? Are you kidding me? Some shlub waited til the last minute and got to the poll 5 minutes late...someone went to the wrong polling place and didn't bother to go to the right one...someone gets called out of town at the last minute and misses their chance to vote...two fucking votes.

The die is not cast in the 21st just yet. Absentee ballots that have been received are counted, but there could be some still in the mail on their way to the election commission office. As long as they are postmarked by election day, they will be counted. Maybe there is a group of procrastinating college kids at home for the summer who sent their absentee ballots in at the last minute....I'm sure someone has a list of absentee ballots requested and received, but I'm not one of them. But so far Henry has had the edge in absentee ballots, and there is no objective reason to assume that would change, but you never know. Wrongo. For some reason I had thought they just had to be postmarked by election day, apparently they have to be in the EC's hand by the close of polls on election day.

Team Yarbro is, I'm sure, carefully plotting their next move to see what, if anything, can or should be done to ensure that the vote count is accurate. Last night, after the cameras were gone, Jeff said that if Sen. Henry did eek out a victory, there would be no greater supporter of the Senator in his district than Jeff. Hopefully we won't have to test this claim, but we'll probably have to wait for the certification to find out.

R. Neal has other bleak news for Democrats.

Update:

Two votes down and two votes to go. The City Paper reports that there are two provisional ballots from the 21st district. We don't know who they are for, what party they are for, or if they are even valid. Not exactly great news, but its still a chance.

Election Eve

It feels kind of odd that despite my rather prolific posting habits over the past month or so that in the final few days before the primary election I've found little to talk about. My enthusiasm hasn't waned, but just doesn't seem to be all that much to talk about unless you are one of the many GOP primary candidates who all seem to be running rather negative campaigns. So I feel compelled to have one last post before the big hurrah, and what better way to post than to make some electoral predictions that will undoubtedly be proven wrong tomorrow. So, here it goes...

In the Governor's race, I predict Mike McWherter will win the Democratic primary with about 98% of the vote and 2% illegitimate write-ins. In the Republican primary, despite all the hemming and hawing by Wamp and Ramsey, in all likelihood the 2006 formula will play out here. Relatively moderate conservative Bill Haslam will win the primary with about 45%, with the other two battling it out for the second spot. Despite all the talk of Basil Marceaux on the internets, my guess is that he doesn't break 5%.

Speaking of Republicans, in the 5th Congressional district there are a plethora of them, some more serious than others. If you assume the electorate is semi-informed and traditional equations play out, Jeff Hartline should win as he has the most money and probably the more professional campaign organization...but I have a rather sneaking suspicion that many of those voting in the GOP primary this year haven't heard much, or rather just don't give a damn, about this contest. So, who does that benefit? Maybe David Hall considering he and his family member have the same yard sign and he's spent a butt load of money on robocalls and other forms of media. And, much like unknown Senate candidate Gary Davis benefited from name surname familiarity, perhaps the name "Hall" is bland enough and in-common enough with popular Sheriff Daron Hall to get him the nod. We'll see...but if David Hall that certainly bodes well for Jim Cooper in the fall.

In other races, just throwing names at the dartboard...

Robin Smith - TN03 (R)
Jack Bailey - TN04 (R)
Diane Black - TN06 (R)
Ben Lemming - TN06 (D)
Stephen Fincher - TN08 (R)
Steve Cohen, by a really large margin - TN09(D)

As for the local races, Tommy Bradley would seem to be the favorite for the 60th House District Democratic primary due to money, but I wouldn't count out Sam Coleman given his current position on the Metro Council and that a majority of the primary electorate in this district will probably be African-American.

I've always assumed David Smith had a good edge against Eric Crafton, and I still think that is the case. I think the Republican primary advantage will shrink a bit on election day as voters in the 19th Senate District are more likely to vote on election day, and they are heavily Democratic. I also think David Smith has worked hard to campaign for the votes of Conservatives, and there are many Chamber-style Republicans who didn't like Crafton's xenophobic crusade. I once said I thought David Smith would get 65%, but I'm revising that down closer to 55%.

As for the two races I really care about, the 21st Senate and the 58th House. I do believe that both challengers will beat the incumbents in those races.

In the 58th its hard to find many people who like the job that Mary Pruitt is doing. Some support her out of loyalty, some support her out of sheer name recognition, but nobody seems to think she is an effective legislator. The key here for Steve Turner will have been in making sure voters knew that A) there was a race going on...which has probably been hard in light of the relatively lax media attention, and B) making sure voters knew the dearth of accomplishments Mary Pruitt has to her name. I've been encouraged by the calls made and doors I've knocked for Turner that people are ready for a change.

Now, in the 21st Senate District its a little bit different. Say what you will about Sen. Henry (and most of you know I have said a lot), he deserves respect for the amount of work he's put in on this campaign. Not content to rest on his laurels he's gotten out and beaten the pavement, gone to many events, and campaigned like a man half his age. For that, he is certainly to be commended. However, I'm not sure all of those efforts help his cause. For many people who see him on TV or in person they see a man past his prime and of a generation past. His views on women's rights are down right infuriating to many of his female constituents, and despite support from the Governor, many of Nashville's business and political elites have gotten behind his young challenger Jeff Yarbro.

Yarbro has run a tough but positive campaign that has done a good job of contrasting the two candidates. Is it enough to get past the entrenched Henry support? I believe so...especially given that many Conservative allies of Henry will be voting in the Republican primary this year.

So, all things told, I expect a good night tomorrow. I don't think either Turner or Yarbro will absolutely blow it out, but I do think they've both done the best job they could and now its time to see whether voters were moved enough to get out to the polls.

Crystal Clear Focus and Energy

Sen. Henry's campaign has another in a line of videos which seek to convey that A) women like him, despite his comments about rape just not being what it used to be; and B) he's not too old for the job.

"Its That Simple"

"Our next Governor" Mike McWherter has a couple of short ads out, one of which states that he's gonna work for the person filing up, not "for the guy who owns the oil company". I know its a crack at Haslam, but I'm not terribly sure what it means.

FEC Questions Hall Report

Thanks to a helpful commenter, we find that David Hall is being audited (.pdf) by the FEC over his train wreck of an FEC report which seems to show $20-30K in "in-kind" contributions from a corporation of some kind listed as AHC, what I assume to be The AHC Group. From the letter to his treasurer:

Schedule A of your report discloses one or more contributions that appear to be from a corporation(s) and/or labor organization(s) (see attached). 2 U.S.C. § 441b(a) prohibits the receipt of contributions from corporations and labor organizations unless made from separate segregated funds established by the corporations and labor organizations.

Conveniently enough, Hall isn't required to respond to this FEC inquiry until about a month after the primary. JR Lind did some digging and couldn't find much about the group beyond the WHOIS information and they don't appear to be registered with the Secretary of State. Given the nature of this poorly produced FEC report, it could just be a mistake by the person entering the data, improperly listing an expense as "in-kind"...hopefully Mr. Hall can shed some light on the situation.

Update:

David Hall has a statement on the matter, twas all a big misunderstanding...

The FEC filing, posted by my treasurer, was in error. I secured over 200K in services from AHC, a local media consulting firm, and gave it as a gift in kind to my campaign. I realize the error and will correct the current FEC filing accordingly just as soon as my treasurer gets back from a missions trip in India. We're aware of this error and are already planning to get with the FEC on the 9th, the day my treasurer is returning to the States.

"Exit Poll" Shows Yarbro Blowout

Take it with the smallest grain of salt you can find, but GOP Congressional candidate David Hall says he's got an "exit poll" of both the Democratic and Republican primary early voters which shows good news for Henry challenger Jeff Yarbro. Of 126 voters Hall finds:

State Senate District 21

Doug Henry - 36%

Jeff Yarbro - 64%

A rather difficult race to understand but the anti-incumbent fever seems to be affecting long time Senator Doug Henry as the new blood candidate, Jeff Yarbro, is beginning to break-away.

Mr. Hall's "exit poll" of course shows him to be in the lead above Jeff Hartline with Mama Grizzly following in third. I actually think the race in the 5th CD will be largely a product of people randomly pressing buttons for the name that sounds the most familiar to them, Hall being generic enough to win their vote...but who knows, maybe its a savvy electorate.

Hall's "exit poll" also shows an incredibly close contest in the Juvenile Court Clerk race with Smith only up by less than 1% over Crafton. I still find that hard to believe, but for those Democrats who don't think its necessary to get out and vote, just remember, "Juvenile Court Clerk Eric Crafton" has a certain jingoistic ring to it.

Party On Wayne

Pretty much nothing in the way of news (news I care about) going on today. Zach Wamp is still a cry baby, other than that, meh...

In case you are trying to set your schedules for Thursday (election) night, here is what I know so far.

Jeff Yarbro's Victory Party will be over at the Green House in Green Hills from 7-10PM (I'd bet on later if the night ends in a 'W'). Check out this e-mail if you are looking for volunteer opportunities before the fun begins.

Steven Turner will be having his victory shin-dig over at The Sports Grille at the Downtown Hilton from 7PM-12AM. Contact campaign manager Philip Stoecklein, philip@steventurnertn.com, if you'd like to volunteer to help Turner on election day.

And, if you wanna party hardy with "our next Governor" Mike McWherter...

Primary Night Celebration & Election Kick-Off

Thursday, August 5th

6:30 pm

LP Field - West Club

Nashville, TN

(Parking in Lots S & H)

Republicans across the city will be having various bible-study and prayer sessions for the families followed by a night of boozing and carousing with the fellas.