Friday, September 26, 2008

Republican Influence in Stolen Election is a Joke

A.C. Kleinheider at Post Politics has a great post about an email distributed to the seven Republican senators who will host a fundraiser for Senator Rosalind Kurita on October 1. It was written by Elizabeth Klein, treasurer for Tim Barnes' senate campaign who happens to be a Republican. The post also dissects the Democrat's argument that Republicans in higher than usual numbers voted in the Democratic primary for Senate District 22 and makes the point that some may have actually supported Barnes rather than Senator Kurita.

“It’s not that we didn’t want Republicans voting in the primary,” Klein told Kleinheider. “We just didn’t want, and state law is against, the Republican Party interfering actively in the primary, telling people who to vote for. We wanted people to vote their conscience.”

Tim Barnes admits that Republican friends voted for him in the Democratic primary, yet he describes Republican support for Senator Kurita as a "concerted effort by [Republican] party leaders" to lobby votes for her. Mr. Barnes certainly wouldn't deny anyone that can legally do so the right to vote, would he? Mr. Barnes, there was no Republican candidate for state senate on the ballot. Who else could a Republican in Montgomery, Cheatham, and Houston counties vote for except yourself or Kurita?

The whole argument that Republican influence led to an "incurably uncertain" election and justified handing over the Democratic nomination to Mr. Barnes is ridiculous. Pete Kotz over at the Nashville Scene suggests Tennessee Democrats try something a little more original. I hope Senator Kurita's lawsuit is successful and Mr. Barnes and the Democratic party find themselves trying to organzie their own write-in campaign in a major hurry.

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