Tim Barnes "Looking to the Future" and Wanting Voters to Forget His Stolen Election

Tim Barnes is a forward-thinking Democrat: he wants voters of Tennessee Senate District 22 "looking to the future" and not at how he got his party's nomination for state senator.

Of course he wouldn't say it in so many words, but it's certainly what he's thinking. Look past the fact that he lost the Democratic primary to incumbent Rosalind Kurita; chose not to seek a recount but to protest to the Tennessee Democratic Party's Executive Committee; and sought to throw out the votes and void the outcome. Look past the fact that he nominated himself to fill the vacancy rather than recuse himself from the process and sees no reason to be ashamed of the way he got it. "I'd be honored to receive the nomination in this way," he said beforehand. Look past all that and you have the handpicked nominee of 65 Democrats who met at a Clarksville hotel rather than 8,935 voters who took the time to go to the polls. Of course he would rather "talk about things I can do to help the people of the 22nd Senate District," as he said at a press conference on Friday.

Barnes admitted there could have been a second primary held, "but there was not time to have another primary," he claimed. "The only other option was to have this process...After that process I was overwhelmingly named the nominee."

Responding to her opponent's desire to move forward, Rosalind Kurita told the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle: "I'm sure that Mr. Barnes would like to change the subject. The subject is that in America, we don't steal elections."