Some background on the Kurita situation

As everyone knows, my initial reaction to the TDP's voiding of the Senate 22 primary was not a good one, as I believed the TDP screwed up. Certainly, without knowing the backstory, the average voter would have come to the same conclusion that I did, that Democratic voters were disenfranchised.

After checking into this a bit further, not so much.

My sources, some of whom sat in that room Saturday, have told me a different story. I have learned that the primary, which was decided by 19 votes, was corrupted by GOP voters who deliberately crossed over to influence the race. At least 138 of them were found by Barnes' legal team to have voted in 8 of the last 8 GOP primaries, and a few hundred more were found to have voted in at least 4 of the last 8 GOP primaries.

Now wait, you say, we don't have party registration, people can legally vote in whichever primary they choose, just not both at once. This is true; however, each party has the legal right to determine who may run under their banner, and if it is determined that the voting process was corrupted to the point of being “incurably uncertain”, they may void such a primary election.

Other things learned at the meeting on Saturday is that some of Barnes' would-be voters were told by their election judges, according to one of my sources, that in order to vote for Barnes, they would need to vote in the GOP primary, only to learn that he was not in that primary, then to be told that nothing could be done. Who's disenfranchising WHOM at this point?

In addition, my sources have advised that there WERE Republicans who sought to run for Kurita's seat, but were apparently told by Ron Ramsey that they were protecting Kurita, and asked them not to run.

As all of these happened with numbers far larger than the 19-vote margin, and as this was a PRIMARY, and not a general election, the Tennessee Democratic Party was within their rights to boot Kurita. They then made the decision to put the burden for deciding the nominee on the Democratic Executive Commitees of Houston, Cheatham & Montgomery Counties, the three counties that make up District 22.

On Wednesday night, they voted 61-4 to nominate Tim Barnes, a bona fide Democrat, to run. Kurita has filed to wage a write-in campaign, which is difficult to win but not impossible, especially with the support of the GOP, to whom she threw control of the State Senate back in January 2007.

Having learned what I learned, I now believe the TDP had no choice other than to boot Kurita. However, this comes with a warning: You need to take the steps necessary to prevent a recurrence, such as requiring registration by Party in order to vote in a primary election, and taking pre-emptive action to prevent someone who stabs the party in the back, as Kurita did in 2007, from ever having the opportunity to represent the Democratic Party.

Do you think the GOP would have put up with something like this? Hell no, so why should we?