Sen. Kyle Says Ramsey Can Resign If He Doesn’t Like Fundraising Rules

By Kleinheider Posted on April 2, 2009 at 8:20 am

The Memphis state Senator on the Lt. Governor’s complains about not being able to raise funds for gubernatorial race during session:

“The governor himself can raise money,” Lt. Gov. Ramsey said. “If you’re a sitting congressman you can raise money. Why shouldn’t someone in the legislature, if they’re running for an office, also be able to raise money?”

Sen. Kyle said he agrees with the lieutenant governor to “an extent.” But he pointed out that Sen. Ramsey and Senate Republicans opposed changing state law several years ago to allow two Democratic House members running in special Senate elections to raise funds back home.

“I’m not necessarily supportive based on the positions he and other Republicans have taken over the years,” Sen. Kyle said.

“Ron has a simple remedy,” Sen. Kyle said, recalling how his wife resigned a judgeship to run for the then-state Public Service Commission. “There’s no rule that Ron has to be in the Senate.”

Asked about Lt. Gov. Ramsey’s remarks, Mr. Haslam, a declared candidate, grinned and said, “I’m not worried about Ron. He’ll be OK. I’m assuming they put the law in for a lot of reasons, and I don’t know that I even have an opinion on that. Selfishly, I like it the way it is now.”

But he said, “If they’re going to change it, they need to go back and review why it was put in place in the first place.”

Additional commentary on the issue here.

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Tags: 2010, 2010 Goverrnor's race, Bill Haslam, Jim Kyle, Ron Ramsey  

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