Where’s Gratitude?: Ramsey Rejects Kurita For Secretary Of State

By Kleinheider Posted on November 14, 2008 at 7:19 am

We talked about the growing discomfort among Republicans, particularly in the House, of the prospect of a Secretary of State Rosalind Kurita a few days ago.

Now, it would seem official. Rosalind Kurita is now not even being backed by the man she made Speaker:

Former Democratic state Sen. Rosalind Kurita, who staked her political future on supporting a Republican for speaker, now is being rejected by Republicans in her bid to become Tennessee’s secretary of state.

Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, whom then-Sen. Kurita helped elect as Senate speaker in 2007, confirmed Thursday that rank-and-file Republicans, as well as grass-roots activists, fiercely oppose Ms. Kurita’s election by lawmakers to the post.

“That’s true,” said Lt. Gov. Ramsey, who last week stated that Ms. Kurita, of Clarksville, would make a “great” secretary of state.

“Rosalind Kurita voted for me for lieutenant governor,” said Sen. Ramsey, who as Senate speaker also has the title of lieutenant governor. “I owed her at least a consideration there. That obviously is not going to happen, and I have no problem with that. Keep in mind I don’t appoint this position.”

So what do you think of this? Should Ramsey have backed her regardless of the rumblings on the right? Should he have expended some political capital for a woman who basically gave up her career to put him where he’s at?

Couldn’t Ramsey and Mumpower, who are close, have rounded up a few Republicans to commit to voting for Kurita in hopes that some Democrats, recognizing that Kurita is the best they’re gonna do, would vote for her also?

The likelihood that the Senate will refuse to seat the man the Democratic Party installed in her Senate seat is increasingly unlikely considering the leeway the law currently gives a party in choosing their nominee.

Has Ramsey just thrown Rosalind Kurita under the bus?

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Tags: consititutional officers, Jason Mumpower, Jim Bryson, Ron Ramsey, Rosalind Kurita, Secretary of State