Write-In Checks: GOP Committee Chairs To Host Fundraiser For Kurita

By Kleinheider Posted on September 24, 2008 at 10:56 am

In a move which will no doubt confirm her detractors deepest-held suspicions and have supporters noting her lack of options, Senator Rosalind Kurita will hold a fundraiser for her embryonic write-in campaign on October 1st — featuring Republican headliners.

The event, which suggests a donation of $500, will be held at the Cherokee Equity Corporation and boasts as hosts every Republican state Senate committee chair save one, Senator Jim Tracy.

When asked why the Senator was the only GOP committee chair not on the host list, spokesman Clint Hall explained, “As you know, Sen. Tracy is up for reelection this year as well and that is where our focus is.”

Tracy, while still very much favored in his race, has been targeted by Democrats who believe his opponent, Jean Anne Rodgers, has an outside shot at defeating the incumbent.

When asked for comment on her elephant heavy host committee, the newly independent Kurita said only, “I am very pleased to be receiving support from so many Senators and friends.”

Senator Rosalind Kurita’s August 7th primary win over fellow Democrat attorney Tim Barnes was ruled “incurably uncertain” at an eight-hour meeting of the Tennessee Democratic Executive Committee on Sept 13th.

With election then voided, the task of choosing a nominee in District 22 fell to a tri-county convention of the Democratic executive committees in Montgomery, Cheatham and Houston counties.

That convention voted 61-4 to install rival Barnes as the nominee Sept. 17th.

Senator Kurita filed, just before deadline, as an official write-in candidate for the seat she currently holds Sept. 15th.

REACTS:
Sean Braisted

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Tags: fundraiser, Jim Tracy, Rosalind Kurita, Tim Barnes  

It’s Not About The Money, But, If It Were, He’s Good

By Kleinheider Posted on August 1, 2008 at 3:00 pm

State Senator Jim Tracy today sends a press release to inform us that he raised $86,370 from July 1 through July 28 giving him a cash-on-hand total of $325,236.89 as of July 29, 2008 — but it’s not about the money:

“But this campaign will not be won on dollars and cents, rather by votes of the people of Rutherford, Bedford, and Moore Counties,” Tracy said. “This campaign is going to be about moving our economy forward, providing the necessary tools and resources for our schools, and working for solutions to illegal immigration.”

More from the Tennessee Journal:

Democratic candidate Jean Ann Rogers of Murfreesboro raised $8,680 and ended with $95,032.

A large portion of the Tracy campaign take came from small donors, but $40,000 was given by the Senate Republican Caucus. As of June 30, the caucus had a balance of only $23,107. But it raised $17,000 from PACs and received a $10,000 gift from the campaign of Senate Republican Leader Mark Norris, who is unopposed. The gift to Tracy was the only one the caucus made.

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Tags: Jim Tracy  

Where Is Dee Love?

By Kleinheider Posted on May 12, 2008 at 1:57 pm

Senate Democratic Caucus spokesman Mark Brown comments on the attempt to unseat GOP State Senator Jim Tracy in the Shelbyville Times Gazette:

“We have an A-list candidate in Jean Ann Rogers,” said Mark Brown, communications director for the Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus. “We feel that this is a winnable seat. It’s a swing district…. Frankly, we feel like the people of Senate District 16 are looking for a change.”

Problem here, of course, is that there are TWO candidates vying for the Democratic nomination in this race. Both Rodgers and a woman named Dee Butler filed to run in the Democratic primary. Butler, in these times of racially divisive Democratic politics, also happens to be an African-American candidate.

Mark Brown, via email, explains his oversight in the third person:

The Caucus spokesperson isn’t the brightest bulb in the pack. The reporter asked him about Jean Anne Rogers and he responded as reported, without thinking that he should add that Dee Butler is an a-list candidate, too. One of many moments of idiocy from this spokesperson.

Rogers and Butler are both A-list candidates. The Democratic nominee for SD16 will be a strong candidate, regardless of who wins the primary.

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Tags: Dee Butler, Jean Ann Rodgers, Jim Tracy, Mark Brown, Tennessee State Senate  

Animals Versus People

By Kleinheider Posted on April 22, 2008 at 3:53 pm

The Donkey’s Mouth is confused by the actions of Senator Jim Tracy. It seems not long ago he voted against letting the Rural Health Act out of the Senate Education Committee, a bill which would forgiven the student loans of doctors agreeing to serve in rural areas, but then signed on as co-sponsor to a bill which would do something similar for veterinary students:

So, is Tracy trying to argue — in contrast to what everyone knows — that the rural areas of Tennessee have more doctors than they can use or is he trying to argue that quality health care is more important to animals than it is to humans?

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Tags: Jim Tracy, Rural Health Act, student loans, WASPs