Tennessee’s Major Party Chairpersons On Closing Tennessee’s Primary Elections

By Kleinheider Posted on February 15, 2009 at 3:01 pm

Humphrey has the words straight from the donkey’s and elephant’s mouth on the effort being spearheaded by Rep. Debra Maggart:

State Democratic Chairman Chip Forrester says that, despite the controversies, he sees “no compelling reason” to change the system.

Only a “fairly small percentage of voters crossover on a regular basis,” he said, and there is “defacto registration” in most cases now when a voter chooses a primary.

Further, Forrester said that some areas of the state are so strongly tilted to one party or the other - the Democrats, for example, in Davidson County, and Republicans in parts of East Tennessee - that many elections are decided as a practical matter in the primary.

“Do you sort of disenfranchise someone from participating in the process, like a Republican who wanted to select a certain kind of Democrat as his congressman in Davidson County?” said Forrester.

State Republican Chairman Robin Smith said she has not definitively decided to embrace party registration, but is sympathetic to the idea in a state where “a lot of conservative Democrats feel they no longer have a home in the Democratic party.”

“Relative to some activity we’ve seen, there is a growing demand among grassroots Republicans to have pure or more pure primary,” she said.

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Tags: Chip Forrester, Debra Maggart, open primary, Robin Smith  

Bitter Party Of One

By Kleinheider Posted on December 28, 2008 at 10:39 pm

Outgoing 1st District congressman David Davis on what he would have done differently during his short tenure in the House:

“In the primary, I was talking primarily to Republicans, as you would think.” But he said he continues to believe there was “a concerted effort by Democrats crossing over into the Republican primary” to try to unseat him.

“I wish I had paid more attention to that, and gotten more Republicans out to the polls,” he said. “That’s what swayed the outcome.”

Davis said two different polling companies put him 13 points ahead “among Republicans” the week before the primary. The same companies had similar results just before the 2006 election, he said.

This time the polls were wrong, and Davis thinks they were wrong at least in part because of Democrats who voted in the GOP primary.

“A lot of it goes back to the income tax,” he said. Davis said some “moderate Republicans” may still hold a grudge against him for repeatedly opposing a state income tax on wages and salaries while he was in the Tennessee legislature.

Davis hired a Virginia attorney with top connections in the Republican party immediately after the election, but then did not pursue a challenge to the outcome of the primary.

Asked if he might consider another try at elective office, Davis said, “It’s too early to tell.”

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Tags: 1st District, Davis Davis, open primary, Phil Roe  

The Kurita Conundrum Explained

By Kleinheider Posted on September 16, 2008 at 7:52 am

Read the full news analysis by Ken Whitehouse.

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Tags: David Davis, Jim Kyle, John Wilder, open primary, Ron Ramsey, Rosalind Kurita, Senator Kurita votes Ramsey, Tim Barnes  

Burning Down Tennessee’s Open Primary

By Kleinheider Posted on August 14, 2008 at 9:18 am

Terry Frank becomes on of the few voices encouraging Rep. David Davis to continue to fight his unfavorable election result and mount a challenge to Tennessee’s open primary system:

Lt. Governor Ramsey has said David Davis needs to just pipe down and move on along. I’m not so sure, Speaker Ramsey. If settling the political dust is the goal, then yes. But if cleaning up the system or making it better is an outcome, I say “CHARGE!!” to Congressman Davis.

SEE ALSO:
Josh Arrowood
Joe Powell
Jama Oliver

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Tags: David Davis, open primary, Phil Roe