Denied: Kurita Appeal Continues
Posted on April 13, 2009 at 12:41 am
State Sen. Tim Barnes’s motion to dismiss an appeal filed by former state Sen. Rosalind Kurita seeking a reversal of the court’s decision to uphold the decision of the state Democratic Party to strip her of the nomination for state Senate last November has been denied.
Barnes sought to dismiss the appeal arguing that “if the Court ever had jurisdiction over the political questions at issue in this case, the passage of time and intervening events have divested it of such jurisdiction.”
Barnes’ legal team asserted that due to the fact that Barnes has already won the general election against Kurita (as a write-in candidate) and that Barnes was seated by the state Senate with no objection that the problem is resolved.
The court did not agree and the Kurita’s appeal will be heard, likely sometime in June.
The 22nd District Race May Take A While
Posted on November 3, 2008 at 12:55 pmIf it’s at all close, Tuesday may be a long night in Clarksville in the race between Democratic nominee Tim Barnes and write-in candidate Rosalind Kurita:
Koelman said after the polls close Tuesday, voting information is downloaded from the machines and vote totals will be printed on spreadsheets. Under the write-in category will be a total number of votes recorded, then each of those votes will also be printed out.
Counting board members will then look at each of the printed names to determine if it is a valid vote.
“The number of votes (for a particular write-in candidate) won’t be known until we count them by hand,” Koelman said.
The counting process is likely to take longer in Montgomery County because of voter volume. Early voting accounted for 36,168 of the county’s 90,063 register voters. Meanwhile, rural Houston County has 5,200 registered voters, and through 11 a.m. Wednesday, only 1,753 of them had voted early.
As mentioned, Cheatham has nearly 24,000 registered voters with maybe half of that number participating in early voting.
After Tuesday’s election results are reported locally, and nationwide, vote counting in the 22nd District state Senate race will continue.
Dude, They Kicked Her Out, Not The Other Way Around
Posted on November 2, 2008 at 11:27 pmSean Braisted asserts that State Senator Rosalind Kurita finally showed her true colors as a “Republican” when she contributed a sizable sum to the Tennessee Republican’s Legislative Campaign Committee.
Now, let’s get this straight. Rosalind Kurita is a pro-choice nanny-statist. Always has been, always will be. If she wanted to be a crypto-Republican, she would have ran straight-up as an Independent in her relection bid instead of running as a Democrat, the only way she could could lose.
What exactly would you have her do? Contribute money to the party that ousted her? Please. While we all like to talk about political parties as though they are about principles and ideas, in the end, parties are just a means to an end. That end, of course, being political power. Parties are not think tanks. They are not universities. They are entities created to achieve electoral victories
Republicans out of pure political opportunism are helping her as best they can. She is returning the favor. It’s just politics, pure and simple.
Kurita needs to get elected. Democrats won’t help. Republicans will. But Kurita is Kurita.
I haven’t seen her change a ideological or policy position to suit her new political friends. You can call her a “Republican” if that makes you feel better, but if you believe that she is any less a champion of the progressive ideals that many would call “Democratic”, you are fooling yourself.
She may have drew first blood by expressing her disgust with the good ole boy Dixiecrat Democratic leadership in the Senate by voting for Republican Speaker Ron Ramsey, but it didn’t have to end this way. The Democratic Party pushed her away just as much more than she pulled away from it.
Say Her Name, Say Her Name
Posted on October 22, 2008 at 11:15 amRosalind Kurita is not on the ballot in her race for re-election to the state Senate yet the Democratic Party wants to remind you that she is running — and that she allegedly violated campaign finance law:
According to a complaint filed today with the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance, Sen. Rosalind Kurita used her political action committee (PAC) to funnel more than $25,000 in illegal contributions to her Senate campaign.
According to the sworn complaint filed by Ricky Wallace of Montgomery County, Kurita in August and September illegally used her Kurita Majority PAC to pay for campaign expenses during that period, including: $17,070 for direct mail, $7,917 for legal services, and $665 for media consulting. Under state law, PACs can only provide up to $7,500 in contributions for a Primary or General Election.
“Unfortunately, Sen. Kurita is so power-hungry that she’s flagrantly violating Tennessee’s campaign finance law,” said Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Gray Sasser. “She broke the law by crossing the one hundred foot boundary during the primary, and now, she’s cheating by illegally using PAC funds to cover her campaign expenses.”
Interesting that the Party would call attention to Kurita’s PAC which was created to establish a Democratic Majority in the legislature. A rare move for a woman folks now paint as a crypto-Republican.
So, not only are Democrats calling attention to the fact that residents of the Senate’s 22nd District can in fact vote for Rosalind Kurita via write-in, they are calling attention to the fact that Rosalind Kurita’s vote for Ron Ramsey in 2007 may not have been exactly what it looked like at first glance.
They Hate Kurita That Much
Posted on October 20, 2008 at 9:35 amThe Tennessee Republican Party wonders why Democrats in Tennessee continue to work with political consultants Fletcher, Rowley, Chao, Riddle, Inc. after a Congressman they worked with allegedly promised his mistress a job with the company:
This election cycle, FRCR is doing or has done work for several Democrats running for the Tennessee legislature, including state Senate candidate Tim Barnes - the candidate hand-picked by a few dozen Democrat insiders after Democrat party elites rejected the votes of 4,477 people in the primary and installed Barnes, the certified loser of the election, as the winner.
The Tennessee Democratic Party, instead of ignoring a release likely to get ignored, decides to issue a corrective press release giving life to the story that the company doing a majority of the media for Democratic Party candidates in Tennessee is in the midst of a national scandal:
For the Tennessee Republican Party, fact-checking has long been overlooked, according to Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Gray Sasser correcting an erroneous press release distributed by the TNGOP earlier this morning. Fletcher, Rowley, Chao, and Riddle previously worked for Senator Rosalind Kurita in the District 22 Democratic Primary Election. Contrary to the TNGOP’s claim this morning, FRCR has never entered into a contractual agreement with the Tim Barnes campaign. The Tennessee Democratic Party, however, has hired Scout Communications for independent expenditures in Senate District 22.
Write-In Ros Nabs Another Endorsement
Posted on October 16, 2008 at 11:00 amFrom a press release:
Senator Rosalind Kurita (D-Clarksville) received a major endorsement from the Tennessee State Employees Association (TSEA) in her write-in campaign for the State Senate.
“From those state employees who provide disaster relief, to those who work with children in foster care, and from those who protect our highways to those who care for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled, our state is fortunate to have so many dedicated state workers,” said Sen. Kurita. “I am honored to receive this endorsement and appreciate their support.”
The Tennessee State Employees Association represents hundreds of state employees in the 22nd Senatorial District, which includes Montgomery, Cheatham and Houston counties.
SEE ALSO:
The National Rifle Association
The Clarksville-Montgomery County Voters Council
Kurita Legal Challenge Fails
Posted on October 14, 2008 at 5:54 pmKen Whitehouse has the story:
When the case was heard last week, Kurita said that no matter what the judgement was from Echols that this case would wind up in the 6th Circuit Court. Assuming Kurita files a challenge, which all indications are she will, that is where this is headed.
SEE ALSO:
The Opinion
The Order
In The Kurita Race, The Hand On The Faucet Is Outside The District
Posted on October 13, 2008 at 12:02 pmFrom Erik Schelzig:
Kurita, who lost support among many fellow Democrats after she cast a key vote in favor or Republican Sen. Ron Ramsey’s election as Senate speaker in 2007, raised about $31,600 following for her write-in campaign. Barnes, meanwhile, raised about $36,500.
The fundraising numbers reflect the level of outside interest in the race: Kurita raised only $4,000 from people inside the district, while Barnes collected only about $5,000 from potential constituents.
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No News Is Good News?
Posted on October 10, 2008 at 3:09 pmKen Whitehouse reports on the federal hearing in the case of Rosalind Kurita versus a whole bunch of folks:
The case was heard today by Judge Robert Echols, who said he would not make a decision until next week.
After the long and tedious hearing adjourned, Kurita said that she felt today’s actions resulted in a “fair hearing,” but that “No matter what, I don’t think this will be the end.” She added, “My counsel (Bopp) did a wonderful job in working for the will of the people.”
Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Gray Sasser said that Kurita’s counsel presented “tenuous legal arguments.”
SEE ALSO:
Erik Schelzig
Jeff Woods
Daniel Potter
Kurita Answers Motions Filed By Defendants In District Court Case
Posted on at 8:08 amSenator Rosalind Kurita’s attorneys answered yesterday various motions by defendants Tim Barnes, the Tennessee Democratic Party, and several state officials urging the United States District Court for Middle Tennessee to dismiss or abstain from judgment in the Fourteenth Amendment case brought to it by Kurita.
Senator Kurita, the certified victor in the 22nd District State Senate Democratic Primary, on Sept. 13th saw her election declared “incurably uncertain” by the Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee acting as the State Primary board.
A tri-county convention of executive committee members in the three counties of her district then voted 61-4 to install her opponent, Tim Barnes, as the Democratic nominee. Kurita is currently running as a write-in candidate.
Most political observers believe that the moves against Kurita by Democratic Party officials was payback for her 2007 vote for Republican Speaker of the Senate Ron Ramsey.
Kurita has charged the party with violating her Fourteenth Amendment rights in removing her name from the ballot as the Democratic nominee for the 22nd State Senate District.
At issue in the case is T.C.A. § 2-17-104 which designates a political party’s executive committee as the “decider” in the case of a contested primary election.
Barnes and other defendants contend that this law was properly applied in the contested election and that the court has no reason to intervene in the matter.
Senator Kurita, in filings by her attorney James Bopp, contends that “T.C.A. § 2-17-104 does not contain any standards or procedures that must be followed by a state primary board in resolving a primary election dispute.”
Kurita’s lawyers make the case that it is thus irrelevant whether due process is afforded in a particular case or not. They argue that T.C.A. § 2-17-104 is unconstitutional because it “empowers the state primary boards to adjudicate protected rights without due process of law.” In making this argument, however, they do not concede that due process was followed in this case.
Kurita’s lawyers’ full answer to the motions filed by Barnes et al is linked here. Defendants’ motions are available below.
A trial on the merits remains scheduled for October 10, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. Today.
SEE ALSO:
TNDP’s motion to dismiss or abstain
Tim Barnes motion to dismiss
State defendants motion to dismiss or abstain
How Do You Write-In A Woman Like Kurita?
Posted on October 9, 2008 at 11:44 amI’ll just let her tell you:
The Tennessee Democratic Party voided State Senator Rosalind Kurita’s state-certified 19 vote election victory in a Sept. 13th meeting of the executive committee. She filed an official write candidate two days later.
On September 18th, a tri-county convention of Democratic executive committee members in Montgomery, Cheatham and Houston Counties voted 61-4 to install her opponent Tim Barnes as the nominee.
These ads started running Monday on cable television throughout the 22nd state Senate district.
SEE ALSO: A slightly different variation on the ad.
MORE ON CONTROVERSY KURITA:
The Show Trial Of Rosalind Kurita
Write-in Ros?
Write-in Ros: It’s On, Son
Reports And Reaction To The Nomination Of Tim Barnes
Did Barnes Run Out The Clock On Ros?
GOP Committee Chairs To Host Fundraiser For Kurita
Kurita’s Election Stolen By “Union Thugs”
Barnes Campaign Treasurer Voted In Four GOP Primaries Before August 7th
Wait? So Kurita’s Ramsey Vote Did Factor In?
Posted on October 7, 2008 at 6:54 amGray Sasser simply will not quit striking back at Rosalind Kurita for showing the temerity to challenge the political maneuverings by Tennessee Democrats which overturned a certified election:
“In fact, the only backroom deal in this long, sordid saga was cut long before the Aug. 7 primary, when Sen. Kurita went back on her word to her Democratic colleagues and supported Republican Ron Ramsey for Senate speaker and lieutenant governor,” Sasser said. “Unfortunately, this process has become marked by accusations and, frankly, falsehoods. Sen. Kurita had the opportunity to present her case at an open meeting of the state executive committee, and according to rules that both sides agreed to before the proceedings.”
K-U-R-I-T-A
Posted on October 5, 2008 at 6:06 pmClarksville Online gives you the step-by-step guide to writing the name of Senator Rosalind Kurita on your November 4th general election ballot:
You will cast your vote for President, U.S. Senator, U.S. Representative and then State Senator. You will see Tim Barnes name as the Democratic nominee. Directly under his name you will see WRITE IN. Push the button beside WRITE IN.
1. The screen will change and the letters of the alphabet (A-Z) will appear. Place an X beside each letter: K – U – R – I – T – A . You will see KURITA spelled out in the middle of the screen.
2. Once you have typed KURITA just press the done button at the bottom to accept and return to the former screen.
3. You should now see Kurita with an X beside it underneath Tim Barnes name on the ballot. You can now continue on with the remainder of the ballot.Remember – you can always ask an election worker to help you with this process.
Kurita Gets Her Court Date
Posted on October 2, 2008 at 8:19 amUnited States District Judge Robert L. Echols has granted a motion by Kurita’s legal team to hear her case on Friday, October 10 at 10:00 A.M. Ken Whitehouse has the story.
EASTER EGG: See the full transcript of the September 13th meeting of the Tennessee State Executive Committee where Kurita’s August 7th primary win was declared “incurably uncertain” here.
TNGOP Adds Their Two Cents On Kurita Attack
Posted on October 1, 2008 at 5:44 pmFrom the desk of Robin Smith:
“The Tennessee Democrat Party formally endorsed the proposed state income tax while the Tennessee Republican Party’s state executive committee adopted a resolution against the state income tax,” said Robin Smith, chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party. “Except for a courageous few among them, Democrat legislators were the majority force pushing for imposition of the unpopular tax, while most Republican lawmakers and leaders fought against it.”
“The Democrats’ latest desperate lies are meant to divert attention from their having stolen a certified election victory from state Sen. Rosalind Kurita, an opponent of the income tax, this time by falsely smearing her as a supporter of the income tax,” Smith said.
“From the Obama campaign on down, Democrats this year have adopted a tactic of trying to distract from real issues with smears and diversions,” said Bill Hobbs, communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party.
Bad Tactics
Posted on at 5:42 pmIlissa Gold doesn’t understand why the Tennessee Democratic Party is bothering to attack a candidate whose name isn’t even on the ballot:
The primary has been overturned, fairly or not. Now her only hope of winning is to win as a write-in candidate. Do you think that everyone who votes in her district will remember on November 4 a) that they can write her name in and b) how to spell her name correctly if they do? I’d be willing to bet even a majority of Republicans up in Clarksville won’t remember that. This election is in the bag now, the TNDP now just has to hope that they take back the Senate so that Tim Barnes can actually be seated.
What was the point of throwing more fuel on this fire? To me, this just looks completely gratuitous. Cheap shots might make you feel all tough, but are generally not a good way to win an election
SEE ALSO: Braisted
Pounds Of Flesh: Running Up The Score On Kurita
Posted on at 2:42 pmThe Tennessee Democratic Party has sunk to a new low this afternoon. After apparently just discovering that tonight’s Rosalind Kurita fundraiser featuring Republican luminaries from the state Senate was being held at Justin Wilson’s Cherokee Equity Corporation, the party released this statement.
NASHVILLE – Rosalind Kurita has shown her true political stripes by putting her career ahead of her principles. Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Gray Sasser released the following statement in response to a fundraiser for Kurita tonight at the Cherokee Equity Corporation. Cherokee Equity Corporation board member Justin Wilson, in his capacity as Deputy Governor to Republican Govenor Don Sundquist, was one of the architects behind Sundquist’s disastrous state income tax plans.
“Rosalind will say or do anything to help her floundering campaign. Kurita now sides with the income tax proponents of the Tennessee Republican Party for her personal career advancement and for no other reason. Today, we find that she has cast her lot with Don Sundquist and the income tax wing of the Tennessee GOP. She is so desperate to fund her campaign that she will cozy up to any special interest
Please. Like the architects of Tennessee’s state income tax were all Republicans, right?
In fact, one of the big ones, if I remember correctly, was former State Senator Bob Rochelle, who happens to be the lawyer that defended Kurita at that tribunal where the Democratic Party overturned her certified election.
Why not include that in the release? It would certainly bolster the argument-by-association that the Democratic Party is making here, would it not? Is it that Bob Rochelle is too big to mess with? Too much in the good graces of “the club” so to speak, whereas Kurita has been suitably separated from the herd so much that she deserves no courtesy for years of service as a Democrat, is that it?
Followers of Tennessee politics know that Kurita had nothing to do with the income tax. She voted against it.
That opposition, and her love of the guns, are about the only “Republican” things about her. Which is why this all out assault on a lifetime Democrat is so preposterous.
Rosalind Kurita is a progressive populist. She is a nanny statist. She views government as a force for good. The woman is securely within the Democratic ideological spectrum.
Yes, she voted against a Democratic Speaker. So what?
Everybody and their momma knew that Wilder was past his expiration date. Everyone. Nobody, however, was man enough to pull the trigger. Why? Because, under Wilder, Democrats had power.
The only way keep that power was to nominate Wilder, who was capable of peeling off then-Republican Mike Williams for that magic 17.
Democrats love to paint Kurita’s vote against Wilder as a craven power play. Was the power she would gain for her issues and her district by voting for Ramsey an attraction for her? I’m sure they were. No politician walks around trying to get themselves marginalized and she had sat on the Democratic bench quite a few years getting ignored.
But accusing her of a power grab is a bit of the pot calling the kettle black.
John Wilder, essentially a Dixiecrat who stayed in power by ceding a good portion to Republicans, needed to go. The Democratic Party could keep stumbling along in the Senate on the back of, a legend no doubt, but a doddering old man. Or, it could cut loose of the Dixiecrat, let the Republicans have control for a time, and grow a new Democratic Party based, not on power or the good ole boy network, but on progressive ideals.
Kurita saw the opening to drive a stake into the heart of the old Tennessee Democratic Party and she took it. Her vote for Ramsey was a conservative vote, but it was cast for reasons both personal and progressive.
Deep down many Democrats know that Rosalind Kurita is not the crypto-Republican they have painted her to be. They understand why she did what she did, whether they agree with it or not.
If Democrats and Kurita had gotten together and agreed to let the past be the past and work towards the future of a new Democratic Party, all of this would have been unnecessary.
Rosalind Kurita, after all, is a populist, pro-choice on abortion, good government Democrat. She obviously is a bold woman, she wasn’t going to stay put as Ramsey’s pet Democrat for very long.
But because she stood up, after years as a good foot soldier, and attempted to grab a little something for her agenda and in the process free the party of the Old Ways, Senator Jim Kyle got mad and he just couldn’t just let it go. When overtures were made to smooth things over, Kyle, time and time again, chopped up the waters.
It is my belief, and only my belief, that Rosalind Kurita would have voted for just about any Democrat for Speaker except Jim Kyle next year had she been elected as a Democrat. Joe Haynes, Lowe Finney, anyone — she would have voted for them. That is purely my speculative belief but I do not believe it is an unreasonable one.
So, when people call Kurita selfish, it always hits me as curious. Did she vote against Wilder for totally selfless reasons? No, of course not.
But this Jim Kyle-driven assault on Kurita stems from one fact and one fact only. Jim Kyle wants to be speaker. Democrats could have gotten a Democratic speaker (assuming the other numbers were there) with Rosalind Kurita, that much is clear to most political observers, it just wouldn’t have been Jim Kyle.
So, even if one grants that what Kurta did in 2007 stemmed from personal ambition, one must also grant that the political destruction of Rosalind Kurita was motivated by ambition as well — Jim Kyle’s ambition.
Of course, this is all a moot point now. What’s done is done. The Democrats threw away a perfectly good Democrat, a Democrat who had the strength to do what was necessary to “refresh that tree of liberty” and give the party room to grow.
Now, Kurita has been driven out, into the arms of the Republicans, a party with which she has little ideologically in common with. If she somehow manages to win now, with Republican money, managers and a bad taste her mouth for the Democratic Party, there is no chance in hell of her voting for a Democratic Speaker.
The thing is, it didn’t have to be this way. There are Democrats who know this. Not all of them, but many do. Yet they continue even after the deed is done, even after Rosalind Kurita has been stripped of her election, to pile on.
The game is the game, for sure, but this woman was a Democrat until they threw her out. She could have run as an independent, or even a Republican, and won easily. But she didn’t, she entered the Democratic Party primary. Just about the only place she could possibly lose this election. I think some grassroots Democrats currently following the cues of their leadership need to ask themselves why she did that.
Rosalind Kurita is not even on the ballot. I ask you, if the Tennessee Democratic Party can’t beat a woman who isn’t even on the ballot straight up without resorting to painting her an income tax supporter because of the owner of the venue of her fundraiser, what good is the Tennessee Democratic Party?
The Democrats have taken Rosalind Kurita’s party and her ballot position away from her. Is enough, not enough at this point?
College Republicans Join Kurita Campaign As Coordinators
Posted on September 29, 2008 at 6:37 pmA message has just been sent out to members of “Let’s Keep Kurita”, an open Facebook group, by the Vice President of the Austin Peay College Republicans, Cody Schmidt, in which he reveals his role as a campaign coordinator for Senator Rosalind Kurita.
My name is Cody Fisher-Schmidt and I am currently working for the Senator Kurita Campaign. Tomorrow at 4:30 in The Morgan University Center on Austin Peay, State Representative Philip Johnson is stopping by to speak about his campaign and will be asking for help as well as speaking on Senator Kurita’s Campaign. If you can make it out that would be awesome! Thanks for your time
Post Politics confirms that Schmidt is indeed on the Kurita campaign payroll. Conservative blogger and MTSU student Matthew Hurtt is also listed on the page as a coordinator and volunteers for the campaign, mostly on weekends.
Hurtt previously served as the Campaign Operations Director for Rep. Donna Rowland.
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