Bill Frist is rumored to be considering a run for Tennessee Governor in 2010. With his name recognition and personal wealth, he’d be hard to beat.

Other names being floated:

The list of possible 2010 Republican candidates could include U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Brentwood, state Rep. Beth Harwell of Nashville, Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale, state Sen. Majority Leader Ron Ramsey and U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp of Chattanooga. Also, former state Sen. Jim Bryson, who lost the governor’s race this year, hasn’t closed the door on another run.

Interestingly, even with being stuck on the ass-end of the state in Memphis I recognize all the names except Haslam, but I couldn’t tell you whether I’d vote for any except Blackburn.

Who would’a thunk it? A good school program expanding as the number of school shooting teams in Memphis triples this year:

Last season, only Memphis University School and Houston High School had trap shooting clubs.

That changed when Shelby County School Board member Ron Lollar heard about the 400 scholarships set aside by the Tennessee Wildlife Federation for Tennessee high school trap team members across the state.

Lollar and County Schools Supt. Bobby Webb gathered interested coaches and sponsors to form four more teams from Arlington, Bolton, Germantown and Briarcrest high schools. To join, students must maintain a “C” average, cannot misbehave and must complete a Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency hunter’s safety course.

I always liked Ron Lollar.

And who would’a thunk it? The Commercial Appeal prints a story about kids with guns and doesn’t descend into left-wing nut-bag ranting, not even a little.

Technorati Tags: Scholastic Shooting,
Education,
Second Amendment,
Memphis,
Tennessee,
Shelby County.

Terry Roland held a press conference this morning and asked that his name be withdrawn from consideration for filling the vacant Tennessee Senate seat.

The seat was first vacated when Democrat John Ford was arrested in the FBI Tennessee Waltz sting. A special election was held and, as the district had been controlled by the Ford machine for decades, Ophelia Ford stepped up to take over the family business. Terry Roland, a white business man, ran against her as a Republican.

Ophelia won by 13 votes in an election as crooked as that in which Duval County, Texas cast 203 votes in alphabetical order for Lyndon B. Johnson, but Ophelia held on to her seat through litigation (having learned the lessons of Gore 2000) for seven long months before finally being ousted by the Tennessee Senate. This is the second time the election was nullified by the Senate and Ophelia is trying to litigate her way back in again.

Assuming Ophelia is unsuccessful this time, the issue now goes to the Republican controlled County Commission, which is to seat an interim Senator until the fall elections. Terry Roland was seen as a shoe-in until this morning’s stunning announcement. In part:

Our campaign brought so many people together from every part of this diverse district…black and white…rich and poor…for a cause greater than ourselves.

This contest has never been about me and our campaign. Even though I am confident of our success in the election, justice has been served. So in the spirit of Democracy and fairness, I am withdrawing my name from consideration to fill the vacancy in the Tennessee State Senate. I’m confident the Shelby County Election Commission will do the right thing.

Although Blogging for Bryant attributes this act to integrity, I think there is more to it than that:

1. Had Roland been seated, the local race-baiters would have stirred up the voters by saying that a bunch of white politicians had forced a cracker on the poor black people of District 29.

   This rhetoric was already being stirred up, with Commissioner Walter Bailey essentially calling for affirmative action for politicians when he stated that the Commission should appoint a black Democrat to the seat because that would be representative of the people [he did this on Mike Fleming's local conservative talk radio show]. Never mind that the voters chose otherwise [which Fleming failed to mention during the interview].

2. If Roland had been appointed, he would have been prohibited from raising funds until 15 May. Of course, this is only three weeks away.
3. Roland has stated that he will be running for the seat again in the general election this fall. This will be a harder win because turnout was unbelievably light in the special election.

   But by withdrawing his name while Ophelia tries to litigate her way back in, Roland is clearly showing the gulf of difference between he and she. The message is clear: vote Ophelia for the same old crooked politics that has dominated the district for decades. Vote Roland for integrity.

Good strategy, and maybe even enough to win in the fall. I doubt it, but I’ll be donating to the cause. Terry will need all the help he can get and this would send shock waves through the local Democrat machine.

Technorati Tags: Terry Roland,
Tennessee Senate,
Tennessee Politics,
Ophelia Ford,
Tennessee Politics.

Seven months ago Democrat Ophelia Ford beat Republican Terry Roland in a heavily-Democrat district by 13 votes. Since then we have learned that dead people voted, convicted felons voted, voters from outside the district voted, voters apparently living in empty lots voted, voters with two active voter registrations voted.

Yet with all that, a black female Democrat could only invent enough votes to beat a white male Republican by 13 votes.

Terry Roland campaigned hard in a district that had been controlled by the Fords for decades, a district that was just plain tired of the Ford family stink. Terry went door to door in neighborhoods that most people wouldn’t feel comfortable driving through.

This was a special election, arranged to replace John Ford who was arrested in the FBI’s Tennessee Waltz sting, so turnout was light. Pitifully light. But the majority of Democrats who did turn out crossed party lines to say “enough!” to the Ford family by pulling the lever for Terry Roland.

But the last precinct finally found the third and final ballot box and turned in some funny numbers, giving a razor-thin win to Ophelia. It smelled fishy then and the Ophelia win has since been proven to have been a fraud.

Yet Ophelia went to Nashville to sit among the lawmakers. Charging racism and ‘Jim Crow’-ism when the investigations started, Ophilia continued to make law.

In January, the Senate voted to oust Ophelia by a margin of 17-14. But a federal judge appointed by Bill Clinton stepped in and issued a temporary restraining order against the Senate move.

And so the voter’s wishes were thwarted.

Finally, today — seven months after the voters made their voice heard — the Senate voted to remove Ophilia again, this time by a margin of 26 to 6. Republicans have a 18-14 majority, so this means that eight Democrats recognized that the election was faulty.

Ophelia already said that she would petition the courts if the vote went against her, so expect her to try and litigate her way back into the Senate again.

If Ophelia is unsuccessful, the Shelby County Commission will vote on a replacement. With a one-seat Republican majority, it is expected that Terry Roland will finally assume the seat that he won so long ago. Just in time to start running for it again this fall, I believe.

In the meantime, Half-Bakered Mike finds that Ophelia has already violated Senate ethics rules. It’s good to see that some people still try to uphold family traditions.

Technorati Tags: Tennessee,
Tennessee Politics,
Terry Roland,
Ophelia Ford,
Shelby County Politics.

The Political Cesspool hosted a debate for Republican candidates vying for the seat currently held by Democrat John Tanner. This is a safe seat (Tanner has held it since 1989), with as much of a chance of a Republican taking it away as there is for Michael Moore becoming president of the NRA. But there are larger issues in this race.

One of the candidates, James Hart, is a white supremacist that ran for the seat in 2004. Because this was is a heavily-Democrat district, the Republicans didn’t put up a candidate and Hart, exploiting the fact that anyone can run on any ticket (I could run as a Democrat in Tennessee), snuck in when no one was paying attention and suddenly it looked like the Republicans were running a racist unopposed in the primary.

So Hart is at it again, running so that he can use it to promote his extremist agenda (he admitted that this was true in response to a question during the debate). As a political candidate, Hart has found that people will come and actually listen to him so he is exploiting that for all it’s worth.

As I said, Political Cesspool (true believers in free speech) hosted the event, inviting all three Republican candidates: Rory Bricco, John Farmer, and James Hart. Bill Roland moderated, beginning by reading a statement from Bricco that said he would not participate in any event that gave a platform for Hart to speak.

The tone of the debate was set early and you could tell that the Cesspool was hosting by the wording of the first question, with began with the assertion that the War in Iraq is an embarrassment and talked about the missing WMD (sometimes it is difficult to tell the far right from the far left — it’s more like a circle than line).

I’ve summarized the comments of each of the other two candidates in separate posts over at TennWatch:

• Comments made by John Farmer
• Comments made by James Hart

I highly recommend reading both posts for different reasons. Read the one about John Farmer because he is a serious candidate that did very well during the debate. Read the one about James Hart because the garbage that came out of his mouth is at once both repulsive and entertaining.

Bottom line: unless Rory Bricco does something to change my mind, John Farmer is my pick for this race.

Technorati Tags: Tennessee,
Tennessee Politics,
Politics,
John Farmer,
James Hart.

There’s quite a debate going on about who Tennessee Republicans should be backing.

Jay Bush and Rob Huddleston unabashedly support Ed Bryant. Jeff Ward (who I have met and have deep respect for) backs Van Hilleary.

Heck, there’s even a split at TeamGOP where Jeff blogs; fellow contributor Mark Green supports Bryant.

But I admit to being quite puzzled over Jeff’s latest volley in the Tennessee Republican War of ought six. In it he seems to suggest that failed gubernatorial candidate Van Hilleary is a better selection than Ed Bryant because he ran a failed gubernatorial campaign in 2002, and because Bill Frist chose to back Lamar Alexander over Ed Bryant.

The exact quote is, “… but at least Van Hilleary was on the first string.”

I can’t find the logic in this because I see things quite differently.

1. Van Hilleary ran a good gubernatorial campaign and the vote was admittedly quite close. But that is to be expected in an increasingly conservative state that rejected native son Al Gore in 2000 and gave 11 electoral votes to Texan George W. Bush.
2. Bill Frist backed Alexander because George W. wanted to be sure to carry Tennessee and saw Alexander as the safer choice. This is no great honor: remember that Bush backed liberal RINO Arlen Spector against strong challenger Pat Toomey.

As for me, I join Mark, Jay and Rob in supporting Ed Bryant. He was my congressman, I supported him for the Senate in 2002, and I support him still. Hopefully, the White House won’t interfere this time and we can elect a true conservative.

Technorati Tags: Tennessee Politics,
Ed Bryant,
Van Hilleary.

The Tennessee state senate voted 17-14 to set aside the controversial results of a special election for Senate District 29 held last September and ousted provisionally-seated Democrat Ophelia Ford.

First, some history. District 29 was previously held by John Ford, one of the most disgraceful politicians to ever occupy the political landscape in Memphis. John Ford is a member of the Ford dynasty which has controlled Memphis politics for decades but whose power appears to be fading. John Ford was arrested in the FBI sting Tennessee Waltz and he resigned, leaving the seat open.

John’s sister, Ophelia Ford, ran for the seat against Republican Terry Roland. The Fords have occupied this seat for 32 years and no one believed it could be taken away. It is a heavily Democrat area occupied by mainly African-Americans that feel indebted to the Fords for having taken care of them for so long. The Fords are black and Roland is a white businessman. Bush received only 20% of the votes in this district.

Incredibly, on election night Roland seemed to be on his way to win. With all the precints in save one, Roland was up by 84 votes. At the last minute a ballot box was found that just put Ophelia over the top by 12 votes. The Ford powerhouse had delivered another last-minute miracle save.

Then the investigations began. Guess who voted? Dead people. Felons. People living in empty lots. Seemingly orchestrated by the Ford family as well documented by Thaddeus Mathews but a lot of credit must go to John Harvey, a lieutenant with the county’s sheriff’s department, who performed exhaustive research of the voter rolls and found:

… hundreds of voters who apparently have two active voter registrations, and several appear to have voted twice in the same election.

One last bit of information: in November of 2004 Republicans took a majority in the Tennessee Senate for the first time since reconstruction.

And so the stage was set for a challenge to the Ford family and yesterday’s shocker:

The state Senate voted 17-14 Tuesday night to void Shelby County’s special Senate District 29 election and remove Ophelia Ford from her brother’s former seat, but must do so again Thursday before it becomes effective.

If Thursday’s vote is the same, Ford would lose the seat immediately and the Shelby County Commission would appoint an interim senator to serve until the Nov. 7 general election.

Ophelia , of course, abstained from the vote. Republican Micheal Williams of Maynardville also abstained. He is the chairman of an investigating committee that will make its report on Thursday and Williams felt the Senate should wait for that report.

Without Williams’ vote, Republicans needed one Democrat to cross over and they got it from Don McLeary of Humboldt who stands for reelection this fall.

Ophelia immediately played the race card:

“It’s about racism. It’s about ‘Jim Crow’-ism,” Ford said after the vote. “I’m black. It is 85% black vote in that district, District 29. They want this seat.” She may file a federal lawsuit over the ouster, she said.

One wonders what dead voters have to do with race. Ah well.

Ophelia ‘s next move will be a play made famous by Gore in 2000: she’ll try to litigate her way into office:

She said she will file a federal court suit challenging her removal. A federal court challenge, on civil rights grounds, is seen as the only legal avenue to contest her removal because the Tennessee Constitution gives the Senate sole authority to seat its members, a provision that would likely remove state courts from the process.

This is a great boost for Terry Roland who has worked tirelessly from the beginning of the campaign. Roland enthused:

This is great. This is the will of the people. This is what democracy is all about. I can’t believe I’m part of it.

It remains to be seen how much of this stain will rub off on Harold Ford, Jr.’s campaign to take the federal senate seat to be vacated by Bill Frist.

On a final note, what should happen now is that the Shelby County Commission is to appoint a temporary replacement until a permanent replacement can be elected in November (both Ophelia and Terry are promising to run). The Commission has seven Republicans and six Democrats — although it should be noted that while all six Democrats are true-blue Democrats, not all seven Republicans are really all that Republican. I do not believe that the interim Senator will be a Republican no matter what the press thinks.

HT to TeamGOP

Say Uncle is impressed.

Bob Krumm says Ophelia is politically tone deaf and notes the distraction from other issues.

Blogging for Bryant says the State Senate did the right thing.

Update: Ophelia Ford was able to find a sympathetic judge to issue a temporary restraining order against the Tennesse State Senate, thus blocking the resolution that throws her back on the street. From TeamGOP:

Reportedly, Memphis Federal District Court Judge Bernice Donald, used the fair voting act to stop the duly elected state Senators in Tennessee from upholding their duties.

Perhaps Judge Donald believes that the fair voting act was to protect dead voters and felons.

It should also be noted that Judge Bernice Donald was nominated to the bench on Pearl Harbor Day in 1995 by none other than William Jefferson Clinton. Will we never stop suffering from that man’s legacy?

Technorati Tags: Ophelia Ford,
Terry Roland,
Tennessee Senate,
Tennessee Politics,
Ethics,
Vote Theft,
Democrat Corruption,
Harold Ford, Jr.,
Tennessee,
Memphis,
Memphis Politics.

A 13-month drug investigation has netted 72 people in DeKalb County. People were getting prescriptions and selling them one pill at a time to pay rent and get their cars fixed:

The sheriff said he quickly spent his department’s drug interdiction budget of $15,000 funding pill purchases by undercover agents. He went directly to Gov. Phil Bredesen to ask for more money and that’s when the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation joined in. …

“As taxpayers, I hope people are angry when they hear about things like this,” Emmons said. “We went into some homes to buy pills and the people were on food stamps, disability and on TennCare. They had a freezer full of food and $1,000, sometimes up to $10,000 in cash with them. We are not anti-TennCare, but it has become obvious to me that TennCare has become the largest provider of prescription drugs on the black market.”

Lance Saylor of the state Office of Inspector General, formed earlier this year to investigate TennCare fraud cases, said the cases here are “fairly representative of what is going on around the state.”

TennCare is bankrupting the state and taxpayers are tired of it. While Gov. Bredeson ran on his experience in the health industry (he ran HMOs) and has done nothing but take a meat axe to the program that is (according to Sharon Cobb) killing people.

I’m all for getting people the drugs and care they need. I don’t want to finance the wrong side of the drug war doing it.

These are posters created by Oleg Volk.

He has a done a lot of pro-freedom work as you can see from this gallery.

Word has it that he has recently moved to Nashville and will soon be working with the Tennessee Firearms Association to turn out some materials to help in restoring gun owner’s rights in Tennessee.

Reviewing his work leads me to fervently hope that this it true, as this is one talented guy.

See his entire gallery. It’s worth the click.

The Tennessee Firearms Association asked Rep. Ben West Jr. (the best Democrat in Tennessee) to pose three questions to the Tennessee Attorney General for a formal opinion. After the passage of several months, the AG has responded:

1. Q: Does Tennessee law require that individuals who have been issued civilian handgun permits under Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-1351 carry the handgun(s) concealed?

   
   A: Neither Tenn. Code Arm. § 3917-1351, nor any other statute governing the carrying of firearms, requires the holder of a handgun carry permit to carry the handgun in a concealed manner.

2. Q: If Tennessee law does not require concealment of a handgun by a civilian handgun permit holder, may a law enforcement officer legally arrest an individual for carrying a handgun openly in Tennessee if the individual is not carrying it in a prohibited location (e.g., courtroom)?

   
   A: Yes. A handgun carry permit holder may be arrested for carrying a handgun openly if he or she is using the handgun to commit a crime, or is otherwise engaged in criminal activity while carrying the handgun.

3. Q: May a law enforcement officer legally seize a handgun carry permit from an individual when that individual is arrested or charged with a crime?

   A: No. Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-1352(c) states that a law enforcement officer may only seize a handgun carry permit when directed to do so by the Department of Safety.

Just one more example of why every gun owner in Tennessee should join the Tennessee Firearms Association and support the Legislative Action Committee.