D.D. 12/22/05

The Senate committee charged with making a recommendation on whether to seat Ophelia Ford following Commercial Appeal stories revealing that dead people voted in the election will delay its decision until after the TBI finishes its investigation, which likely won't be before the new session begins January 10. In addition to the admitted 6 or 7 votes that have been legitimately discredited, lawyers for Roland also say as many 14,000 voters were "disenfrancished" because they were not informed they were moved to District 29 and could vote in the election. State Election Coordinator Brook Thompson said state law does not require election officials to issue new voter registration cards or notify registered voters when they are moved from one district to another as long as their voting precincts do not change.

The issue here is that there has been admitted fraud in this election. Nothing in state law says that the margin must be reached for the election to be invalidated- and a new election ordered. The fact that it has been shown that even one dead person voted should be enough to invalidate this election. Republicans and Democrats will doubtlessly turn this into a partisan fight over who should be seated, when it should be a non-partisan issue. If Ophelia Ford won this election, let her win in a revote that is strictly monitored by law enforcement and political party officials. If the district is so Democratic, what does she have to lose?

As it is, the next legislative session is going to be obtusely partisan. Already, Democrats are sending out out-of-nowhere press releases criticising Rep. Beth Harwell, a potential Gubernatorial candidate in 2006, for filing problems with financial disclosures when she was Chairman of the state Republican Party. With the Governor's office under continued criticism, there is no doubt in my mind that Chris Devaney, TN GOP Political Director, is right when he says, "They’re turning on the fog machine."

The fog machine has been turned on whether or not Republican leaders agreed to sign on to the "swiss cheese" ethics bill that a special committee produced a couple of months ago. House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh says Republican House leader Bill Dunn agreed to sign on as a cosponsor to the bill, but that's probably revisionist history considering that Rep. Dunn was never happy with the bill that was produced, evidenced by the fact that Dunn attempted to add provisions to it until all options were exhausted.