Free Republic

NASHVILLE - The Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee has voted to declare state Sen. Rosalind Kurita's thin primary victory invalid. The panel voted 33-11 on Saturday to declare Kurita's 19-vote August victory "incurably uncertain" after her opponent, Clarksville attorney Tim Barnes, alleged heavy Republican interference in the Democratic nominating contest. A joint convention of the Democratic executive committees in Cheatham, Houston and Montgomery counties will now determine who the nominee will be. There is no Republican running in the general election. Barnes' candidacy was boosted by Democrats who were upset that Kurita helped unseat John Wilder, a Mason Democrat, from...

This past week, I have been asked many times why I voted for a new lieutenant governor. How could I vote for someone who is not a member of my own political party? The answer is very straightforward: I voted my conscience. The most basic tenet of democracy is that the majority rules. In the Tennessee Senate, Republicans have held the numerical majority for three years. Yet, we were in a peculiar situation where the minority continued to keep the majority in the form of the lieutenant governor. That is not our democracy. It was time for a change in...

NASHVILLE - Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey named Democrats to three of the top 10 Senate leadership positions Friday while assuring that Republicans have numerical control in all major committees. Senate Democrats, meanwhile, deadlocked 8-8 in a vote on whether to overhaul their own leadership structure. In effect, the tie vote derailed an attempt to oust Sen. Joe Haynes of Nashville as Democratic Caucus chairman. Ramsey, the first Republican to serve as lieutenant governor and speaker of the Senate since 1869, named Sen. Rosalind Kurita, D-Clarksville, as Senate speaker pro tempore. He insisted that the appointment was not a "reward" to...

History hunts for its participants, sometimes denying them their first choice for fame before foisting its indelible mark on them at an unexpected time. History found Rosalind Kurita on Tuesday. Kurita, a Democratic state senator from Clarksville, felt the breath of history last year when she challenged Harold Ford Jr. for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. The registered nurse would have become the first female U.S. senator from Tennessee had she prevailed over Ford and defeated Republican nominee Bob Corker in November. It was not to be. Ford vastly outdistanced her in fund raising, Democratic powerbrokers lined up...

Rep. Harold Ford Jr. Files for Frist's Senate Seat NewsMax.com Wires Thursday, May 26, 2005 NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr. filed the federal paperwork Wednesday to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist. The five-term congressman from Memphis is the second Democrat to enter the 2006 race. Frist has said he does not plan to seek a third term. "I'm excited. I'm ready to go," Ford said in telephone interview from Washington. He said his top issues will be energy reform, national security and education. Ford, 35, is a member of...