"You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness." – Ronald Reagan

Joe Lance over at Tennessee Ticket opined briefly yesterday about former Democrat State Senator Rosalind Kurita’s court battle against the State Primary Board and the Tennessee Democratic Party, asking “Is a primary election an election?”

A hearing was held last Tuesday in the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on the federal lawsuit brought by former Sen. Rosalind Kurita over her 2008 removal from the ballot by the Executive Committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party.

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, and I don’t intend to address that in this particular post. Perhaps later.

But last week, MTSU Sidelines Opinions Editor Brandon “Occupy Wall Street” Thomas ran an editorial seeking the “perfect Republican” Presidential candidate in the style of a Craig’s List post. Basically, he took the more extreme elements of the Right and rolled them into a mythical candidate.

Cute. I was inspired to write a Craig’s List-style response from the perspective of the liberal Democrat base… seeking 2008 candidate Obama. I hear it’s in today’s edition, but here is the original, unedited version.

Enjoy.

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There’s an effort afoot in the Volunteer State to amend Tennessee state law to allow voters to recall state elected officials. From their Facebook page:

This page serves to educate voters and lawmakers on amending Tennessee state law to empower voters with the right to recall state elected officials.

Tennessee voters have shown a great deal of prudence in their use of the state’s current recall law in local county politics. It’s time to give Tennessee voters the power to recall state elected officials as well by amending T.C.A. 2-5-151.

17 other states empower voters with the right to recall state elected officials. Just like Tennessee’s current recall law, they are rarely ever used.

Tennessee currently has an “ouster law” (T.C.A. 8-47-101), but this law only protects voters from criminal politicians. It doesn’t protect voters from politicians who lie in the interview process and then switch to their own personal agendas and that of outside groups and donors.

The state’s current recall law works so well, not a single state lawmaker has tried to repeal it. If we’re going to treat government like a business, it’s time to give the real boss the power to fire politicians who feel entitled to a full term of insubordination. Let’s protect Tennessee from politicians who serve themselves before the great state of Tennessee.

While “Recall TN” – as it is being termed – does not expressly announce a partisan slant, the organization is no doubt the creation of liberal Democrat activists, who have seen their influence dwindle in recent elections. A full 80% of the other pages “Recall TN” supports are either Democrat in nature or of a left-of-center slant. Also, most of the chatter on the “wall” is of a Democrat nature.

Just as in Wisconsin, they’re undoubtedly hoping to capitalize on the populist idea of throwing out elected Republicans who make tough decisions in state government.

As I’ve said before, we already have a process to recall politicians. It’s called the next election. Unless a politician does something illegal or unethical, they were elected to serve a term mandated by law.

Just because you don’t like something a politician does, that doesn’t mean they’re not doing what they think is in the best interest of the electorate.

Seems to me “Recall TN” is made up of a bunch of sore losers, who don’t appreciate the democratic process of elections.

Right At Home blog dug into the 2nd Quarter fundraising numbers for Tennessee’s freshman Republican Members of Congress yesterday:

The [OpenSecrets.org] article goes on to list the top 10 and bottom 10 fundraisers in the second quarter, and none of the four freshmen from Tennessee made either list.

Just how did they fare?

Diane Black (TN06) and Stephen Fincher (TN08) both exceeded the average in Q2, with $297,929 (#22) and $271,728 (#28), respectively. Chuck Fleischmann (TN03) and Scott Desjarlais (TN04) fell considerably further down the list, with Fleischmann coming in at #60 with $147,041 and Desjarlais hitting #63 with $141,585.

For the first and second quarters combined, the four rank a little higher compared to their colleagues, but stack up similarly against each other:

#16      Diane Black (TN06)                    $556,561

#21      Stephen Fincher (TN08)          $521,874

#55      Scott Desjarlais (TN04)            $277,875

#56      Chuck Fleischmann (TN03)   $274,540

A major reason for Black’s being at the top of the TN heap appears to be her PAC fundraising – measuring PAC contributions as a percentage of her total fundraising, she really stands out from the rest of the TN heap. She has a significantly higher percent of PAC contributions that the rest of the Tennessee freshmen:

Black – 60%

Fleischmann – 38%

Fincher – 37%

Desjarlais – 35%

It’s interesting to see that Fincher has raised nearly as much as Black (93% of her year to date total), but is almost exactly the mirror image of her PAC to Individual contribution ratio. Is that a difference that matters to voters?

RAH poses the question, does it matter where the money comes from? Writing anecdotally, I think this really only matters to opponents. I haven’t ever seen a time when people really got fired up about fundraising data, except around reporting periods or if someone took money from some shady character like Hassan Nemazee.

As a numbers guy myself, I’ve dug into the state-level reports for the 2nd Quarter. Not much there at the moment because they only recently adjourned.

Clarksville Democrat State Senator Tim Barnes looks kind of weak with only about $6,000 on hand. State Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Sargent has nearly $77,000 on hand. Rutherford County State Representative Joe Carr has about $6,000 in the bank.

I’ll dig more into these numbers in a few days.

By the way, if you’re a Republican and you want help fundraising, drop me a line.