From the Daily News Journal today:

But it is increasingly — and disappointingly — clear that the position is political and always will be. Former Election Administrator Hooper Penuel had served as chairman of the Rutherford County Democratic Party before being selected for the job 11 years ago.

Now, Nicole Lester has been appointed to the position even though her husband, Joe Russell, worked in Sheriff Robert Arnold’s campaign as treasurer last year and was rewarded with a position on his staff.

The Election Commission has been batting this stuff back and forth since last November, leading to four resignations and a great amount of bad-mouthing among the Republican Party, which controls the commission.

In all that time, though, the commission failed to learn the need to maintain the greatest degree of transparency, despite talking a good game about openness.

During Monday’s meeting, the three Republican members of the commission apparently conducted a flanking maneuver around the two Democrats by declining to narrow the list of candidates from five to three and then by appointing Lester without discussion.

If we didn’t know better, we’d think the GOP members had communicated about their vote before the meeting — possibly by passing messages. But we’re not naive enough to believe anyone on the Election Commission would violate the Sunshine Law.

Oops, we almost forgot that a different set of GOP commissioners did just that last year when they voted to fire Penuel under the leadership of Tom Walker, who later took the election administrator’s post for a short time before stepping down under pressure from the Republican Party.

If you want evidence of rancor within the commission, simply look at the resignation Thursday of Democratic member Denice Rucker, one of the most soft-spoken members of the group.

While emphasizing that Lester’s hiring didn’t prompt her resignation, the four-year member said she was disappointed by the commission’s decision even though Lester has a potential conflict of interest with her husband working as chief of administration for the sheriff’s office.

In an editorial titled “Search for elections chief ugly, but open” the Daily News Journal opined:

No matter how hard the Rutherford County Election Commission tries to hire an election administrator, it keeps digging itself a hole.

Oddly enough, most of the criticism of the GOP-controlled commission comes from fellow Republicans, displaying a growing rift within the local party.

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I just received this e-mail moments ago from Austin Maxwell, the newly-elected Chairman of the Rutherford County GOP:

Dear Fellow Republican:

I need your feedback!

Like so many of you, I have grown tired of the never ending saga of the county election commission. Just when you think it is over, new controversies arise. I awoke Tuesday morning to newspaper headlines and to a day full of phone calls. As I shopped with my family and attended my son’s Boy Scout meeting, I had people express their continued disdain at the election commission’s actions. Today, Wednesday, April 13th, the bad headlines continue.

While they were not the choices of the previous Republican Party Executive Committee, I had hoped the appointments of Ransom Jones and David Edwards would allow our community to move on to other important issues like the economy, jobs, illegal immigration and government reforms. But, what appears to be the selective perception and poor decisions of Mr. Jones and Mr. Edwards have continued to give the community and the Republican Party a black eye.

At Chairman Jones and David Edwards’s first election commission meeting it was agreed that if any of the previous two finalists bowed out that the remaining finalist would be appointed Election Administrator. Jones and Edwards and the commission then proceeded to change the job qualification which eliminated one qualified applicant after it was discovered that another candidate had a possible conflict of interest. Why was this new requirement imposed?

Then, at the April 11th meeting David Edwards and Ransom Jones and other commissioners voted to disqualify another applicant because of a “perceived” conflict of interest. After this vote, David Edwards disclosed his own “potential” conflict of interest…his relationship to one of the applicants. He then proceeded to vote for his relative anyway. It has just been discovered that Ransom Jones forgot to have the counties HR Department to list the new “college degree” requirement on the HR websites position description (PDF) and one wonders if we have now opened ourselves up to litigation once again from any of the candidates that applied based upon the still posted position description requirements of a high school degree. This requirement of a college degree appears to satisfy a political purpose and the political wishes of a select few. I have no issue with any of the candidates. Like many of you I take issue with the decisions and disclosure of Mr. Jones and Mr. Edwards respectively regarding this process since their appointment to the election commission.

The election commission should not be used to settle personal or political vendetta. Neither should it be used as source of jobs for friends and political supporters. The election commission is a sacred public trust that administers honest and fair elections. How can we expect the public to trust the commission to manage our election process when they can’t manage to hire a new administrator in a fair and unbiased manner?

In my opinion the entire process is now tainted. Mr. Jones and Mr. Edwards at a minimum should recuse themselves from any further votes or discussion on this matter.

In the next 24 hours I will be calling a meeting of the Executive Committee to discuss this issue further. In the meantime, I need your feedback.

Simply send me an email to director@rutherfordgop.org. VOTE by stating the following in the subject line or body of the email. Be sure to include your name and address.

#1. CHAIRMAN JONES & COMMISSIONER EDWARDS SHOULD RECUSE THEMSELVES FROM ANY FURTHER VOTES OR DISCUSSION ON THE SIX ADMINISTRATOR CANDIDATES. CONTINUE THE CURRENT PROCESS WITHOUT THEIR VOTE OR INPUT.

OR

#2. CHAIRMAN JONES & COMMISSIONER EDWARDS SHOULD RESIGN. NEW MEMBERS SHOULD BE SELECTED BY RPRC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND SUBMITTED TO THE STATE OF TENNESSEE FOR APPROVAL. BEGIN THE INTERVIEW PROCESS AGAIN.

As always, THANK YOU for all you do. I value your feedback and your opinion on this matter.

Respectfully,

Austin Maxwell
Chairman, Republican Party of Rutherford County

I have been covering this story at length.

The Daily News Journal has a follow up from yesterday’s Election Commission story (complete with giant picture of County Commissioner Robert Stevens’ head):

Commissioners initially voted to exclude Lester as a candidate because she’s married to Joe Russell, an appointed chief administrator for Republican Sheriff Robert Arnold. Although worried some could question if she had any involvement with the sheriff’s re-election in the future, the election commissioners decided it would be fair to let her remain with the other five still in consideration after Messick made the cut.

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