David Laroche is challenging Republican Joe Carr for 48th District of the Tennessee House of Representatives.
OUTRAISES ALL REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS
MURFREESBORO-Last week the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance released the second-quarter financial reports of all Tennessee House of Representatives candidates. The report revealed that political newcomer David LaRoche raised $42,200. Of LaRoche’s 212 contributors, 78% gave $100 or less. This sum far surpasses the $3,000 raised by his incumbent rival during the same quarter, and is the highest sum raised by any candidate for the Tennessee House of Representatives in the second quarter of 2010.
“I am very pleased that so many people, Democrat and Republican, have stepped forward in support of my campaign,” said LaRoche. “I believe it is because of my honest and dedicated commitment to advocate for the best interests of Rutherford County that I have been so blessed. We have a long way to go, but this is an excellent start. My campaign slogan is ‘New Energy, New Ideas,’ and my fundraising success indicates my supporters’ desire to bring forth positive change in the state legislature. ”
According to Murfreesboro attorney and LaRoche campaign treasurer Bricke Murfree, “What is most significant about David’s fundraising is not the number of dollars he raised, but rather the number of individual contributors. More than 167 people gave David’s campaign $100 or less, and most of those were Rutherford County residents. The people I have spoken to know that David LaRoche has the desire, work ethic and intellect to be a truly great representative for our county. Most of these early contributors have known David for a long time and are very excited about this opportunity to help him serve the community.”
David LaRoche is a candidate for the Tennessee House of Representatives, 48th district. He is a long-time resident of Murfreesboro and a local attorney.
Well, Joe Carr has been very busy again figuring out how to make all of us Rutherford Countians seem like complete imbeciles to the rest of the state. Will he file a per diem for his trouble? His latest triumph involves the Dean of the Legislative Press Corps, Tom Humphrey, claiming the veteran capitol hill journalist gave him a ringing endorsement.
Carr even posted it on the “Endorsements” page of his website. Tom Humphrey was not amused and made Carr remove it and apologize. Check out his classic explanation to the Knoxville News Sentinel:
“That’s not at all an endorsement,” said Carr when contacted. “I understand that and it’s my fault. I didn’t even think about that when we put it under endorsements.”
DId you get that? He didn’t realize listing something under “Endorsements” meant that it should actually be, you know, an endorsement.
This certainly pales in comparison to Carr’s earlier fleecing of Tennessee’s taxpayers through phony per diems he claimed were completely “inadvertent”. So “inadvertent”, in fact, that he even inadvertently picked up the checks, inadvertently signed them, and inadvertently cashed them. The only deliberate thing Carr did was keep the money, even when Channel 4 asked him to give it back.
This newest, albeit lesser, embarrassing episode did not escape fellow capitol hill reporter Jeff Woods at The Nashville Scene, though:
State Rep. Joe Carr has done it again. Caught doing something really stupid, he’s claimed he didn’t know he was doing it when he did it, thereby proving himself to be even dumber than we thought. We love this guy. He’s hilarious.
After per diems, moonshine, and now this, what will Carr think of next?
UPDATE: A commenter on the Nashville Scene article just about sums up what the whole state must be thinking of Rutherford County:
“Rutherford County sent the very bright Kent Coleman to the state legislature, and then it sent this clown and Donna Rowland and Bill Ketron. One out of four is not so good.”
KETRON SAYS LAW WAS INTENDED FOR CHRISTIANS, NOT JEWS OR MUSLIMS
In one of the most hilarious twists of irony in recent memory, Jim Tracy and the GOP have been ‘outed’ by attorneys representing Rutherford County’s Regional Planning Commission as the reason Murfreesboro’s proposed Islamic Center will be built. It turns out Tracy and about 20 Republican Senators and Representatives co-sponsored the Religious Freedom Act last year in the Tennessee General Assembly, forcing local governments to approve site plans for religious institutions across the state. Whoopsie!
Folks, if you could make this stuff up, you could make a fortune writing scripts for daytime TV.
Apparently, Rutherford Republicans Jim Tracy, Bill Ketron, and Joe Carr didn’t read their own legislation. The only expected turn of events is that they’re all quickly backpeddling. The DNJ quotes Bill Ketron as saying the bill was not intended for Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Bahai, Zoriatrians, Dao, etc, etc, etc…
“It’s a pro-Christian bill,” Ketron said. “It was established to protect the First Amendment to keep the federal government from coming in and making a decision on whether or not the church qualified or not to be a church.”
Who knew the First Amendment didn’t protect Jews? Ketron vows to get to the bottom of it…
Ketron said because of the one incident involving the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, “I would like to go back and look at the law.”
The GOP might want to go back and read the constitution and maybe even their own bills next time.
Rutherford Republicans Bill Ketron, Jim Tracy, Joe Carr, and Donna Rowland are following the lead of the Republican Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey in proposing a budget that cuts funding for MTSU’s Science Building project again. David LaRoche says they should stand up and fight their own party to fund it.
From a press release:
(MURFREESBORO) - It was revealed this week that both the Tennessee House and General Assembly Republican Caucuses are proposing state budgets ignoring the needs of MTSU and Rutherford County. Despite many years of efforts by Rep. John Hood, and Sen. Andy Womack, MTSU may be missing a rare opportunity to use federal funds to build a much-needed science building on the Murfreesboro campus.
Instead, the funds are to be used to build a fishery in the Republican Speaker Kent Williams’ district.
Today, David Laroche voiced his support for Kent Coleman’s (D-Murfreesboro) plan to save the project using allocated federal dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
“It is my belief that our Republican caucus members either can not, or will not, fight for their constituents in Rutherford County,” said David LaRoche, the challenger for Joe Carr’s (R- Lascassas) 48th district General Assembly Seat.
LaRoche is a resident of Murfreesboro and a local attorney. David’s campaign platform calls for the cessation of partisan politics, investment in Rutherford County’s education and natural resources, and an emphasis on important local issues that have immediate positive effects on the people of his district.
“Everyone knows that we need to attract business to Rutherford County to continue the economic growth we’ve been blessed with. I want the county to have the highest paying jobs in the state, and MTSU to provide us with a highly educated pool of employees for these jobs. We have to invest in MTSU to make sure that this trend continues,” he added.
NOT AWARE HE VOTED FOR INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The Daily News Journal’s weekly columnist Sam Stockard asked Bill Ketron why he voted for Race To The Federal Trough along with every other Republican legislator from Rutherford County. Here is what Ketron said:
Asked if he knows what the international benchmarks are, state Sen. Bill Ketron said, “I do not. We were told they would come from the U.S. Department of Education. The thing was on a fast track,” Ketron said. “We barely had time to read through it. It’s voluminous.”
Yet Ketron and fellow Republicans, Sen. Jim Tracy, of Shelbyville, Rep. Donna Rowland of Murfreesboro, Rep. Joe Carr of Lascassas and Rep. Pat Marsh of Shelbyville, members of the Rutherford County delegation, voted for it. Only state Rep. Kent Coleman, a Murfreesboro Democrat, voted against it.
So Republican Senator Bill Ketron admits that he voted for a massive overhaul of Tennessee’s education system without knowing much of what it actually accomplished. He also admits that as a “conservative” Republican, he thinks its just great to beg for half a billion dollars in stimulus cash with strings attached - strings that could bind our teachers to international standards. Sounds like something Tennessee’s Tea Party crowd would really oppose, but they are deathly silent on the matter because the legislation was backed by their republican overlords Ron Ramsey and Glen Casada. Just more evidence that the Tea Party crowd are willing to ignore their own stated beliefs if republicans tell them to, just like they did when they gave George W. Bush free reign to plunge our nation into huge war debts and pass unfunded federal mandates like No Child Left Behind.
Here’s how Rutherford County’s delegation voted when it came to tying teachers’ jobs to factors beyond their control: Kent Coleman (D) - NO, Joe Carr (R) - YES, Donna Rowland (R) - YES, Bill Ketron (R) - YES, Jim Tracy (R) -YES.
Last week’s Special Session called by Governor Bredesen to overhaul Tennessee’s education system was a locomotive speeding towards passage that even Superman could not have stopped. This massive legislation was debated in committees for a single day, and passed on the Senate and House floor the next.
Every Republican Representative voted to seek stimulus cash through federal Race To The Top grants, and our Democratic Governor and Democratic Caucuses backed the measure as well even though it meant adopting federal guidelines tying teachers’ performance to mere test scores . Only a handful of Democrats (8 to be exact) were willing to stand up for teachers and say ‘NO’ to a governor of their own Party and their own caucus leadership.
Our own Rep. Kent Coleman was the only Rutherford County legislator to stand on principle and stand up for teachers when it came time to vote, even though he knew he was also standing right in front of a speeding locomotive. It took the courage of Superman to rise and say this on the House floor last Friday night:
Republicans controlled this year’s session of the Tennessee legislature for the first time since reconstruction (1870’s). They took over in a time of unprecedented economic hardship and sagging revenues, adding up to a budget mess that required quick action. What did republicans do with their newfound leadership opportunities? They plugged the budget holes with the very stimulus money they protested, passed “Guns in Bars”, and headed home with their pockets full of per diem checks.
All the while, far right Tennessee Republicans made impassioned speeches about “following the Constitution”, the evils of the stimulus package (yet spent it to plug budget holes), and “limited government”. They even formed a committee to study secession.
Now a Chancery Judge has ruled that the “Guns in Bars” law is unconstitutionally vague, citing that it is problematic for police and small business owners (you know, the ones republicans claim to protect). Following the Constitution to the letter is the one thing all republicans pride themselves in and espouse constantly. This year, when they finally took power for the first time since reconstruction, they couldn’t even do that. The City Paper has the story
In her ruling, [Chancellor] Bonnyman agreed the law was too vague and “does violate the due process rights of the public in general and plaintiff gun permit holders.” The chancellor based her decision on the fact that permit holders cannot determine whether or not they are in violation of the law.
“The principle business being conducted cannot be known to the ordinary citizen,” Bonnyman said. “Inquiry would not be satisfactory or helpful.”
It’s not clear whether or not the Attorney General will appeal the ruling, which effectively eliminated the statute from the law. The legislature is likely to address a new version of the bill in the next session but it is unclear whether or not a guns-in-bar provision will see the same support.
Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas spoke out in support of Bonnyman’s decision, and said his one concern he had was that the ruling would allow the issue to “again take center stage during the next legislative session instead of the vitally important issue of keeping convicted felons behind bars.”
Rep. Joe Carr (R-Lascassas) told Channel 4 today that he is refusing a request by voters to return thousands of dollars he recently told the Tennessean he “inadvertently” took from the tax payers and now claims he’s “entitled” to it.
Rep. Carr also told Channel 4 he took over $18,000 (more than any other lawmaker) in expenses to pay for hotel rooms, but no one seems to understand why he’d need that much money when he lives less than an hour from the state Capitol.
In the video above, Rep. Carr couldn’t explain how he “inadvertently” drove himself to the bank to “inadvertently” cash 13 weeks worth of bogus meal and hotel expense checks.
Joe had the nerve to challenge his fellow big spending county Republicans to join him in not accepting anymore expense claims for the entire calendar year after we caught him with his hand in the tax payer’s pocket.
Rep Joe Carr: I didn't know I took all that money.
Rep. Carr must think Rutherford County voters are stupid enough to believe he inadvertently requested expense money, inadvertently signed for the check and inadvertently drove himself to the bank to cash them.
This weekend’s Tennessean focused more on Rep. Joe Carr (R-48) out spending every single lawmaker in the House when it came to requesting $171 per day for hotel and meal expenses.
Rep. Carr had the nerve to tell the newspaper that he “inadvertently” requested more money for hotel and meal expenses than lawmakers who live in Memphis and Knoxville. Rep. Carr lives only 30 miles from the Capitol, and no one seems to know how he could have run up so many expenses.
“Among area lawmakers, Carr, a first-term lawmaker, claimed the most in per diem expenses in the first quarter of 2009, filing for $9,234 in charges. Carr said he inadvertently ran up the per diems while preparing for his first session in the state legislature.
“Because the state finances were in such a mess, after the election and before the session, I took several trips to Nashville,” Carr said. “I didn’t realize that every time I came to the legislature, they did a per diem.”
Carr said he did not become aware of the extent of the charges until media attention was called to it in the wake of Williams’ letter. He pledged to claim fewer days in the future.
During the last legislative session, Rep. Carr tried to deny extended unemployment benefits to residents in his district, but then he made bogus expense requests for hotels and meals he never purchased and got his own unemployment stimulus check compliments of Tennessee tax payers.
Now that the media caught him with his hand in the tax payer’s wallet, Rep. Joe Carr has promised to claim fewer bogus expense requests in the future. That must make the voters of Lascassas feel much better.
“Mr. Carr seems to be talking out of both sides of his mouth on this issue,” Forrester said. “Back home he rants about taxes, but he sure comes to Nashville often to collect his per diem, which reimburses lawmakers for their expenses while doing official business.
“Speaker Kent Williams even sent a letter recently to House members encouraging them to limit use of expense money they collect from the state.”
It must be embarrassing for Rep. Carr to know voters pay attention to these things. For months, Rep. Carr ignored his own party’s leadership warning him and other free -loaders to stop using per diems as his personal unemployment check, but that’s exactly what he’s done.
What’s worse is Rep. Carr doesn’t feel he owes anyone an explanation.
Like many of his constituents, Rep. Carr has fallen on hard times in this 1 1/2 year long Bush recession. But instead of trying to help his district recover from the results of 8 years of failed conservative economic policy, Rep. Carr drafted legislation demanding Gov. Bredesen deny extended jobless benefits to the growing unemployed in Lascassas when they needed it the most. Rep. Carr told listeners on 1450 WGNS that extending their unemployment benefits “would cost too much of the tax payer’s money.”
Now we find out that Rep. Carr, who has no job himself, has been taking his own personal stimulus check directly from tax payers through bogus $171 a day per diem requests meant to pay for hotel and meals for out of town legislators. Rep. Joe Carr claimed more than $18,000 for hotels and meals, even though he lives 30 miles from Nashville. More than $7,000 of that was since July when nothing is going on at the Capitol!
Lascassas deserves an honest, hard working Representative who doesn’t spend as much tax money as Memphis legislators who actually need hotel rooms. The voters ought to ask Rep. Carr what on earth he did with their money.
The state legislature may be out of session but according to local media reports Rep. Joe Carr (R-48) has been spending a lot of summer days at the Capitol claiming per diems, a day’s pay for showing up. Rep. Carr was at the top of the list when it came to which Republican requested the most per diems after the session was already over.
It’s gotten so bad that Republican House Speaker Kent Williams issued a letter to all Representatives asking them to follow some basic guidelines to cut per diem requests. You can read the letter here.
Rep. Carr must not have gotten the memo because he kept requesting money all summer when he thought no one would be watching. Rep. Carr didn’t think twice about pushing his own bill in the last session demanding Gov. Bredesen not accept federal stimulus funds for extended jobless benefits for his district’s growing unemployed. Now that Rep. Carr needs a stimulus of his own, he’s off to collect his directly from the tax payers.
We’ll take a closer look at Rep. Carr’s summer per diem requests later, but first, let’s look at how much our county’s delegation is costing us.
What the list of our county delegation’s per diem requests for the entire session factually shows the voters of our county is a record of spending on the part of the Republican delegation. Rep. Donna Rowland (R-34) doesn’t look that bad on the surface, but then she’s got a lot of making up to do for being deemed the most expensive Republican in the entire House for filing resolutions honoring everything from campaign contributors to her new boyfriend.
The list below does not include per diem requests made after the session, which ought to put Rep. Carr over the top.
Just as a growing number of Rutherford County families are feeling the brunt of significant job loses, Rutherford County Republicans are very busy planning yet another “tea party” to protest the help we need from the federal government.
Last night, the House voted 73 - 20 to postpone fair and accurate elections in the state of Tennessee until 2012. Republican Representatives Joe Carr (R-48) and Donna Rowland (R-34) both voted for the delay. Rep. Kent Coleman (D-49) voted against the delay.
The Senate will now consider Sen. Bill Ketron’s (R-13) version of the bill. SB 872 will delay the implementation of the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (TVCA) which passed the House and the Senate and was signed into law by Gov. Phil Bredesen. The TVCA requires all counties to switch to optical scanned paper ballots instead of using electronic voting machines.
Sen. Ketron and fellow Republicans have expressed concerns over the cost of implementing the new law they passed despite the fact that it will be paid for by $25 million in federal funds from the Help America Vote Act.
A coalition of civic groups denounced voting machine legislation passed last night by the full House of Representatives. Gathering to Save Our Democracy, Common Cause, the League of Women Voters of Tennessee, along with VerifiedVoting.org, Voter Action, and Voters Unite.org called for the Senate to reject HB 614. A companion bill, Senate Bill 872, also awaits floor action in the Senate. HB 614 would delay the implementation of paper records verified by the voter from the 2010 general election to the 2012 general election. It would also replace a hand counted audit of computer vote tallies with an “audit” that would involve using the counties’ inventory of ballot scanners. These scanners would nearly always have the same software, and come from the same voting machine company, as the scanners used to tally initial results.
Sen. Ketron has failed to provide a rational arguement for his focus on delaying the implemention of fair and accurate elections in Tennessee, but his actions fall in line with a pattern of promoting bad government. Sen. Ketron was also successful during this session in yanking the teeth out of the independent Ethics Commission responsibile for investigating corruption on Capitol Hill.
A Republican sponsored bill (HB 1204 / SB 1331) that would have allowed the coal industry to pollute Tennessee’s waterways narrowly failed in the state House today 49 - 42. The bill’s House sponsor says he is not sure if he’ll try to refile the bill.
Rep. Joe McCord (R-8) admitted today on the House floor that the bill was written and given to him to sponsor by the coal industry. The bill would have allowed selenium levels from coal production to reach unacceptable levels (7.5 ppm) in Tennessee lakes, rivers and streams. Watch this video to see what selenium waste has done to aquatic life.
Rep. McCord and several of his Republican colleagues repeatedly claimed the bill would bring Tennessee up to the latest EPA standards for selenium levels in U.S. waterways. The EPA, however, never adopted the proposal which Republicans falsely claimed were the latest standards.
Furthermore, the scientist who helped draft the 2004 proposal for the EPA on selenium levels has since reported that his findings were wrong and that the bill as written would in fact kill nearly 80% of fish in Tennessee waterways, one reason the proposal was rejected by the Bush Administration’s EPA in the first place.
Despite these facts, Tennessee Republicans persisted on behalf of the coal industry, including those representing Rutherford County.
The audacity of Tennessee Republicans to pass off junk science and misrepresent the truth in the state legislature as the basis of their support for poisoning Tennessee waterways is embarrassing and immoral.
Tennesseans are called upon to be good stewards of God’s creation and to protect it for generations to come. Tennessee Republicans demonstrated today yet again whose side they are on when it comes to that calling. Tennessee Republicans sided with the interests of the coal industry over protecting our environment and our great state’s cultural heritage of hunting and fishing.
Here is how our state’s delegation voted on the selenium bill:
House Republicans failed to defeat Rep. Kent Coleman’s (D-49) amendment to a booze bill in the House yesterday.
Rep. Coleman’s amendment allows voters to decide if they want liquor stills built in their communities. A Republican led attempt to defeat this amendment failed Wednesday just as it did the week before.
As written, Rep. Joe Carr’s (R-48) booze bill would have forced any county whose voters approved liquor stores to also allow liquor stills whether they want them or not. Rep. Coleman’s amendment takes that decision away from lawmakers in the back pocket of liquor lobbyists and puts it back in the hands of the voters.
Rep. Carr attempted to kill Rep. Coleman’s amendment on May 14 on behalf of liquor lobbyists but failed to get support from House members. Republicans returned Wednesday with a second attempt to kill Rep. Coleman’s amendment by forcing counties to accept liquor stills whether they want them or not. The Republican effort was withdrawn yesterday after a considerable outcry from House members who wanted their voters to make these decisions for themselves. Several of Rep. Carr’s own Republican colleagues had filed amendments to exclude their counties from his booze bill.
Sen. Bill Ketron (R-13), the Senate bill’s author, stated on WPLN today that he would support the bill and its amendments, but we’ll see about that once the bill goes to committee. If the amendment is stripped by liquor lobbyists, voters could bring lawsuits against the state for retroactively changing what their votes on liquor store referendums meant for their communities.
Another amendment Republicans might try to strip from the bill in committee is an amendment by Rep. Curt Cobb (D-62) that would protect churches. Rep. Cobb’s amendment requires liquor stills to abide by liquor store zoning rules that prevent them from selling liquor next to churches. The amendment is opposed by liquor lobbyists who want the right to sell liquor anywhere they want.
Here’s how Rutherford County’s delegation voted when it came to tying teachers’ jobs to factors 
Republicans controlled this year’s session of the Tennessee legislature for the first time since reconstruction (1870’s). They took over in a time of unprecedented economic hardship and sagging revenues, adding up to a budget mess that required quick action. What did republicans do with their newfound leadership opportunities? They plugged the budget holes with the very stimulus money they protested, passed “Guns in Bars”, and headed home with their 
Just as a growing number of Rutherford County families are feeling the brunt of significant job loses, Rutherford County Republicans are very busy planning yet another “tea party” to protest the help we need from the federal government.
Last night, the House voted 73 - 20 to postpone fair and accurate elections in the state of Tennessee until 2012. Republican Representatives 
