Windows of the Rutherford GOP headquarters show campaign signs for mayoral candidate Tim Davis; Council candidates Mark Nobles, Brian Vaughn, and David Boyce; and City School Board candidate Kevin Fisher
As reported previously, the Rutherford County Republican Party and its Chairman Rick Womick endorsed a slate of candidates for Murfreesboro Mayor, City Council, and School Board - all non-partisan offices. They even held a TEA Party to promote their slate on April 16.
Last night, every candidate endorsed by the Rutherford GOP lost.
Mayor Tommy Bragg trounced the GOP candidate Tim Davis by a 3 to 1 margin.
Sources tell us that by endorsing Mark Nobles for City Council, Rick Womick and the local GOP caused David Edwards, a Council incumbent who campaigned hard for Republican Joe Carr in 2008, to lose his seat to challenger Madelyn Scales-Harris.
The Rutherford GOP and its Chairman Rick Womick should learn their lesson from this election and stay out of non-partisan elections altogether. Something tells us, though, that hard-headed TEA Partiers like Rick Womick don’t learn lessons easily.
Now he is a featured speaker at a Rutherford TEA Party event in Murfreesboro.
After his ouster, Collins said his removal was a “soviet-style purge” and “a personal vindictive move by some in the DCRP and the TNGOP to remove me because they did not want their fellow Republicans such as Rep Zigzag Zach Wamp, Mayor “Ban’em” Bill Haslam, Senator “Large Government” Lamar Alexander, and Senator “Bailout Bob” Corker held accountable.”
By featuring such an extremist figure as a featured speaker, does the Rutherford TEA Party/Republican Party condone such behavior and endorse calling their fellow Republicans names like “Senator Bailout Bob Corker” and “Senator Large Government Alexander”? Do they also consider the Davidson County Republican Party a “soviet-style” organization?
The Rutherford County Republican Party has decided to make endorsements in non-partisan Murfreesboro City Elections this year, and they decided not a single incumbent was to their liking. As you can see from the signs hanging in their window on the public square, the local GOP has chosen Tim Davis (”the peoples’ mayor”) to defeat incumbent mayor Tommy Bragg.
Incumbent City Councilmen David Edwards, Doug Young, and Shane McFarland will be disheartened to know that the Rutherford County Republican Party has decided to endorse their challengers - Brian Vaughn, Mark Nobles, and David Boyce (who has “had enough” of the current incumbents). For a touch of hypocrisy, Rutherford County Republicans picked only Kevin Fisher for City School Board, who disagrees with school fundraisers even though his child qualified for reduced-price meals.
Did current GOP chairman Rick Womick make these decisions? Will this affect his run for State House District 34? If not, who made these endorsement decisions? Does this mean that these candidates are the Republicans in the city races? Or does this mean that Tommy Bragg, David Edwards, Doug Young, and Shane McFarland are embarrassed to have their signs hanging at the local GOP headquarters? You’ll have to ask the Rutherford County Republican Party these questions, and wait until election day, Thursday April 20th, to find out if their endorsement hurts or helps candidates in local non-partisan races.
You remember Ira, the suspicious New York investment banker who built a huge vacant cabin out on Halls Hill Pike (an income tax dodging maneuver perhaps?). He ran against Robert Peay Jr. in 2006, spending $30,000 on a county commission race. Robert promptly clobbered him 61%-39%, so he decided to run the Tennessee Republican Party’s 2008 coordinated campaign. Then, he wanted to be Tennessee’s State Treasurer, but the following disastrous interview with Phil Williams of WTVF sealed his fate:
Now he has picked up qualifying papers to run against Congressman Jim Cooper of Nashville. Ira doesn’t live in the district (no one really knows where he lives), but apparently he’s not going to let that stop him. He wants to be added to a heaping pile of winners churned out by the Rutherford County Republican Party like Donna Rowland, Joe Carr, and Bill Ketron. The Nashville Post has the story:
Brody was a partner and chief operating officer in a Nashville-based investment firm called InsCap Management LLC. He resigned from that position while he was attempting to become state treasurer. That business, which has since dissolved, was a source of consternation for many in the GOP.
Brody and InsCap, which in the past has also done business as LILAC Capital LLC, fought hard in several states to bring about changes to laws that would either allow them to enter into a new market or improve their business environment. The tactics they have employed to affect change raised eyebrows in some states.
According to published reports, consumer watchdogs in North Dakota argued in 2007 that North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jim Poolman changed his stance on rules affecting Brody’s business shortly after Brody’s wife, Sara Bachrach, donated $25,000 to his re-election campaign and Brody donated $15,000 to the North Dakota Republican Party.
In Virginia, Brody and his team employed a cadre of 11 lobbyists in 2005 in a futile effort to stop legislation that further regulated the settlement of life insurance policies.
Despite those setbacks, Brody did have success in Tennessee. In 2004, his company employed nine lobbyists to work to change state law to benefit InsCap.
Yesterday’s Tea Party Convention in Nashville is attended by folks who say they are patriotic conservatives who obey God, but they didn’t even bother to open their convention with a prayer or pledge of allegiance. In fact, there wasn’t even an American Flag in the hall at all yesterday. Are Tea Partiers/Republicans all talk when it comes to God and Country? You can read it for yourself:
The convention’s first day lacked the orchestrated staging of most modern political events. The convention host delivered a meandering welcome speech without notes, saying he misplaced them. Former congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) offered a fiery defense of Judeo-Christian faith and traditional American values, but there was no prayer or Pledge of Allegiance to open the convention — nor was there an American flag in the convention hall. (Skoda blamed the oversight on the hotel staff.)
Since the price of tickets to this convention were $550 per attendee, surely they could have afforded a large flag for everyone to pledge. Or maybe Sarah Palin’s $100,000 speaking fee was so great that they had to skimp on the patriotism.
