Party leaders voted 33 to 11 to overturn Rosalind Kurita’s narrow win and the major reason they cited was an alleged effort by Republicans to keep the incumbent Democratic State Senator in her seat.
State Democratic Party Chairman Gray Sasser says even though there’s an element of crossover voting in many Tennessee primaries, he says this one was different.
”There was obviously an incredibly huge, large number of crossover votes in this thing. And the committee rightfully believes that the Republicans were trying to play games in a Democratic Primary.”
Sasser says because the margin of victory was so small, the Republican votes had a much bigger influence. That was reason enough for the Executive Committee side with Kurita’s opponent Tim Barnes, to overturn the election.
Nashville Councilman Jerry Maynard is also an Executive Committee member. He was one of the 11 who voted against overturning Kurita’s election. He says this weekend’s decision could have implications down the line for districts like Nashville, where crossover voting for Congressional representatives is common.
“If we make this the precedent, then a candidate who runs for the 5th Congressional district may come back to this executive committee and say, ‘Hey, listen, Republicans voted for my opponent, and therefore this election should be overturned.”
No one ran on the Republican side in the Clarksville-area primary.
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