UPDATED: Legislature Takes a Breath on Picking Senate Party Nominees

Tennessee Democratic Party chairman Roy Herron is asking that a bill doing away with primaries for picking U.S. Senate candidates apply only to Republicans. Photo credit Blake Farmer/WPLN

The Tennessee General Assembly has delayed consideration of ending primary elections for U.S. Senate. Several lawmakers say voters need time to weigh-in on possibly losing their power to pick party nominees.

A few top-ranking Republicans have gotten on board with Frank Niceley’s proposal for the state legislature to again pick Senate candidates. Niceley says Tennessee should lead what he calls a band of “small red states” to help send more conservative lawmakers to Washington and “save America.”

But Niceley faces stiff opposition from within his own party.

“This bill smells of elitism, of cronyism, and it would open up a system that was – and could be in the future – rife with corruption,” says Sen. Brian Kelsey of Germantown.

State legislatures had the job of choosing U.S. Senators until the adoption of the 17th Amendment exactly 100 years ago. It established the direct election of senators by popular vote.

Democrats say they oppose allowing the General Assembly to pick nominees. The Tennessee Democratic Party wants to be left out.

“I believe in the people’s right to decide,” says TNDP chairman Roy Herron. “I believe the people should pick the politicians instead of the politicians picking each other.”

While it was seen as a fringe idea with little chance at passage, Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey has since come out in support of doing away with primaries.

“I would have never thought this up on my own,” he says, referring to the legislation from Sen. Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains).

“The one criticism,” Ramsey says, is that it takes away people’s right to pick primary candidates themselves. However, voters still get a say in the General Election.

“In the end – in November – obviously they will get to vote,” he says.

Democrats are the ones who’ve had the most trouble with the current system. In the last election cycle, they disavowed their own senate candidate. Still, party chairman Roy Herron says he trusts “the people’s wisdom.”