Does anyone remember Alvin Greene? He was the Democratic nominee for the Senate from SC in 2010. What made him so remarkable is that, on an idiot scale of 1 to 10, ten being a total idiot, Greene would have scored a 38. As much as I hoped that would never happen again, it has, only worse.
The party of Cordell Hull, Estes Kefauver and Al Gore Sr. and Jr. won’t have a standard-bearer — or at least not one it can stomach — in Tennessee’s next U.S. Senate race.
Less than 24 hours after a man espousing conservative and libertarian views surprised the state’s political scene by winning the Democratic nomination, the Tennessee Democratic Party disavowed him, saying he’s part of an anti-gay hate group.
The party said Friday that it would do nothing to help Mark Clayton, 35, who received nearly twice as many votes as his closest challenger in Thursday’s seven-candidate primary, winning the right to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Corker in November… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <The Tennessean>
Picture credit: CBS
Even the article does not present Clayton in all his Republican glory, but Rachel Maddow did.
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The party claims that voters just voted for the top name on the ballot. Rachel did not offer a precise explanation. I just can’t believe that many people could have been so disrespectful of their right to vote as to choose a candidate only because he was first on the list. Primary voters are the ones that care most. But there is an alternate explanation. I cannot prove it, but if fits the facts better than the official reason. Seventeen states use an open primary system. That is a system, in which any voter can vote in any primary, regardless of political affiliation. Tennessee is one of those states. With Harold Ford’s Republican nomination locked-in. There was nothing to prevent Republicans from voting in the Democratic primary to sabotage the Democratic nomination. In my opinion, that is most likely what happened.
I have long held that primaries should be closed. As preferable as it may seem to allow anyone to vote anywhere, I consider it tantamount that members of political parties be able to pick their own candidates, free of interference from people with no scruples. That’s why to keep them closed.
17 Responses to “Why to Keep Them Closed”
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Willard Romney with all his money and lawyer buddies, has the tools to dictate for legislation that promotes loop-holes for the wealthy to slip through… Willard is a Liar and Hypocrite that will suck up to all to win a vote not in their own self-interest..
Exactly!
Man do I agree with you ; Il has closed — works much better to avoid party manipulation—-
Thanks, Phyllis.
There are two aspects that concern me.
1) How the hell did Chapman get elected?
2) How did Chapman get on the Democratic list of candidates?
I accept your hypothesis TC that the most likely reason that Chapman was elected was the drawback of the open primary system — anybody can vote without declaring their party affiliation. Thanks for the link to eHow.com. But how did Chapman get on the list of candidates in the first place ? Was there not some kind of vetting process before names were added to the ballot? A vetting process should include criminal records check, associations etc. Such a process, if performed properly, would have uncovered Chapman's association with the anti LGBT hate group before even getting to the ballot and give the Democratic Party a chance to nip this in the bud. Personally, I find this scandalous and offensive. To me, there is an obligation by the Party to ensure that candidates are indeed viable for the party and the people (in the broadest sense) and not charlatans out to corrupt the system as Chapman has done. The individual voter does not have the resources nor knowledge to do this. It would appear that the Tennessee Democratic Party is dysfunctional and totally inept. I suppose the party could dump him if they could prove he deliberately lied in his candidacy application, but I doubt that would work — after all, look at Rmoney's lies and he is the Republican/Teabagger presumed nominee for POTUS.
There are no 2 ways about it, denouncing him and cutting any potential funding assistance to him is absolutely necessary. Either way, the voters now have a choice between two Republican/Teabaggers. Slippery engineering that!
1) Republican votes.
2) Anyone can run in either party, if the present petitions with sufficient signatures.
Where the Democratic Party fell down is that they did not pay sufficient attention to expose and denounce him well before the election. They probably were asleep because they considered corker unbeatable.
How is the Democratic party vetting their candidates in TN?
See my reply to Lynn.
The questions being asked are sort of dumb; on any/every state ballot there are candidate 'lists' with one or no names – this was a primary, remember – and most people (naturally) skip over the squares that have no names next to them -or- either ignore the entire section or fill in the square next to the one name that's there [whether they recognize the name or not]. Easy to see how a lunatic can get 'elected', or in this case, become the party nominee. It's up to the state political parties to monitor this – not the elections people and not even the voters. There has to be ACTIVE recruitment on the part of the political party(s) to present reasonable candidates to the voters. This is hard to do when people are turned off by the so-called system. It is a lose-lose situation, and a downward spiral, if you will, that can only be remedied over time and with diligence from people who would rather "buy" a candidate than build one.
Well said, Alice.
Is that what the GOP do? Romney was promised back in 2008. All he had to do was drop out and let McCain win. He did that now Romney looks and smells like a loser and most likely to lose to Obama. Now the Republian/Tea Party will vote for him if he gives them what's left of his soul.
I do not remember the Man Greene and if he was a 38 I would have voted for him just because. So be it may the best nasty tea party member win it will not matter in the bigger picture.
That's probably right, Mama.
Oh Thanks TomCat for the information :)mamabear
YVW
sorry I would not have voted for him:(
Open primaries are a joke, They allow for any manipulation from the opposition. I think you are right, T.C., this was a joke perpetrated by the Repubs.
Thanks Edie.