Daily Dose for October 05, 2006

Daily Dose

Corker Bringing Out Big Fundraisers -- Republican Bob Corker is bringing out some big name national figures to help him fundraiser. President Bush has already visited twice - to Nashville and Memphis - and First Lady Laura Bush is scheduled for a Knoxville fundraiser. Now Corker will bring in former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to a Chattanooga fundraiser. Corker will host a fundraiser in Clarksville with the next GOP Leader in the Senate, Kentucky Senator Mitch Mcconnell on Friday.

Ward Takes Leave of Absence from Republican Women -- Shirley Ward, who now faces a trial on charges of voter fraud, has taken a "leave of absence" from her role as head of the state's Republican Women. Ward testified that she had been given the wrong ballot to vote, but voted anyway - even though she did not vote in any of the contest races for the district which she was not registered for. Among Ward's legal defense team is former Congressman Ed Bryant, who reacted to the judge ordering the case to go forward: "At a preliminary hearing the standard of proof is not very high...We feel like we'll be vindicated."

Dems Accuse GOP of Racist Overtones -- State Democratic Chairman Bob Tuke accused Republicans of altering a picture of Harold Ford, Jr. in a fundraising letter to make him appear more black - and the Ford campaign accused the RNC of creating an add with racist overtones featuring a black man walking through an alley. GOP officials called the claims "baloney" and "outlandish." Tuke said the fundraising letter featuring a black-and-white photo of Ford also contains racist "code words" in the following passage: "Harold Ford is a smooth operator, cunning and disguising his real record, opportunistic as can be, hypocritical as they come and a true danger to Tennessee." The Corker campaign said they were not connected to either the ads by the RNC or the state party fundraising letter.

Lynn Wants Database Check on Registered Voters -- State Rep. Susan Lynn has written three letters to Brook Thompson, the state’s election coordinator, askign the state to query the voter file to determine if anyone with an ineligible Social Security number is on the rolls. Illegal immigrants can get an identification number beginning with a 9, 8 or 0 - and some in other states have used these ID numbers in the place of Social Security numbers. Thompson so far has declined to release the results of the inquiry, saying he could not release Social Security numbers, but cited no state law which said he could not provide counts of voters registered whose SSI field begins with those three digits.

Posted by Adam Groves | Email This |