You really ought to be reading the Tennessee Politics Blog by Adam Groves. Each day, he rounds up all the most important political news from around the state, linking to all the major papers and websites.
One thing he left out, though, was the Commercial Appeal’s profile of State Sen. Rosalind Kurita (D-Clarksville), over the weekend. Which is ironic, because the point seems to be: look at me, don’t forget me!
According to the latest Survey USA poll (which Groves illustrates here), only forty percent of those polled knew about anything about Kurita or her campaign vs. Harold Ford, Jr. in the U.S. Senate Democratic primary.
On top of that, Kurita’s unfavorable percentage is twice as high as her favorable percentage. Perhaps someone can help me out with that, because I have yet to hear anything negative about her campaign, from both Republicans and Democrats. Kurita seems to be a fairly typical Democrat, but I like both of the ideas she advances in the CA article.
1. Elect the AG.
TeamGOP points to a “very good question” by Mark A. Rose: Are Tennessee’s voters too stupid to be able to elect the attorney general? TeamGOP adds, “Many Democrats probably think so.”
But not Kurita. She’s co-sponsoring a bill that would do just that, along with Rep. Brian Kelsey.
The idea seems to be popular on both the right and the left. Here’s Bruce Barry in the Nashville Scene, for one: “Making the AG position an elected one would both enhance the role of the office and improve state government as a whole.”
2. Put it online.
Lefty bloggers at The Pesky Fly like this one. From the CA’s profile:
As the General Assembly wrangles with ethics reform, Kurita said she’s trying to include legislation that would put votes online and streaming audio and video of committee debates on the Internet.
This is one bloggers and political junkies of all stripes should support.
On the other hand, perhaps Kurita should start by putting more content on her own website.
For instance, a search turns up nothing on her AG bill. While at Brian Kelsey’s site, we get this:
An elected Attorney General with prosecutorial powers would help fight the atmosphere of corruption in our state. Bribery has been illegal for as long as Tennessee has been a state, so no further statutes could have solved the problem of selling votes on the legislative side. On the enforcement side, however, an elected Attorney General would have far greater resources to fight corruption than do the individual county attorneys general, who are the only state officials currently bearing the power to charge someone with a crime. Currently, Tennessee is the only state in the Union whose Attorney General is appointed by the Supreme Court, and this insulation from public scrutiny needs to end.
Kurita should take the first step and put up more information on her own website.
She should also throw a bone to her supporters running the unofficial campaign blog; no offense, but they don’t seem to know much more about her campaign than the rest of Tennessee. The other unofficial Senate campaign blogs write about issues, carry campaign press releases, kick dirt at the other candidates, analyze polls, etc., but Kurita’s unofficial blog seems unsure what to think about anything.
If Kurita wants more attention, she should start with those things. She may have some interesting ideas, but nobody seems to know anything about them.
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9th Democrats
The Air America personality in Memphis, Leon Gray, says there’s a glut of candidates running in the Democratic primary to replace Harold Ford, Jr., and that the party should spread the good candidates around to other races and silence the others.
Tonight you have a chance to see for yourself. According to LeftWingCracker, there will be a candidate forum tonight at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Hall (where else?). By my count, seven candidates are expected to attend. Bonus points if you can figure out which ones Gray thinks shouldn’t be running.
