“We’ve never had a national healthcare strategy.”

- U.S. Senate candidate and current TN State Sen. Rosalind Kurita, speaking Thursday with Memphis-area nurses at the University Club.

Later Thursday, Kurita took a toor of the Budweiser Warehouse and met with Korean Community Leaders at Amigo Restaurant.

Her campaign distributed fliers titled “Senator Kurita on the Issues” calling for the development of renewable energy, increased access to healthcare and more affordable prescription drugs, legislation preventing outsourcing and comprehensive ethics reform. On the reverse side, the flier boasts: “Well known independent poll, Zogby, recently shows Rosalind Kurita is the strongest Democrat for the General Election.”

We examined Kurita’s ethics proposals here last month.

Today Kurita holds a 3 p.m. press conference at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Jefferson to extend her criticism of the bankruptcy bill passed by Congress last year.

More photos from yesterday’s event below the fold: (more…)

The slim Republican majority on the Shelby County Commission is in jeopardy this afternoon after incumbent Republican Bruce Thompson withdrew his bid for reelection.

The Memphis Flyer’s Jackson Baker has the details.

Thompson’s absence would leave District 5, considered a swing district, without a Republican candidate.

However:

[I]t would appear that a state law passed in the ’90s governing last-minute withdrawals would call for the re-opening of the filing deadline for a week — thereby allowing the local Republican Party to field another candidate.

Memphis lawyer John Ryder, who also ran in 2002, is said to be seriously considering another campaign.

Above, Jackson Baker and John Ryder appear together at a civic forum held last summer.