Tennessee legislators may get to pick U.S. Senate primary nominees (not the voters)

[Tx4obama]

Tennessee legislators may get to make Senate choices

NASHVILLE — During the last eight U.S. Senate primaries in Tennessee, an average of about 686,000 people have voted in each contest. Under a Republican proposal advancing in the state Legislature, the number picking nominees would drop to 132.

The bill, set for a state Senate vote on Monday, would shift that nominating power from primary voters to state lawmakers of either party.

“This is a way we can actually choose the candidate and make them more responsible,” said Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, who supports the plan. “The federal government is completely broken, and there’s got to be something to get their attention. And this could be it.”

Ramsey said the bill’s prospects for passage are about 50-50.

-snip-

Full article here: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/mar/29/tenn-legislators-may-get-to-make-senate-choices/

When is the madness going to end!

[Laurian]

1. I believe this same proposal was brought up in the Georgia

Legislature this session. Makes me wonder if this is another brilliant ALEC scheme.

[summerschild]

2. ALEC may well be the source.

Especially seeing as how there's probably no more than two or three functioning brain cells between the combined Georgia and Tennessee legislative membership,

[jeffrey_pdx]

3. I don't know much about Tennessee politics

but I have to assume its pretty solidly red. This measure means no republican incumbent will ever face a serious primary challenge.

[summerschild]

6. It's so red it bleeds.

[LiberalFighter]

4. That should go well with the voters in their state.

Telling them they don't get to decide who the nominee will be for their party. With any luck the Republicans will select a teabagger for their nominee.

[Chan790]

5. My expectation is the opposite actually.

It's a way for the mainstream GOP to murder the recalcitrant tea-party movement (their Frankenstein. They built it and now it won't die despite their sincerest want that it do so) in their beds now that they've outlived their usefulness...before they cost the GOP for a third time in a row a structural advantage that should flip the Senate, but doesn't because some Tea Partier says something insane and costs them a safe seat in a red state. (See: Mourdock, Richard & Akin, Todd)

[Proud Liberal Dem]

7. Not happy about this

but it could help clear the legislature of Republicans if this passes and teabaggers realize what's happening.

[Hippo_Tron]

8. Are you familiar at all with the Republicans in the Tennessee legislature?

At present, I'd say that these people have more of a chance of nominating another Todd Akin than the GOP primary electorate. Although, given how Tennessee has been trending lately, it's entirely possible that Todd Akin could win there.

[Chan790]

9. Sadly yes...

but as pointed out upthread, people suspect this is an effort pushed by ALEC or an ALEC-like group. I can surmise with some certainty they're correct...this has the feel of "model legislation." They're probably not smart enough to realize they're the sort of Republicans that this outside effort is being pushed to marginalize and keep off the ballot on a more national-scale.

Self-awareness is not typically a trait found in exceptionally-dumb people.

[Hippo_Tron]

10. Bahahaha, you owe me a keyboard

[Tennessee Hillbilly]

11. Tennesse politics

Unfortunately, a group of Repug wingnuts has taken over the Tennesse legislature. They've done several other things that are just as bad or worse than this.

But actually, Tennessee's two current senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, are quite moderate compared to most other Repugs. Tennessee's Repug governor, Bill Haslam, is also fairly moderate. (in fact, when he was mayor of Knoxville, he was a member of Mayors against Guns, but quietly resigned from it when he began considering a run for governor after after a reporter wrote a story about how it would hurt him in the election if his opponents in the primary used it against him.)

[Fawke Em]

12. And then we Knoxvillians replaced him for a liberal mayor.

Kind of telling that the mayors of the four largest cities in Tennessee are all Democrats, isn't it?

[NYC Liberal]

13. "state lawmakers of either party"? What about candidates from other parties?