It is not appropriate for a county chairman to support a candidate in a primary. Therefore I am resigning as chairman for Moore County at our next meeting. I feel compelled to support Bill Gibbons as I believe that he is the best choice for governor. The condition of our country is far more important than I am and anyone else for that matter.

Unlike some in this party that I have met at the state level I believe in right and wrong. It would be wrong for me to continue as chairman and ignore the other three candidates. As soon as I resign I intend to put my full effort into getting him elected. I hope you will help me with this quest.

I told Bill the other day I would do this if necessary; I hope you will let him know I am serious.

I know that I have already gotten him some votes and just maybe the little difference we can make, might make all the difference.

Here’s hopin’
Jerry

Almost 19 months after thieves broke into the Davidson County Election Commission and made off with computers containing 337,000 voters’ Social Security numbers, Metro is on the verge of getting back $400,000 from its security contractor.

More from Mike Morrow.

Here’s what’s not so encouraging: Our two senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker — from the very state that has dealt so much violence to the transgendered — weren’t even there for the vote. That’s not the kind of message we should be sending. Or would such a vote not sit well with Tennessee Republicans?

A federal judge has approved a temporary order barring Rutherford County’s election commission from firing its director of elections.

Rutherford County Election Administrator Hooper Penuel is one of eight current and former election administrators who have filed civil suit against members of their counties’ election commissions, charging that they are being singled out for partisan reasons.

County election administrators are appointed by local election commissions, and state law required those commissions to have Republican majorities because the GOP gained control of the legislature last year.

A coalition of Blue Dogs and committee Republicans just forced Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) to accept a Republican amendment, authored by Oklahoma Rep. John Sullivan, requiring the secretary of Health and Human Services to terminate duplicative programs created by the bill.

The amendment passed, 29-27.

Waxman was trying to work Blue Dogs Mike Ross (D-Ark.) and Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) during the vote — leaving his chair to make his case. Waxman’s staff director hovered over the woman tallying the votes as she counted them up.

If you wanted to trace the decline of print media via a single newspaper, Nashville’s Tennessean would be a perfect candidate to reflect that slide. At one time the paper employed brilliant young reporters like David Halberstam and Al Gore under the visionary leadership of John Seigenthaler. They snagged one Pulitzer after another. From being on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement and countless other seminal stories and investigations that impacted the city to failing to produce a single front-page article that anyone with an IQ over 100 would want to read. Now the Tennessean’s best-known columnist is named, wait for it, Mrs. Cheap. In case you’re confused she writes about things in the city that are…cheap.

Now, insiders are buzzing about a little nugget that’s somehow surfaced about Cammack’s business investments. He’s trying to position himself as an environmentalist, but he profited from investments in oil, gas and mining interests with environmental violations. In one case, Cammack’s firm invested in a gold mining company linked to a gang of vicious warlords in the Congo.

According to documents filed with the Security and Exchange Commission, ESC Strategic Funds, which Cammack served as chairman, invested $162,000 into the mining company AngloGold Ashanti in 1999.

According to Human Rights Watch, AngloGold developed ties to a “murderous armed group” in the Congo named the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI). Human Rights Watch issued a 159-page report titled “The Curse of Gold” with a scathing rebuke of AngloGold for working in cahoots with these warlords to access the gold-rich mining site around the town of Mongbwalu.

Palin is viewed favorably by 89% of western Republicans, 86% in the northeast, 76% in the south, and 71% in the midwest.

It’s official! Having less than 30 days to raise funds for the 1st reporting period for our Governor’s campaign, we were successful in gathering contributions from every corner of Tennessee totaling over 1.3 million dollars! I am humbled by the total, but am especially honored by the groundswell of support from so many donors! It simply confirmed for me that we are running a true grassroots campaign - thanks to your early and strong support!

I also want to congratulate you! As a result of your hard work reaching out to friends and colleagues to ask for their support, we raised more money in 30 days than all but one of our competitors could raise in 6 months! That’s incredible and I am so appreciative of your help!

I know this is an early victory in a long campaign. Like my near and dear friend Tip Wood used to tell me “Ron, don’t get too far from your overalls”.

If he had it to do over again, Herron said that the news release would explain the $42,248 addition. At the time, he and Lamb said there was a concern that reporting more than $600,000 in receipts with only $3,000 or so in expenditures - as his filed report does - would raise questions about how that much money could be collected with so little money being spent in doing so.

The intent was to inform, not deceive, he said.

“I don’t think Tennesseans disagree with a campaign or a candidate who discloses more than required,” Herron said. “I think they appreciate the openess.”

At the time the expenditures were made, some in the first days of June, Herron said he was considering a run for governor. He did not file as a candidate until June 11. The expenditures would have been valid for either a gubernatorial campaign or, alternatively, a re-election campaign to the Senate in 2012, he said.

A former East Tennessee constable will be spending the next six months confined to his home as punishment for vote-buying in the 2006 U.S. Senate primary.

The environmental lobby has long hoped to persuade Lamar Alexander to vote for climate change legislation. Guess they don’t know our senator that well. He likes to hike and occasionally sticks up for the great outdoors, but only if it’s OK with his big business buddies.

The high number of bills - many of them broader than they need to be and some that is not needed at all — underscores a serious need to provide more comprehensive scrutiny of this legislation. That’s the only chance we have to slow down the number of exemptions added each year.

Gus Puryear, the Republican lawyer for Corrections Corporation of America and failed judicial nominee, who last year had a Fatwa put out on him by the Nashville Scene, gave Ward $250 back in March of this year.

Now they most likely know each other through the Belle Meade Country Club, a club whose membership packet comes with the racist label for many Nashville/Tennessee liberals. And it makes sense to go after the people you know to get the money you need. But given the Scene’s recent campaign against Cammack, I wouldn’t be too surprised to see them use this donation as another bludgeon. And, quite frankly, it would seem to raise concerns that Cammack is having to rely on members of the GOP establishment for funds…could the favors be returned should Cammack win the election?

Spending money to ward off bankruptcy is the shill of daytime tv shysters who prey on the fears of those deeply in debt that if they just pay them to clean up their credit, then all will be well. It is so nonsensical that even the most innumerate and economically inept among us can plainly see that the Administration’s economic, health care, and energy plans are disasters.

The Democrat seeking to serve the 62nd District of the Tennessee House of Representatives is Cobb’s brother, Ty Cobb II, of Shelbyville.

Curt Cobb, who’s also a Shelbyville Democrat, left the seat to take a job as clerk and master in Bedford County. The 62nd District includes Bedford and portions of Lincoln and Rutherford counties.

The independent is Christopher Brown of Shelbyville.

Three of the Republicans also reside in Shelbyville. They are Joseph Byrd, Pat Marsh and Bobby Scott. The other Republican is Casey Walters, a resident of Fayetteville.

A primary to determine the Republican party nominee will be held Aug. 27, with the winner facing the Democratic and Independent candidates in the general election Oct. 13.

McWherter took the mic first and spoke for a few minutes. His speech was more about treating the state as a business when it comes to trying to recover lost jobs and creating new ones. One comment he made that resonated with the crowd was regarding a story about how he had gotten lost in Oak Ridge and how a man (an archaeologist) at a hotel helped him find where he was going recently by taking him where he needed to be. “I went back to thank that man the next day and he was already out in the field,” McWherter said. “I don’t know if he was a republican or a democrat, but I do know that we are Tennesseans at heart.”

Remember, this is blue dog country so speaking of overcoming partisan lines (although sometimes tiresome) does grab the attention here. And party lines are shifting a bit in the land of Hoots and the outlying area due to the recession.

It was a good move on McWherter’s part.

In a news release sent out a day before the report was filed, Herron declared that he had about $650,000. To reach that figure, the campaign counted about $42,248 in expenditures by Herron’s Senate campaign that would be beneficial to the gubernatorial campaign.

Herron said Thursday that his staff conferred with bureau officials and he thought the $42,248 would actually be counted as part of the gubernatorial campaign but the bureau software program did not do so.

In hindsight, Herron said that the news release should have included an explanatory note, but the intent was to be as open as possible.

“I don’t think Tennesseans disagree with a campaign or a candidate who discloses more than required,” Herron said. “I think they appreciate the openness.”

At the time the expenditures were made, some in the first days of June, Herron had not filed to run for governor. He filed on June 11. The expenditures would have been valid for either a gubernatorial campaign or a re-election campaign to the Senate in 2012, he said.

Drew Rawlins, executive director of the bureau, said it is completely legal to transfer money from a legislative campaign account to a gubernatorial account. Using money from one directly to benefit the other is a “gray area” of the law, he said.

“From what I was told by the Herron campaign people, these would have been legitimate Senate expenses if he had not chosen to run for governor. He has apparently chosen to include them in his press releases as gubernatorial expenses,” Rawlins said.

Rawlins said he sees nothing in the situation that would warrant seeking to penalize the Herron campaign.