I can’t imagine a bigger electoral dilemma than trying to decide which Republican primary contender is more deserving of my schadenfreude. To wit, the results -- as yet incomplete -- in the TN-04 GOP primary.
If that district rings a bell, that’s the seat occupied for the last two terms by the execrable Scott Desjarlais (R-Hypocrite), who inexplicably got re-elected in 2012 and could slither by again this year. Remember him? He’s the reliably anti-choice doctor who slept with some of his patients, and pressured one of them to get an abortion, on top of the two occasions on which he pressured his ex-wife to do the same. Voted CREW’s Most Corrupt Congressman. Reprimanded and fined by the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners in May 2013 for engaging in sexual relationships with two patients. Yeah, that guy.
Desjarlais was voted by National Journal as one of the Top Ten Congressmen most deserving of a primary challenge in this cycle, and he got one, from state Senator Jim Tracy. And challenge Tracy did. He began running against Desjarlais two years ago, practically as soon as the 2012 vote counts were in.
This should have been a gimme for Tracy. And yet, for reasons Jason Linkins amply explained at HuffPo, it has not been. The race has come down to the wire. With nearly all the votes in, Desjarlais leads with a 35-vote margin.
But it’s those final 90 votes, not yet counted, that give us the schadenfreude two-fer. Tracy may be hoisted upon his own Voter ID petard.
You see, according to an account by Ben Hall of Nashville’s NewsChannel 5, the 90 votes yet to be counted are provisional ballots.
They are called provisional ballots and they come from two sources. First, from people claiming they are registered but who don't appear on voting rolls and second, from people who didn't bring their picture IDs to the polls.
Yes, Tennessee has a controversial Voter ID law, product of a GOP-controlled legislature, on the standard-issue BS that it was to combat voter fraud. But we all know it was an attempt to suppress the vote of out-groups – which in Tennessee means Democrats. The Tennessee law requires voters to bring a picture ID to the polls. If they don’t -- provisional ballot for you!!
They have two days to show back up with their ID, or their vote does not count.
So now the Tracy campaign has to hope that, of the 90 provisional ballots outstanding, half of which were the result of voters without ID, they can pick up 63 votes. And therein lies the delicious irony:
Most ironically, this race may have been different if it weren't for the controversial voter ID law that Senator Jim Tracy co-sponsored.
(snip)
Now that law may impact his dream of becoming Congressman.
It could take weeks before all the provisional ballots have been sorted through. Then, once all 16 counties in the district have certified their results, the candidates will have 5 days to challenge the outcome.
That gives us plenty of time to contemplate the possibilities. On the one hand, we could end up with a scandalized Republican who will always be the albatross around the neck of anti-abortion groups, a shining example in Congress of the hypocrisy of the movement. On the other hand, we could end up with a sleazy backbencher who only got there on the votes of the very people he tried to keep away from the polls.
Of course, I’d like to think we could send a Democrat to Washington to fill the seat. But realistically, this is a very red district. The candidate is activist, Linda Sherrell, and she will have my vote (full disclosure, I live in TN-04), but probably not enough others to get through in November.
But for now, time to make some popcorn.