General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFWIW, I think I've decided who I'm going to vote for ...........
in the TN Senate race. I'm going Green and vote for Martin Pleasant. For those of you who don't know, the Republican is the plutocrat Bob Corker and his Democratic opponent is a guy named Clayton who's a Tea Bagger that the Tennessee Democratic Party has disowned. Since Corker is pretty much of a shoo-in, I can actually vote for someone who's closer to my politics this time. BTW, to my knowledge there's no communist or socialist running, so Green IS the most left candidate.
That's all.
Tigress DEM
(7,887 posts)mercymechap
(579 posts)At least you won't be wasting your vote. A Democrat "Tea Bagger" sounds like a DINO to me.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)This guy is a Paulite with Tea Bagger social stands.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)CaliforniaPeggy
(149,737 posts)Good luck to Martin Pleasant!
Sekhmets Daughter
(7,515 posts)It seems that Rep. David Rivera had paid the campaign expenses of a "ringer" to run in the Democratic primary. The ringer, one Justin Sternad, is currently singing his lungs out to the FBI...the whole thing was uncovered in time to prevent him from winning the nomination...
Rivera is good friends with our dear (snark) Marco Rubio
lunasun
(21,646 posts)dont just vote for a (D) behind the name -research
They cant get in as repugs in an area
or they want to run a moderate R out
so they run under D
ancianita
(36,158 posts)Sekhmets Daughter
(7,515 posts)socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)from Tennessee are not really Tea Baggers, they're more corporatists. Now the US House Republicans are pretty much Baggers, but the Senators are different.
As to why Clayton won, the respectable theory is because of the lack of a known Dem candidate, Clayton won because he was the first on the ballot (listed alphabetically). There's a more sinister "conspiracy" type theory going around that it was Republican dirty tricks in our open primary. IOW, Republicans voted for the candidate that they thought would be easier to beat.
Sekhmets Daughter
(7,515 posts)of registration switching going on these days. I have often wondered how we end up with so many lousy Democratic candidates, but I heard about this tactic of republicans changing their registrations before a Democratic primary to do just what you said....vote for the worst possible candidate. I was still skeptical until I worked the polls for the Democratic primary in August and had 3 different people tell me that they change their party affiliations regularly! Here in FL we don't have open primaries....
patrice
(47,992 posts)message for him. Canvassers. Even if s/he looses, the cause is advanced by how many doors get knocked on.
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)superhighway from Mexico City to Toronto as part of a secret plot to establish a new North American Union that will bring an end to America as we know it. On Thursday, he became the Tennessee Democrats' nominee for US Senate.
Clayton, an anti-gay-marriage activist and flooring installer with a penchant for fringe conspiracy theories, finished on top of a crowded primary field in the race to take on GOP Sen. Bob Corker this fall. He earned 26 percent of the vote despite raising no money and listing the wrong opponent on his campaign website. The site still reads, "DEDICATED TO THE DEFEAT OF NEO-CONSERVATIVE LAMAR ALEXANDER," whom Clayton tried to challenge in 2008. (That year, he didn't earn the Democratic nomination.)
On his issues page, Clayton sounds more like a member of the John Birch Society than a rank-and-file Democrat. He says he's against national ID cards, the North American Union, and the "NAFTA superhighway," a nonexistent proposal that's become a rallying cry in the far-right fever swamps. Elsewhere, he warns of an encroaching "godless new world order" and suggests that Americans who speak out against government policies could some day be placed in "a bone-crushing prison camp similar to the one Alexander Solzhenitsyn was sent or to one of FEMA's prison camps." (There are no FEMA prison camps.) ...
Dems Nominate Anti-Gay Conspiracy Theorist for Senate
By Tim Murphy
| Fri Aug. 3, 2012 10:24 AM PDT
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/08/mark-clayton-tennessee-democrats-senate
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)Welcome to Tennessee.