Democrats keep District 26 challenge alive
Tennessee Democrats are trying again to keep a Republican off the ballot in the House District 26 race, leaving the field clear for their own candidate.
Last week, a Davidson County chancellor dismissed Democrats’ lawsuit challenging the inclusion of Robin Smith’s name on the Aug. 2 GOP primary ballot. The Democratic Party refiled its action in Hamilton County Chancery Court on Wednesday.
The lawsuit names the Hamilton County Election Commission and state Election Coordinator Mark Goins. It seeks a preliminary injunction to stop the election commission from “approving, printing or counting any ballot” that includes the name of a Republican nominee in the GOP primary and asks for an expedited hearing ahead of Election Day on Aug. 2.
If a Hamilton County chancellor agrees, that would leave Democrat David Jones as the only candidate in District 26.
The Hamilton County Election Commission has set an emergency meeting for 8 a.m. Monday on the lawsuit.
The case arose when incumbent Gerald McCormick abruptly dropped out of the race late last month, long after the withdrawal deadline in the Republican-leaning 26th District.
McCormick, a real estate broker, told election commissioners in a letter he had taken a job with a Chattanooga engineering firm that requires him to live in Nashville. An employer-required transfer is one of the few circumstances that would allow the election commission to reopen qualifying and certify a new candidate.
That’s what election commissioners did. They voted July 2 to accept Smith, a former Hamilton County and Tennessee Republican Party chairman, as a replacement candidate.
But Democrats charged McCormick’s excuse was a sham and filed suit in Davidson County seeking an injunction and expedited hearing.
Their lawsuit pointed out he had just gone to considerable trouble to prove he lived in Hamilton County and was eligible to seek re-election in District 26, which includes parts of Chattanooga and Hixson. McCormick is a former House majority leader who was openly planning to run for House speaker in the coming term.
His residence came into question when it was discovered that McCormick and his wife, Kim, bought a $487,032 home in Nashville last year.
Kim McCormick is a top aide to Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor Flora Tydings and her job requires her to be in Nashville full time, but Gerald McCormick said he still lives in the district.
Goins, the Republican election coordinator, investigated. He told election commissioners that McCormick’s tax returns, business licenses, utility bills and other documents prove he lives in the district. Five days later, the lawsuit states, McCormick notified the election commission his employer required him to move to Nashville.
The lawsuit states the election commission made no attempt to investigate or verify McCormick’s claim before voting to place Smith’s name on the ballot as a replacement.
The Tennessee Democratic Party “will suffer immediate and irreparable harm in the event that its candidate for House District 26 had to compete against an unlawfully qualified candidate from the Republican Party,” the suit states.
It states McCormick’s claim of a job-related move is “fraudulent” as well as “arbitrary and capricious” “and that the election commission was party to those bad acts by failing to investigate and reopening the ballot.
In a news release, Smith’s campaign manager, Vince Butler, lambasted “ultra-leftist democrat party chairman Mary Mancini” for staging a “legal sideshow” and predicted “she will get the same result in Hamilton County only after forcing our taxpayers to waste more money defending their right to vote against another frivolous lawsuit.”
Asked for comment, Tennessee Democratic Party Chairwoman Mary Mancini said, “Democrats will always have the backs of voters in Tennessee, unlike Republicans who, like their leader Donald Trump, consistently fail to stand up to protect our most basic freedoms,” Mancini said in an emailed statement.
“If the Hamilton County Election Commission won’t investigate the suspect withdrawal of Gerald McCormick’s candidacy or the statements Mr. McCormick made to the state election coordinator, then we will. In addition, if Mr. McCormick made an innocent mistake when swearing to his status as a fulltime Davidson County resident on his official loan document, now is the time to take responsibility for that mistake and allow the election to continue untainted by his actions.”