U.S. Senate primary bill is deferred
Action comes hours after Haslam veto threat
NASHVILLE — The controversial Republican bill that would end primary elections for selecting Tennessee’s U. S. Senate nominees was deferred for a year Tuesday, hours after Gov. Bill Haslam said he would probably veto it if it wins legislative approval.
Rep. Harry Brooks, R-Knoxville, told the House State Government Committee that he wanted to delay consideration of the bill until next year, but offered no explanation why. But his request came about three hours after the governor told reporters he’s against the bill that would move the nomination of U.S. senators from voters statewide and give that power to the Republican and Democratic caucuses of the state legislature. Voters would choose from among the nominees and independent candidates in general elections.
“I have a major problem with that in this sense: that we’re going to take the selection of a United States senator out of the hands of the people of Tennessee and have a few folks decide who that should be. That just doesn’t feel right to me,” the governor said. Asked if the bill could be a likely veto target, Haslam replied: “I think it very strongly could be.”
The Senate version of the bill was up for a floor vote Monday night, but after a brief debate was delayed by its sponsor until the last day of the 2013 legislative session later this month.
Sen. Frank Nicely, R-Strawberry Plains, is sponsoring the bill as a way, he said, to get Congress to focus more on the wishes of states. He called 1913 a “very unlucky year for Americans” because it was when the 17th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, moving the election of U.S. senators from state legislatures to the voters of each state.
The bill rapidly became an embarrass-
ment for the GOP after it unexpectedly advanced in a Senate committee and a House subcommittee dominated by Republicans and Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, declared his support for it. State Democratic Party chairman Roy Herron called a Capitol news conference Monday to demand that his party be removed from the bill’s provisions so Democrats could continue nominating their Senate candidates through open primaries.
State Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, said Monday that the bill is “antidemocratic,” “smells of elitism” and would “open up a system that was and would be in the future rife with corruption.”