GOP board rejects Ragan’s challenge of Scarbrough’s win
The Tennessee Republican Primary Board voted 41-7 on Saturday to reject a challenge by District 33 state Rep. John D. Ragan (R-Oak Ridge) of his loss in the Aug. 1 primary election to former Clinton Police Chief Rick Scarbrough.
That means Scarbrough will be on the ballot as the Republican candidate for the District 22 seat in the Nov. 5 general election.
Scarbrough beat Ragan by just 258 votes out of 5,668 votes cast in the open primary, but Ragan asserted that enough Democrats crossed over to vote in the Republican primary to give Scarbrough the victory.
Ragan based his challenge on a state election law (T.C.A. § 2-7-115) that requires a primary-election voter to be “a bona fide member of and affiliated with the political party” in whose primary the voter seeks to cast a ballot.
The Anderson County Republican Party alleged that the Democrats and Scarbrough colluded to entice Democrats to switch over and vote for him.
Such crossover voting can happen in Tennessee because of its so-called open primary setup, in which voters do not need to be registered in a particular party to vote in that party’s primary.
But the majority of the Republican Primary Board indicated that the open primary issue is the responsibility of the state General Assembly, and that only the legislature can fix it.
“This is a problem created by the Tennessee Legislature,” board member John Stanbery told the group.
“Take all your animosity and channel it toward the General Assembly for not closing our primaries,” he said.
The GOP Primary Board comprises all of the members of the state Republican Executive Committee, which includes Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank.
Frank was one of the seven members voting to overturn the primary results for the District 33 GOP nomination.
During Saturday’s meeting of the Primary Board, Frank spoke in favor of Ragan’s challenge and the overturning of the primary results.
“I supported Rep. Ragan’s challenge, not in opposition to Mr. Scarbrough, as I want Mr. Scarbrough to be an active and successful member of our party, but because Rep. Ragan submitted what I believe was sufficient proof of Democrat and independent crossover that made the results uncertain,” Frank told The Courier News on Monday.
“As such, I supported returning the results to the local county executive committee where they could make a determination through a vote of the local community,” she said. “ In addition, from a representative standpoint of my [State Executive Committee] district, the overwhelming majority of constituent feedback from Anderson County and Loudon County supported that view. With Saturday’s vote, the matter is closed.
“I do believe there will continue to be a robust larger debate across the state about crossover voting, and even today, many members of the [State Executive Committee] have been emailing about how to better clarify the bylaws, how to address state legislation to perhaps create a voter registration system, etc.,” Frank said.
“I believe we benefit by a vibrant party system, and there are both Democrats and Republicans who strongly believe primaries are for bona fide party members only for each of the respective parties.”
After filing the challenge in mid-August, Ragan said in a news release:
“Based upon the Tennessee Code Annotated (T.C.A.), the 1,135 votes in District 33 I am challenging as illegal crossovers constitute 19.6% — more than triple previously observed crossover rates.”
Anderson County Republican Party Chair Myra Mansfield said at the time that the county party also was challenging the District 33 primary vote results.
“As the current chair of the local Republican Party, I feel a duty to protect our local party by letting the state party know that we challenge this tainted election,” she said. “This is our way of showing that we won’t put up with this illegal practice.”
In his announcement of the challenge to the primary results, Ragan said:
“This morning I filed a written notice of contest with the Republican State Executive Committee and State Primary Board concerning the August Republican Primary in District 33. District 33 encompasses over half of Anderson County.
“The reason for my action has nothing to do with my opponent in the most recent election or the conduct of Anderson County election officials. Rather, I am alleging potential election interference through unethical and illegal crossover voting, which destroys the integrity of our primary elections.”
During Saturday’s 90-minute meeting of the Primary Board, member Lee Mills (District 32) also supported Ragan, saying: “Our bylaws are not great; our laws are not great. But the intent of both is that Republicans should elect Republicans. In my opinion, the results of this election are incurably uncertain.”
Ragan and Scarbrough were allowed to speak at the meeting, as well.