Democratic Party executive committee member Rickey Wallace has accused state Sen. Rosalind Kurita of misusing thousands of dollars in political action monies,a charge which which Kurita reportedly acknowledged with the addendum that the errors had be corrected.
This information comes on the heels of the dismissal and subsequent appeal of incumbent Kurita’s lawsuit and in tandem with a write-in campaign for her Senate District 22 seat.
Kurita maintains she won the tri-county (Montgomery, Cheatham and Houston) primary race with a 19-vote margin, though the state Democratic Executive Committee overturned that election and place the decision on a Senate nominee in the hands of the counties’ executive committees. They in turn voted 61-4 for challenger Atty. Tim Barnes.
“Rosalind Kurita has committed and is likely continuing to commit numerous serious breaches of Tennessee campaign finance law,” Montgomery County Democratic Party executive committee member Rickey Wallace wrote in his complaint to the state Registry of Election Finance. Kurita, after responding to the charges of financial misuse, immediately rectified the alleged “discrepancy.”
“Of course, it is our desire to comply with all rules, and that is what we are doing. There was a discrepancy, we got the paperwork, we contacted election finance, and we have fixed it.” ~~ Rosalind Kurita
Kurita, in voting for Republican Senate speaker, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, in early 200, created a rift within the party. In the wake of the Barnes nomination, Kurita has launched a strong write-in campaign that has gained Republican support; Kurita write-in materials are available at both her campaign headquarters and the nearby Republican Party headquarters as well.
Kurita filed a federal lawsuit to regain the nomination. The suit was dismissed; her appeal is pending.
Consultant Paid
Wallace’s complaint accuses Kurita of using more than $25,000 from her Kurita Majority PAC for primary campaign purposes, including more than $7,000 paid to one of her attorneys. The PAC’s records show a payment of $14,557 to a campaign consultant. Under state law, PACs can give no more than $7,500 per election to a campaign.
Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Gray Sasser, in a press statement, said Kurita is “so power-hungry that she’s flagrantly violating Tennessee’s campaign finance law.”
Kurita believes she can beat Barnes as a write-in candidate and said she expects negative campaigning for the balance of the ewlection period, discounting the negative “attack” ads against Barnes in the primary. Those adds were misleading in terms of Barnes legal practice.
