Senator Thelma Harper and Senator Beverly Marrero will join Atty. Tim Barnes the Democratic Party nominee for State Senate District 22 as special guest speakers at the Early Vote Rally with the Montgomery County Democratic Party this Saturday, October 18, starting at 10:00 a.m. at the Montgomery County Election Commission.

State Senator Thelma Harper is considered one of the most powerful senators to represent the state of Tennessee. Senator Harper has for many years been a prominent and highly influential figure in the political, social, and civic lives of many.

State Senator Beverly Marrero is also scheduled to attend along with several prominent democratic elected officials and Democratic Party leaders.

After the rally party members will be going inside the election commission to vote as a group. The group will then canvass designated areas.

For more information please call (931) 801-4821 or (931) 273-7927

District 22 candidate Atty. Tim Barnes (L) and Senate candidate Bob Tuke

Governor Phil Bredesen, Senators Thelma Harper and Beverly Marrero, Senate candidate Bob Tuke and a who’s who of state and local legislators gathered in Nashville Monday to endorse Senate District 22 candidate Tim Barnes in his election bid. Barnes will be opposed by write-in candidate and incumbent, Senator Rosalind Kurita.

Barnes lost the primary by 19 votes but that election race was voided after a hearing on election law violations by the State Democratic Executive Committee, which then ruled that the decision between both candidates would be placed in the hands of the Houston, Stewart and Montgomery County Democratic executive committees, which chose Barnes 61-4.

The late afternoon gathering included a number of endorsement speeches and a re-iteration of the platform Barnes supports, a platform he pledges will reflect “what the people of my district want. I work for them.”

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Statewide, the senate district 22 race was viewed as a bellweather for future political upheaaval. Many early voters were repulsed by the last minute negative advertising of the incumbent. Now there is a recount challenge and accusations of voter misdirection. Did someone take a page from the Karl Rove ‘Book of Dirty Tricks?’ How will all this play out in the end?

This year, the state senate race for District 22 was one of the most closely watched battles in the state. Media and political pundits all across the state were keen to see if incumbent Rosalind Kurita would survive the intra-party effort of her own Democratic Party to unseat her in retaliation for her betrayal vote in January 2007 which gave control of the state senate to the Republican Party. Would Lt. Governor Ramsey’s fundraising encouragement save the day?

Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville and Memphis political insiders and pundits were all speculating that her party affiliation switch was inevitable, no matter what the outcome of this election. This battle alone had marked Tennessee as a ‘State in Contention’ for the November election.

Kurita was known to be a aggressive, hardball campaigner. That is a given when one reviews her previous campaigns against Brenda Radford and Wallace Redd. However, many opined that a new low was reached when in the final two weeks of the campaign, character assassination material against challenger Tim Barnes repeatedly starting filling voters mailboxes. These colorful over-sized supercards seriously misrepresented Barnes’ law practice and principles.

The smears were so detestable that on election day, thirty-eight Clarksville lawyers placed a full page ad in the Leaf Chronicle denouncing Kurita for the smear and demanded she apologize for the misrepresentations. Attorney Mark Olson wrote a separate letter ridiculing the senator’s serious apparent lack of basic understanding of our legal system. He called her actions, “shameful, and beneath the dignity, and the honor, of a Tennessee Senator.” Even the Nashville Bar Association took note of the ad as “regrettable.”

As a state senator, she, herself, is a lawmaker. Lawyers work to enforce those laws enacted by the legislature. Thus, the lawyers contend that her assault on Barnes invariably was an assault on her own lawmaking role as well.

Winning by the slim margin of 19 votes, what acts of contrition will she offer? Many early voting supporters were embarrassed by the last minute smear campaign against Tim Barnes. Currently, everyone is awaiting the results of a recount and an investigation of alleged voter misdirection. Will she seek to mend broken fences with her fellow Democrats? Will she fulfill East Tennessee political pundits predictions and finally switch to the State Republican Party? Will she apologize to the legal community for so negatively savaging the legal profession? Thus far, no “mea culpas” have not been forthcoming. At least, not publicly.

Noting that so many of her fellow legislative colleagues are, themselves, lawyers or have close associations with lawyers, should she prevail in the recount, her return to the state senate chamber should prove rather interesting indeed, to say the least.

Leaders from Montgomery County gathered to hear State Senator Thelma Harper speak and give her support to Tim Barnes, Democratic Candidate for the Tennessee State Senate District 22. They left this event with a deeper understanding about what this race is really all about.

Thelma Harper has served in the Tennessee state Senate for more than 14 years; she has seen more than her share of politicians come and go. Harper addressed the audience with the kind of fire that has made her one of the most powerful senators to ever represent Tennessee. But sadness in her voice could also be heard every time she mentioned the name of the current senator Rosalind Kurita.

It was Thelma Harper who some time ago came to Clarksville to lend her support to a young up and coming candidate from Montgomery County. It was Thelma Harper who walked these same streets with Kurita and it was Thelma Harper who welcomed her with opened arms when she arrived for her first day on Capitol Hill. Senator Harper, the first African American woman elected to the Tennessee State Senate, knew how it felt to not only to be a minority but also what it meant to be one of the few women senators serving her state and country on capitol hill.

On this night, Thelma Harper told a story of how Rosalind Kurita crossed party lines and cast a vote giving the Republican Party control the Tennessee state senate. It was a speech about trust, a word Senator Harper repeated several times during her emotional speech.

Harper spoke about knowing that if a vote comes up that creates more jobs for Tennesseans or better educational opportunities for our kids or a bill that provides every person a chance to become a home owner that you are going to have a senator in place you know you can trust to do the right thing. Without hesitation, Harper proudly proclaimed Tim Barnes to be that person. While she said she once saw Rosalind Kurita as the future of the Democratic Party, she now sees that in Tim and stressed that only Tim Barnes can undo the harm Rosalind Kurita’s vote has caused the party.

She encouraged all in attendance to get to know the candidates and to hold them accountable to their word, stating her belief that “your word should be your bond,” and that trust and accountability are just a few of the things we as voters should expect from our elected officials.

Senators Harpers speech had all the ingredients of a powerful motivational moment, but at the same time you could have heard a pin drop in the room. The experience was deep as it was moving.