TN-8: Leading R, Fincher, votes in Democratic Primary during campaign

It is being reported on Tennessee’s leading statewide political news aggregate/blog, Post Politics (Tennessee Post), that a leading Republican candidate for the 8th Congressional District, Stephen Fincher, voted in the May 5, 2010 Democratic Primary. The May primary in Tennessee is for local county office holders, and in the case of Fincher’s rural Crockett County, the Democratic Primary is still the only primary held. This move still has to raise concerns with the die-hard Republican faithful as to why he did not simply abstain from voting in the primary altogether. This latest primary vote also raises questions if he meets the standards of the Republican Party by-laws to run as a candidate in a Republican Primary, as his primary voting record is overwhelmingly in Democratic Primaries when he takes the time to vote in them.

Link: http://politics.nashvillepost….

The 8th District has seen an unprecedented ad blitz by the top 3 Republican Primary candidates: Dr. George Flinn (Memphis), Dr. Ron Kirkland (Jackson), and Stephen Fincher (Frog Jump/Halls/W. Maury City/Crockett County/?), in which Fincher has been the first to go hard negative; and exclusively against Kirkland. Fincher’s attack ads depict Kirkland as a RINO whose medical PAC supports liberal Democrats in Washington, who personally supported Tanner and other local conservative Dems in the past, and is willing to do the apparently un-Republican action of working across party lines to pass legislation. Now with the revelation of Fincher having yet again voted in a Democratic Primary, during the campaign no less, it has to open his campaign up to accusations of hypocrisy. It is to be expected that Fincher will explain this away as wanting to have a voice in local politics; but that will only dig his hole deeper, as that is clearly the reasoning behind Kirkland’s support for local Dems and for his medical PAC’s support of key Washington Democrats.

State Senator Roy Herron (D-Dresden), the conservative Democratic nominee in waiting, has to be enjoying the increasingly divisive and fractious Republican Primary, as his campaign will be eager to attempt to attract disillusioned Rs, see them go to the Tea Party-ish independent, Don Janes, or see them simply skip the ballot line in fall. George Flinn, the 3rd man in the Republican Primary, may also see benefit in his potential role as spoiler/dark-horse candidate, as his campaign has relentlessly focused on job creation, a theme that plays extremely well with voters; unfortunately he actually lives in the 9th District (Memphis) and is relatively unknown in the rural 8th outside of his extensive media campaign.

This has to be one of the most interesting primaries going on currently, and chocked full of weird twists and turns the national media should be eating up.