John McKamey, a highly qualified candidate for governor who you may recall lost to a cartoon character in the Democratic primary, writes the TNDP chair and Executive Committee suggesting that Democrats do away with the primary system and nominate statewide candidates by way of a statewide convention. The full text of his letter after the break...

Dear Executive Committee:

Democrats in Tennessee know that it has been close to impossible to elect a Democrat to office. It is this Democrats opinion that when Democrats are well qualified and capable of governing their names should be the only names on the ballot. These well qualified candidates have not been well served by the state primary election system.

The practice of the primary elections has been happening for thirty years. This process has allowed Republicans to hold both US Senate Seats, seven out of nine congressional seats, the governor’s office and a super majority in both legislative houses. Things will remain the same for Democrats in Tennessee if we keep digging in the same hole. That hole will just continue to get deeper and deeper. The Tennessee Democratic Party needs to make a big bold change in how candidates are selected.

IT IS TIME FOR A STATE CONVENTION!!

Candidates selected by convention would be the only candidates representing the Democratic Party. As I am sure, you are aware that the candidates on a primary ballot are listed in alphabetical order. Uninformed voters have a tendency to vote for the first name on the ballot. If a STATE CONVENTION were used to select our candidates it would be the most informed and most active Democratic voters deciding the candidates. Time and time again primary elections have resulted in the candidate listed first is the winner of that primary election. Studies of the primary results over the past thirty years have shown that the order of where the first letter of a candidate’s last name appears in the alphabet is more important than experience, knowledge, ability to speak, charisma, and appearance.
A State Convention will allow Democrats to choose the best qualified candidates.

Scheduling twenty five to thirty events across the state for our state wide candidates, events in each congressional district for congressional races and senate and house events in their districts would be more effective and more economical for the candidates. The convention delegates could be chosen by the same method we choose our county party chairpersons or we choose our national delegates for our presidential convention.

A State Convention would most likely have given us candidates like Park Overall for US Senate and John McKamey for governor instead of Mark Clayton and Charlie Brown. Tennessee Democrats would not have been embarrassed by national media and state newspapers. A State Convention will give us candidates that we can be proud to support and would have eliminated criticism of our TNDP chairperson and executive committee due to unqualified candidate selections.

STATE CONVENTION ADVANTAGES

1. The best qualified candidates
2. Grassroots party organization down to the precinct level
3. More participation by the activist
4. Money saved and used to defeat Republicans not spent on the primary elections
5. Free publicity and more media coverage
6. Our faithful contributors will know that their money is well spent to support qualified candidates

The Executive Committee made a good choice in electing Chairwoman Mary Mancini and I commend you. Now it is up to you (me and other Democrats) to help her and Democratic candidates to secure the positions needed to govern Tennessee in the manner it should be governed. We all know that all politics are local, and a ninety-five county strategy will turn Tennessee blue again. After traveling and communicating with county chairman and executive committee persons all over the state during my gubernatorial campaign I see that it is evident that help is needed at the county level.

My suggestion to you and Chairwoman Mancini is: As soon as possible hire nine or ten organizers to work across the state to help the County Chairs and Executive Committee to identify Democratic voters and possible contributors. It is essential for the organizers to have a good working knowledge of Vote builder and work closely with Kris Murphy. This will help get Democrats out to vote, and help raise money.

We must work and change to win, working together we can turn Tennessee Blue. It is time for a big bold change for the Democrat party and I believe that change should be in the manner we select candidates.

Proud lifelong Democrat,

William “John” McKamey