Here it is, the much anticipated part one of Betty Bean's report on Tyler Harber:

"We decided to subvert, steal and destroy as many petitions as we could get our hands on. We were trading real petitions for fake petitions so they would think they had more names than they actually had."

Looks like a complicated story. I'm sure there will be lots more to come.

See the full text of the e-mail mentioned in the Halls Shopper article (which came to us by way of an unverifiable hotmail.com account, not the domain mentioned in the article) after the jump...

Ragsdale's hand-picked or heavily supported candidates that were successful during my tenure with Ragsdale (not including incumbents):

1. Mike Hammond - County Commission
2. Chuck James - School Board
3. Scott Moore - County Commission
4. Parkey Strader - State House
5. Ivan Harmon - County Commission
6. Chris Woodhull - City Council
7. Joel Garber - Farragut Board of Aldermen
8. Stacy Campfield - State House
9. Dan Murphy - School Board (I did not work this race, but we were involved)
10. Jeff Byrd - School Board *resigned but won popular vote
11. Wheel Tax Referendum
12. Hotel Referendum
13. Lamar Alexander - US Senate (I provided voter targeting consulting)
14. Chad Tindell - Party Chairman
15. Brian Hornback - Party Chairman

Races we lost
1. Billy Stokes - State Senate
2. Jim Ford - County Commission
3. Rob Sanders - County Commission
4. Archie Ellis - City Council
5. Lillian Bean - Court Clerk

Successful Incumbent races we worked in on behalf of Ragsdale:

1. Mike Arms - County Commission
2. Sam Anderson - School Board
3. John Greiss - County Commission
4. David Collins - County Commission
5. Randy McNally - State Senate
6. Mark Cawood - County Commission
7. John Rosson - Municipal Judge

All of which I worked for in one capacity or another (including paid or unpaid consulting).

I provided targeted voter lists to Mark Cawood in 2002 in exchange for his agreement to support Chuck James in 06.  The meeting was at Scott Davis' office. Cawood supported James heavily in 02.

While not everyone will "own up" to having me involved, I'm sure a great majority of their financial disclosures will reveal expenditures to: Tyler Harber, Adam Groves, Southern Political Group, National Public Strategies, Concepts Unlimited, Daybreak and Associates, Franklins printing, Rebecca Hargrove Smith, Red Balloon Media, KITH Productions, LuVox Media, Target Point and several other companies owned, directed, or controlled by me to provide political work.

I'm sure I'm probably missing a race or two above however, compare the results above with those of yesterday. Nearly every candidate heavily backed by Ragsdale lost. What does this mean? Is Ragsdale's machine slowing down? No longer using the "heavy handed" strategies that got him to where he is now?

The first thing I hear this morning is word that Ragsdale is unhappy with his political results. First with a weak show against Hall and second, with a complete failure of his political machine to elect a single candidate. It's hard running for Governor when you can't elect your own people.

Ragsdale can point to how much "shit" I brought to his administration, but he forgets that I ran his campaign and the campaigns of many of his allies to build a political environment he could control. The library take over, Hardin Valley school, and the wheel tax are excellent examples of the height of Ragsdale's control. But, with an eroding political base, things will be different. In the past, we just worked to defeat our enemies, but now his enemies hold even more elected offices and are turning their sights on Ragsdale who no longer has a political "hitman" that will do anything he orders.

In the end, I took the heat and he left me "holding the bag" for the all the races he instructed me to work. Now he is paying the price for being disloyal to those who would have taken a bullet for him - and did.