I was going to write about the Mark Clayton situation, but WhitesCreek Steve pretty much sums it up right here.

OK, I will write about it anyway since I have gone to the trouble to look at state law and such. Plus it will give readers a place to vent and discuss it if you want.

At its core, Clayton's nomination is a failure of the Tennessee Democratic Party to vet candidates. It is also a failure of voters to perform due diligence, unless they truly wanted this clown to represent Democratic Party values in an important election.

And, once again, Tennessee is a national joke, except this time it's Democrats providing the punch line instead of Republicans.

Yes, we all know it is highly unlikely that any candidate would defeat Bob Corker in the general election (unless Jesus came back and ran, but then it would be the Rapture or something and voters would be otherwise preoccupied). A candidate like Park Overall, though, would have at least raised some progressive hell.

And, yes, we all know that the overworked and underpaid TNDP staff had more than 100 candidates to vet for the primary. It would seem, though, that county party organizations could vet the candidates in their jurisdictions, and the state party could be responsible for vetting the 19 U.S. House and Senate candidates. That doesn't sound so difficult.

According to state law (TCA 2-5-204), the state party executive committees can make a determination whether candidates are "bona fide members of the political party whose election they seek" according to TCA 2-13-104, which also provides that "A party may require by rule that candidates for its nominations be bona fide members of the party."

The TNDP bylaws (Article III, Section 2) state "To the maximum extent allowed by law, the Tennessee Democratic Executive Committee shall insure that Party nominees for elected offices are bona fide Democrats."

TCA 2-5-204 also provides that the state party executive committee's determination "shall be filed with the chair or administrator of elections of each county election commission on whose ballots the candidate's name would otherwise appear no later than twelve o'clock (12:00) noon prevailing time on the seventh day after the qualifying deadline for the election."

The TNDP failed to carry out its duties under its own bylaws.

As for what can happen next, state law (TCA 2-17-104) provides for candidates to contest a primary election result, and candidate Larry Crim says he intends to do so. The same law provides for the state party executive committee to "make the disposition of the contest which justice and fairness require, including setting aside the election if necessary."

But then what?

State law (TCA 2-13-204, "Withdrawal or death of a candidate - New nomination,") lists several scenarios by which a state party executive committee can make a new nomination. The only one that applies here is if the nominee "is declared ineligible or disqualified by a court."

One could argue, we suppose, that the language is subject to interpretation, i.e. a court must declare the candidate ineligible or disqualified. But, as Rosalind Kurita found out the hard way, the courts have apparently interpreted this to mean "declared ineligible" (presumably by any provision of state law including the state party executive committee saying so) is separate from "disqualified by a court."

Assuming that to be the case here, TCA 2-13-204 provides that "If the office is to be filled by the voters of the entire state, the party's state executive committee shall determine the method of nomination." Which means the TNDP could just pick a different candidate to be on the November ballot, similar to what they did in the Kurita case that was upheld in court and on appeal. (At least that's my analysis, please feel free weigh in.)

Anyway, none of this is likely to happen. The TNDP's bold action is to apologize and "disavow" the candidate. And there's no provision I could find for holding another primary and Goins has already said that ain't gonna happen.

Not that any of it matters at this point. The TNDP has helped Corker to the extent that he doesn't even have to campaign if he doesn't want to, and Democrats have missed an opportunity to at least get their message out during the campaign.

What does matter is that this gets fixed going forward. It's bad enough the party can't recruit credible candidates in this state. Allowing candidates like Clayton on the ballot is even worse.