State Elections Commission ousts commissioner for strip search joking
The State Election Commission voted Monday to remove Putnam Election Commissioner Terry Herrin from office after testimony citing his repeated joking about a woman election office employee facing a strip search, reports the Cookeville Herald Citizen.
Rep. David Byrd accused of sexual misconduct; Harwell says he should resign
State Rep. David Byrd has been accused by three women of having inappropriate sexual contact with them while he was a high school basketball coach and they were teenagers, according to WSMV. House Speaker Beth Harwell promptly called for the Waynesboro Republican to resign from his House seat after being provided a secretly-recorded tape of Byrd apologizing to one of the women. Continue reading
On the ‘Hush Fund Elimination Act” and an age discrimination lawsuit against Duncan
While co-sponsoring the “Congressional Accountability and Hush Fund Elimination Act” and enthusiastically supporting its provisions dealing with sexual harassment, the Nashville Post reports that U.S. Reps. Diane Black and Marsha Blackburn are vague on whether it should apply to settlements of other legal claims – such as a payment settling an age discrimination lawsuit brought by one of Rep. John J. “Jimmy” Duncan’s staffers.
TN county Democratic chair resigns after domestic violence dispute
Maury County Democratic Party Chairman Seth James Campbell resigned from the office Tuesday, reports the Columbia Daily Herald. Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Mary Mancini had called for him to do so after reports that he slightly injured his girlfriend in a confrontation, though the woman declined to prosecute and asked that a a domestic violence charge be dismissed. It was.
Black says she was sexually harassed as a state legislator
U.S. Rep. Diane Black, now a candidate for governor, says in a column written for Townhall that she suffered episodes of sexual harassment from “the good ol’ boy culture” while a state legislator years ago.
Bredesen handling of 2005 sexual harassment cases resurrected
With Phil Bredesen’s entry into the U.S. Senate campaign at a time of considerable attention to sexual harassment involving politicians, a couple of political blogs suggest that two 2005 episodes during Bredesen’s tenure as governor could become an issue in his current campaign.
