Executive committee strikes 7 Senate candidates from GOP ballot

U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s list of Republican challengers for the U.S. Senate nomination has dropped from nine to three. Seven of the candidates – including potential self-funders Rolando Toyos and Darrell Lynn – were removed for not meeting the state’s GOP’s “bona fide” rules.

The state party’s executive committee voted Saturday to uphold challenges of the following candidates based on their voting histories:

• David Anderson of Chattanooga.
• Rashad Lamar Coker of Clarksville.
• Larry Crim of Nashvillle.
• Tommy Hay of Monterey.
• Theresa “Terri” Honeycutt of Woodlawn.
• J Darrell Lynn of Franklin.
• Rolando Toyos of Brentwood.

The executive committee also removed Eddie Murphy of Franklin from the Republican gubernatorial ballot.

The state party last summer adopted changes to its bylaws to require candidates to have voted in three out of the last four GOP state or federal level primaries to be considered bona fide Republican candidates. For this year’s ballot that meant voting histories going back to the August 2012 would be taken into account.

The net effect is that Blackburn’s path to the nomination – already a near certainty before Saturday’s decisions – has been smoothed out considerably. Her remaining opponents for the GOP nomination are “Mr. Jim” Elkins of Chattanooga and Aaron L. Pettigrew of Murfreesboro.