County Party Says Republican School Board Member Targeted By Democrats Who Crossed Over To Vote Against Him In Primary

Image Credit: Léa Aliberti / CC

The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –

The Wilson County Republican Party of Tennessee (WCRP) says that an ongoing situation surrounding Republican School Board member Joseph Padilla highlights the need to close primaries in Tennessee.

Padilla ran as a Republican in the first partisan school board race in 2022.

The Wilson County School Board Ethics Committee heard a number of complaints at the beginning of February from constituents who have a history of voting Democrat and yet crossed over to vote Republican in the primary. 

Before the May 2022 primary, Democrat voters were encouraged to pull a Republican ballot and vote for the more “moderate” Republicans on the ballot over openly conservative candidates.

According to the WCRP, voting records show that at least five of the complainants at the February 9th meeting crossed over to vote in the May 2022 Republican primary, and then voted Democrat in the August 2022 election.

“When a candidate, whom we supported for office, like Joe Padilla, is attacked in a coordinated effort by the disappointed opposition, our Party will speak out! These folks all filed ethics complaints very closely together, after lots of chatter on Facebook about how to go about discrediting Joe Padilla, which they did plenty of before and during the elections. Most of them posted support for Joe’s opposition candidates. 

Take a look, yourselves, at the voting records of these folks who filed the ethics complaints. We don’t think it takes much effort to see that something is amiss. Something looks darn suspicious!! Our Open Primaries allows folks to vote in primaries for parties with whom they do not really assimilate. We had no Democrat candidates, so some Democrats Crossed Over and asked for Republican ballots to elect RINOS, who are more inline with Democrats’ Values and Principles.”

Last week, a bill sponsored by freshman Representative Bryan Richey (R-Maryland-District 20) that would have put an end to open primaries failed in the House Local Government Committee.

Crossover voting is illegal in Tennessee. A Class C misdemeanor, it violates Tennessee Code 2-7-115 which states that is punishable for a person to vote in a party’s primary who is neither a bona fide member of that political party or affiliated with it, or who declares allegiance to that party without the intent to affiliate with them. Despite it being a crime to vote in an opposing party’s primary in order to influence the outcome, the law is nearly impossible to enforce. 

Subscribers to The Tennessee Conservative overwhelmingly support closing the state’s primaries to prevent this type of “crossover raiding” and the Tennessee State GOP has passed resolutions in support of closed primaries.

The Tennessee General Assembly is well aware of their constituents opinion on the issue and yet again, they have failed to heed the will of constituents and refused to act in this legislative session.

About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.