Federal Judge Denies Starbuck’s Request To Get Back On The Ballot In Tennessee Congressional Race
Image Credit: Robby Starbuck / Facebook
The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –
A federal judge denied 5th Congressional District candidate Robby Starbuck’s attempt to get back onto the Aug. 4 Republican primary ballot.
Starbuck was removed from the ballot through a 13-3 vote from Tennessee’s Republican committee based upon his Tennessee Republican bona fides, including that he had not voted in three of the past four Tennessee Republican primaries. Trump-backed Morgan Ortagus and Baxter Lee were also removed from the ballot on the same day.
The front-runners in the race for the newly drawn district are believed to be former House Speaker Beth Harwell and Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles.
U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw denied the request for an emergency injunction on all of Starbuck’s claims and instead sent the lawsuit to a magistrate judge.
The defendants on the suit are Tennessee GOP chair Scott Golden, Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett and Tennessee Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins.
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In his ruling, Crenshaw said that with Golden “there is a serious question as to whether they are state actors” referring to state party officials.
He also stated that the lawsuit’s questioning of why committee member Angie McClanahan voted against putting Starbuck on the ballot was an issue for the party to decide, not the court as the court was not charged with ensuring that committee members of Tennessee’s Republican Party followed its bylaws in the vote.
Starbuck’s suit had including a text message from McClanahan indicating that she had voted based on a new law requiring Republican or Democratic primary candidates in federal races to live in Tennessee for three years. Crenshaw said that law was not relevant to the proceeding as Hargett had previously said, through a spokesperson, that the law went into effect after the filing deadline and thus would not apply to this year’s primary.
That law is subject to a separate suit, which Crenshaw cited, on behalf of Ortagus in front of Judge Eli Richardson.
Crenshaw wrote that “requests for temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions by their very nature are routinely emergency matters necessitating compressed time frames” and yet Starbuck was informed of the state GOP’s decision on April 19 and did not file his complaint until May 2.
The judge also stated that he believed that an injunction would be harmful for others as the state prepares its primary ballots.
“There is a strong likelihood that one or more defendants would appeal and the issue would remain in limbo,” Crenshaw wrote.
About the Author: Jon Styf, The Center Square Staff Reporter – Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonStyf.
