Williamson County Voters Fear County GOP Will Bypass Electorate In Filling County Commissioner Seat
Image Credit: Brent Moore / CC
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
A long-serving Williamson County Commissioner has died before the commencement of his ninth term necessitating a special election to be held in conjunction with the November 8th State General Election.
Some Williamson County voters are concerned that the county Republican party may attempt to appoint someone to the ballot and forgo engaging the electorate to decide a nominee.
Conservative grassroots groups have encountered hostility in the recent past from Williamson County GOP Chair Cheryl Brown who suggested that conservative candidates endorsed by Williamson Families PAC and forced to run as Independents were closet Democrats or RINOs.
Bert Chalfant, a County Commissioner for 32 years who was re-elected earlier this month in the county general election, passed away on August 24th from Stage IV lung cancer at the age of 86.
According to our sources, this news came as a surprise to many in the community as his advanced illness was not known to the electorate during the general election cycle, nor the primary before it.
Earlier this year, Chalfant won the hotly contested primary where he prevailed by a mere 11 votes out of the 2,200 cast. His challenger, Chris Richards, appealed this result to the Tennessee Republican State Executive Committee on the grounds of unreliable voting machines, confusing ballot instructions, and documented crossover voting by bona fide Democrats.
After two days of meetings, the SEC ultimately ruled against Richards.
Sources tell us that a majority of the members initially voted to decertify the results of the election, only to then vote shortly thereafter to void their earlier decision and table the motion. In what is described as a “breathtaking chain of events” sources say that Williamson County appointed officials engaged in real time with the state party during the online meetings (allegedly on Mr. Chalfant’s behalf) while the appeal process was playing out.
Richards is on record that he desires to fill the seat previously held by Chalfant. “I am committed to running in the special election to serve the voters of District 7 who supported me during the May 3 Republican primary and the voters who wrote in my name as an unofficial write-in in the August 4 general election,” he said in a statement on his website.
The county board of elections states that the ballot must be finalized by September 16th, so the Williamson County GOP will have to choose its nominee in the next couple of weeks. Sources tell us that county chairwoman Cheryl Brown has mentioned the possibility of a District 7 caucus to determine the nominee.
There has been no official word on how the Williamson County Republican Party will proceed. The Tennessee Conservative has reached out to both Williamson GOP Chairman Brown and Tennessee GOP Chairman Scott Golden for comment but has received no response.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
Thank you “Tennessee Conservative.” I live in the 7th District and this is the first news I have about Chalfant’s death and the controversy over choosing his replacement.
I hope the Williamson County GOP will play fair in the sand box.
Tennessee elections are so corrupt I just don’t understand how folks can’t see the good ole boy’s GOP rhinos and democrats are one and the same
So, the problem is that Chris Richards was endorsed by Williamson Families and the Williamson Co. GOP is afraid of losing POWER! Wake up GOP, it is actions like this that have divided the conservative base in Williamson County. The GOP should be embracing Williamson Families, Moms for Liberty, etc.
Republicans want a trust worthy publication or news outlet but so many are just as fake as the other side. Republican conservatives should not trust this news outlet. So much of this is untrue. The attacks on the Wm GOP are sad and so unfounded. They have bylaws to follow and state and National RNC to answer to. The Tennessee Conservative News will print anything without investigating the truth.
BTW, the Wm GOP is not the group dividing the conservative base. Wm Families as well as Moms have been reached out too only to be told No Thank you.
Please show your work Debbie. Show us the emails or phone records showing a good faith effort to reach out to Williamson Families in a spirit of Republican unity. What we will show you is 1) video of Mary Kate Anderson Brown telling a room full of WillCo political insiders that if they are favored by the party elites, there are “workarounds” to get past those pesky bylaws so they can run unimpeded (which several did—bylaws were only weaponized against Families candidates); 2) affidavits from Families-supported candidates who either received calls from a “verification committee” or were notified by Chad Gray (a supposedly non-partisan government official) that they didn’t have the requisite GOP primary votes under their belts and would be challenged; 3) a laughably stacked deck of questions against Families-endorsed candidates at the farce that was the second WCRP sponsored county commission candidate forum in April; 4) MKAB’s Back to School site’s county commission endorsement messaging that coincided with (and was strangely similar to) Williamson Strong’s own recommendations that dropped almost simultaneously; 5) your own YouTube video from a RWWC luncheon showing your disdain for grassroots in favor of the establishment because “they established something;” and 6) the 911 call you made against fellow Republicans who showed up (after your little cabal moved the meeting venue 90 minutes beforehand to prevent such a protest) to decry your Politburo-like purge of the only remaining conservative on the WCRP CEC. You ought to be ashamed of yourself for your ongoing antics, but rest assured, we’ve got it all recorded for the reckoning that is long overdue in the WCRP.