Free Republic

A top Tennessee Republican lawmaker believes the time has come for the National Guard to round up any Syrian refugees who have recently settled in the state and to stop any additional Syrian refugees from entering Tennessee. "We need to activate the Tennessee National Guard and stop them from coming in to the state by whatever means we can," said House GOP Caucus Chairman Glen Casada, R-Franklin, referencing refugees. "I’m not worried about what a bureaucrat in D.C. or an unelected judge thinks. ... We need to gather (Syrian refugees) up and politely take them back to the ICE center...

NASHVILLE — Passage of the qualifying deadline for legislative candidates last week leaves Republicans well-positioned to achieving their goal of making Democrats politically irrelevant in the 108th General Assembly that convenes next year. In part, that's because 11 incumbent Democrats — seven representatives and four senators — are voluntarily not seeking re-election. At least four more incumbent Democrats — three representatives and one senator — are certain to be ousted later because of Republican-controlled redistricting leaves incumbents running against one another in the same district. In part, the GOP advantage also rests with money. Financial disclosures filed earlier this year...

WASHINGTON — If not for Tennessee, the slugfest for the GOP presidential nomination might already be over. Rick Santorum's solid victory over Mitt Romney in Tennessee in the Super Tuesday presidential primary enables the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania to stay in the race and all but guarantees that the bloody battle for the GOP nomination will drag on for weeks. "That's the most important take-away here: The race will continue, and Tennessee had something to do with that — for better or worse," said Anthony Nownes, a political scientist at the University of Tennessee. Romney walked away with the...

NASHVILLE — Rick Santorum rode a wave of social-conservative support to victory in Tennessee's Super Tuesday Republican presidential primary, overcoming the solid support for Mitt Romney from many state GOP leaders. The Tennessee results were a disappointment for Newt Gingrich, the former U.S. House speaker, who finished third in a state he had hoped would help his campaign rebound. The results also marked a rare win for a candidate who was hugely outspent in Tennessee. Pro-Romney forces, including a "super PAC," spent about $1.6 million advertising in the state — much of the money going to TV ads that attacked...

Gannett Newspaper - Link Only: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120307/NEWS02/303070104/Santorum-s-strong-showing-likely-prolong-GOP-contest?odyssey=mod|defcon|text|FRONTPAGE

NASHVILLE — State election officials say the small number of Tennesseans who didn’t have proper identification during early voting indicates people are adjusting to a new law that requires them to have a photo ID to vote, but others say the real test will be the general election in November. Tennessee’s 12-day early voting period ended last Tuesday. During that time, Election Coordinator Mark Goins said there were more than 200,000 voters, and only 46 showed up without a photo ID. “That is such a small number for a brand new policy,” Goins said. “So far, the implementation of this...

NASHVILLE — A new effort is under way toward passage of legislation that pits the interests of gun rights advocates against the property rights of businesses, a politically volatile mix that was apparently a factor in a public confrontation between two legislators. Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey last week declared he strongly supports passage of the key proposal, which would authorize handgun permit holders to take their weapons to work — provided they are left in a locked car — even if the permit holder’s employer prohibits guns on company property. “It almost negates even having a permit if you can’t...

NASHVILLE — State legislators leading Newt Gingrich's Republican presidential campaign have returned from a weekend trip to South Carolina saying the former U.S. House speaker will be poised to repeat his Palmetto State victory in the Volunteer State. "We wanted to see how we're dovetailing (in Tennessee) with what they were doing in South Carolina," said state Rep. Tony Shipley, R-Kingsport. "I can say now that Team Tennessee is ahead of where South Carolina was on election night. We're going to shock people when we roll out our ground game." "It was electrifying," said Sen. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, of the...

NASHVILLE — Mitt Romney, who finished third in Tennessee's 2008 Republican presidential primary, has established a solid lead in organizing to win the state this year — if that will still matter on March 6. And some of the state's leading Republicans think that the political dust to be stirred in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and elsewhere will not be settled on that "Super Tuesday" two months from now. If so, Tennessee just might be in the national limelight for a moment. Three other Southern states — Georgia, Texas and Virginia — also have primaries scheduled on March 6....

NASHVILLE — Democrats say their presidential nominee, Barack Obama, can be competitive in Tennessee, but the most recent polling shows Republican John McCain’s widest lead in all 50 states can be found here. According to an Aug. 20 survey of 500 likely Tennessee voters by independent pollster Rasmussen Reports, Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., has opened a 24-point lead on Sen. Obama, D-Ill. Sen. McCain enjoyed a 56 percent to 32 percent edge in the poll, which had a 4.5 percent margin of error. The closest comparable state, according to state-by-state surveys listed on the Web site RealClearPolitics, is Kansas. There, an...

NASHVILLE -- House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh may not like it, but he has no plans to fight a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in Tennessee. ``Any resolution like this is bad public policy,'' said Naifeh, a Democrat from Covington. ``But it has overwhelming support, so I'm not going to stand in the way and get run over by that train.'' Tennessee law already defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman, but lawmakers are trying to prevent courts from allowing gay marriages in other states from being recognized here. The legislature approved the ban last...