Bills advancing through the Tennessee General Assembly would make it a misdemeanor crime for a defendant to violate the conditions of their bail.
The legislation seeks to create a new Class A misdemeanor offense to charge defendants who violate the terms of release secured by paying a bond. Lawmakers specifically want to amend the existing Tennessee Code that mandates arrest warrants be filed for those who violate their release terms to also include the criminal offense.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Tennessee State Representative Clay Doggett to the newsmakers line to discuss the special session on education and their focus on literacy.
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A glitch with the electronic voting machines in Lawrence County delayed the results of last Thursday’s election by almost a day, said county Election Administrator Tanya White. Instead of using a computer, county officials had to tally votes by hand, she said. “Do you know how long it takes to count votes manually?” White asked. “A really long time.” White told the Tennessee Star that MicroVote, a company out of Indiana, manufactured the software that suddenly went erratic. Election officials in 46 of the state’s 95 counties use the same software, said Madison Tracy, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office, in an emailed statement. MicroVote has yet to explain what happened, White said. “We had our results off the machines, but we could not print off summary pages that showed all the totals for everyone,” White said. “That caused us not to be able to release anything. What was released was manually counted off what we had here. That is why all the confusion happened. That is the reason for the delay. That is the reason why what was released at first was incorrect.” No one at MicroVote returned repeated requests for comment Tuesday. County officials immediately notified…
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A 16 hour delay in reporting of the results in Thursday’s Republican primary in State House District 70 by Lawrence County election officials that resulted in a dramatic narrowing of the margin by which State Rep. Barry “Boss” Doss (R-Leoma) lost to newcomer Clay Doggett is raising serious questions about the conduct of those officials. “The fact that several different and inconsistent vote numbers have been reported from Lawrence County over the past 24 hours raises serious questions about whether the disparities are due to incompetence or actual technical issues or something more sinister. The fact that the Secretary of State’s office seemed to have no idea that there were problems indicates that an investigation or a full audit is in order,” Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill said. Late Friday, the Election Administrator’s office confirmed to The Tennessee Star that Lawrence County Election Commissioner Stephen Thompson, who previously served as a campaign advisor to Barry Doss in one of his first elections, was in the Lawrence County Election Office Thursday night when the “problems” with vote counts occurred. A screen shot taken of the Tennessee Secretary of State election results website at 11:59 pm on election day, Thursday, August…
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The state legislator who broke the rules of the Tennessee House of Representatives to jam through Gov. Haslam’s gas tax increase in 2017 has been sent packing by voters in the 70th State House District. State Rep. Barry “Boss” Doss (R-Leoma) was thumped at the ballot box by political newcomer Clay Doggett on Thursday. According to results reported by the Tennessee Secretary of State as of 11:59 pm Thursday, Doggett easily defeated Doss in the Republican primary in the 70th State House District, 55 percent to 44 percent, an 11 point margin of victory. Doggett received 4,490 votes, while Doss received 3,584 votes in the GOP primary. He will now face Jessica B. Yokley, who was unopposed in the Democratic primary, in the November general election. Complete final results have not yet been reported. The Tennessee Star documented in great detail all of the maneuvering and legislative sleight of hand deployed by Doss in 2017 to push through Gov. Haslam’s IMPROVE Act, which raised the gas tax by 6 cents per gallon and the diesel tax by 10 cents per gallon. The bill also authorized the 12 largest counties in the state to use the referendum process to increase local taxes…
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PULASKI, Tennessee – At Clay Doggett’s campaign kick-off event against incumbent District 70 State Representative Barry Doss (R-Leoma) in Pulaski on Monday evening, Roving Patriots PAC Executive Director Kevin Baigert pledged financial support of the state maximum of $7,800 to the grassroots conservative challenger. Roving Patriots PAC was founded with the purpose of its first project, Partnership for a Constitutional Tennessee, being to identify, vet and support conservative candidates in order to achieve a true conservative majority in the Tennessee House of Representatives. After Doggett made the formal announcement of his intention to run, to the group of about 100 attending the event Baigert explained that he was there representing grassroots activists and contributors from across the state who want to “drain the swamp” in Nashville Tennessee, not just Washington, D.C. Baigert made specific mention of the passage of the tax- and fee-increasing IMPROVE Act, while the state had a $2 billion budgetary surplus as a bellwether issue. While Doggett never mentioned Doss, Baigert cited the representative’s key role in passing the IMPROVE Act followed by his company’s work on state roads and his attendance at Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s introduction of a $5.2 billion transit plan. As a first…
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PULASKI, Tennessee – Grassroots conservative candidate Clay Doggett announced his run Monday for Tennessee House District 70, a seat currently held by the chief promoter of the gas-tax increasing IMPROVE Act, Barry “Boss” Doss. Doggett said of his decision to run that, like so many others before him, he was resolved “to stand up and protect the freedoms and liberties we now enjoy.” While Barry Doss’s role as champion of the IMPROVE Act, breaking rules and renaming it the Tax Cut Act of 2017, calls for an ethics investigation, and, subsequent to the passage of the Act, his provocative road work and front-row support of Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s $5.2 billion transit plan would have been an easy target for Doggett, he instead stayed remarkably focused on his own positions and qualifications. A Giles County native, Doggett made his announcement at the Staar Theater in the county seat of downtown Pulaski after an eloquent and touching introduction by his six-year-old son, Coell. While there were about 100 people in attendance at the historic venue, one could nearly hear a pin drop as the audience listened intently to Doggett’s message. After going to Giles County public schools and graduating from the…
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