The Tennessee Secretary of State’s office provided partial clarification to The Tennessee Star on Thursday on the applicability of the newly enacted three-year residency law to two announced candidates for the GOP nomination in the Fifth Congressional District, Morgan Ortagus and Robby Starbuck, but left out a reference to a key part of state code that is critical to the administration of the new law.
The Star previously reported that mere hours after the enactment of the new three-year residency law for federal candidates in primaries on Wednesday, Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett’s office offered conflicting comments about whether he intends to enforce the new law and remove “carpetbagger” candidates from the August 4 Republican primary ballot.
In an effort to clear up the confusion, The Star again reached out to Secretary Hargett’s team and asked the following two questions:
(1) If the Tennessee Republican Party State Executive Committee does not restore Morgan Ortagus and Robby Starbuck to the August 4 GOP primary ballot prior to the April 21 qualifying deadline, will you place either of them on the August 4 GOP primary ballot? Please answer Yes or No and explain why.
(2) If the Tennessee Republican Party State Executive Committee does restore Morgan Ortagus and Robby Starbuck to the August 4 GOP primary ballot prior to the April 21 qualifying deadline, will you place either of them on the August 4 GOP primary ballot? Please answer Yes or No and explain why.
The Secretary of State’s office replied:
The new law (effective April 13, 2022) did not change the qualifying deadline set out in TCA 2-5-101, which this year was April 7 at noon. The new law also did not change the ability of the executive committee of a state party to determine, after the qualifying deadline, that a candidate is not a bona fide member of the party nor did it remove the candidate’s right to appeal such a determination. The process for an executive committee of a state party to remove a candidate as a non-bona fide member of a party and the process for a candidate to appeal the removal is the same before the new law went into effect as it is today. The deadline for an executive committee to notify our office if it grants the candidate’s appeal is April 21.
TCA 2-5-101, the part of state code quoted in the emailed reply, says: “Independent and primary candidates for any office to be filled at the regular November election for which a primary is required to be held at the regular August election shall qualify by filing such candidates’ nominating petitions no later than twelve o’clock (12:00) noon, prevailing time, on the first Thursday in April.”
That section refers to this year’s April 7 deadline.
What Secretary Hargett’s office failed to also include in the reply was TN Code § 2-5-204 (2020), which says in part,
An executive committee that determines that a candidate is not qualified under § 2-13-104 shall file the committee’s determination with the coordinator of elections no later than twelve o’clock (12:00) noon prevailing time on the seventh day after the qualifying deadline for the election. The coordinator of elections shall notify each county election commission on whose ballots the candidate’s name would otherwise appear prior to the election commission printing the ballot.
That deadline, for 2022, is April 14. The state code continues:
Unless the coordinator of elections receives a letter from the executive committee withdrawing the committee’s determination of the candidate’s disqualification no later than the close of business seven (7) days after the original withdrawal deadline, the candidate’s name must be excluded from the ballot. The executive committee may file the withdrawal letter with the coordinator of elections by fax, email, hand delivery, or through a priority mail process.
Notably, the Secretary of State’s office refused to provide a direct and specific answer to how the law applies to two candidates, who, under the plain meaning of the new residency law, as was clearly intended by the Tennessee General Assembly, would not be allowed on the primary ballot.
The new law reads:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 2, Chapter 13, Part 2, is amended by adding the following as a new section:
In order to qualify as a candidate in a primary election for United States senate or for member of the United States house of representatives, a person shall meet the residency requirements for state senators and representatives contained in the Tennessee constitution.
SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.
The Secretary of State’s third communications to The Star in less than 48 hours since the new residency law went into effect continued on the new theme–and selective interpretation of existing Tennessee law–from Hargett’s office that April 7, not April 21, is the date certain upon which the slate of primary candidates is finalized.
Late Wednesday, The Star received this response from Hargett’s office about the applicability of the newly enacted law to the current field of eleven announced candidates for the GOP nomination in TN-5, four of whom – Robby Starbuck, Morgan Ortagus, Baxter Lee, and Stewart Parks have been challenged and removed from the Tennessee Republican Party ballot – from the Secretary of State’s office:
The bill was not signed into law before the April 7th filing deadline. The requirement does not apply retroactively to candidates who met the qualification deadline at noon on April 7.
The Secretary of State’s office provided the same response to the Associated Press, which late Wednesday published an article with a headline that offered its interpretation of that first statement from The Secretary of State’s office: “State: Residency law too late to remove Trump-backed hopeful.”
The Secretary of State’s office failed to note in its replies on April 13 and April 14 to The Star that, between the ballot-qualifying petitions filing deadline of April 7 and the ballot finalization deadline of April 21, is a two-week window during which a candidate’s ballot status can legally be considered in limbo.
One prominent Republican activist and attorney told The Tennessee Star, “The Secretary of State’s office, in refusing to enforce the clear intent of the law, is passing the buck to the TNGOP for them to determine in their deliberations on the Republican bona fide challenges what the new three-year residency law means.”
Sources told The Star that if the Tennessee Secretary of State continues to refuse to enforce the newly enacted law and remove any candidate from the primary ballot for the U.S. House who fails to meet the three-year residency requirement, he will be sued to require him to enforce the law.
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR, Twitter, and Parler.
Photo “Tennessee Sec State Tre Hargett” by Tre Hargett.
Hi Aaron, I’m very concerned about Robby Starbuck who is lying about when he moved here. He told the Tennessee Star that he moved here December 2018 which isn’t true. . He visited Franklin for two days and looked at houses and put a offer on a house. He then went back to California until they sold their home and moved here sometime in the summer of 2019. This is after the April 7 2019 deadline to be allowed yo run for office in 2022. They have a Instagram post showing they just came for two days in December 2018, and have posts talking about the 6 months it took to get everything in order. There’s a long post on Landon Starbucks Instagram. Even if he rented a house or bought a house before April 7, 2019 that doesn’t make him a full time resident. He was in California during this time and wasn’t living here. A large group of us have dug deep and vetted the Starbucks and found disturbing information. Remember he also lied about voting in Tennessee primaries when he actually voted in zero in Tennessee They aren’t who they say they are and have infiltrated the Republican party saying they are conservative Christians. A recent interview that Landon Starbuck did she said they have been here almost four years. Even if they were telling the truth about what they told The Star about moving here December 2018, that would only be 3years 4months. which isn’t close to four years. He is lying and cheating and has charmed the people of Tennessee that believe every word out of his mouth. He is not eligible to run and I pray that Secretary of State will keep him off the ballot. If you have questions feel free to reach out to me. Thank you.