Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, speaks to reporters in his legislative office in Nashville in this 2013 file photo.NASHVILLE – Republican Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey says he doesn’t intend to put any of his own campaign cash behind his push to defeat three incumbent Democratic state Supreme Court justices up for yes/no retention votes on the August ballot.
“No, none,” Ramsey told reporters today after a State Building Commission meeting at Legislative Plaza in Nashville.
Ramsey has been meeting with business and other groups about tackling Chief Justice Gary Wade and fellow Justices Sharon Lee and Cornelia Clark. And his staff has prepared a campaign outline that seeks to portray them as “soft on crime” and anti-business.
The speaker said he’s spoken with only one group outside Tennessee, the Washington, D.C.-based Republican State Leadership Committee. The group has expressed interest in Tennessee as part of its recently announced national “Judicial Fairness Initiative” aimed at putting more conservative jurists on state Supreme Courts nationwide.
But the effort has been criticized by retired judges, including former Supreme Court Justice William “Mickey” Barker, a Signal Mountain Republican, a Lew Conner, a former state appellate judge and also a Republican.