NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Republican Party’s approval earlier this year of a plan to require that candidates for federal, state and county elected offices pay a fee to run in a GOP primary is generating a case of ethical, as well as political, heartburn for state judges and judicial candidates.
The legal angst stems from a Sept. 7 opinion from the state’s judicial ethics committee about the issue.
The panel stated in an advisory opinion that Tennessee’s Rules of the Code of Judicial Conduct bar the practice of paying the fee, adopted in January by the GOP’s state executive committee.
The fee was imposed with a sliding fee schedule with amounts determined by which office is being sought.
For example, candidates running in a Republican primary for statewide office – governor and U.S. Senate – are now required to pay $5,000 to run. Candidates for judicial offices must pay $500 to run in the primary.