NASHVILLE - Top Tennessee legislative leaders say they don't intend to resurrect a state Republican Party effort to require voter registration by political party after a bill to do just that did the political equivalent of a belly flop Wednesday and failed in a GOP-run House committee.
"The committee spoke and it spoke overwhelmingly," Republican House Speaker Glen Casada of Franklin told reporters Thursday. "It was 14-2 no, so I support the committee."
With some proponents hoping to use another bill, Casada, who had earlier favored the measure, said "the committee spoke loud and clear."
Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, said the issue stemmed from two Democrats in Williamson County who were seeking office and "crossed over in order to try to affect the outcome of the Republican Party so as to affect their own general election."
Noting Republican Gov. Bill Lee's opposition to the GOP State Executive Committee request, Johnson wryly noted that "sometimes you get there faster by going a little slower. I'm perfectly satisfied with that."
Tennessee currently has a "partially open" party primary process. At each primary election, a voter is in effect declaring himself or herself a "bona fide" party member when they pick a ballot. There can be challenges based on their voting history and even potential criminal charges for violating that, although neither happens often.
The GOP's State Executive Committee effort drew opposition from a number of members of the GOP's legislative super majority.
A party primary is the responsibility of each party, legally, and the party could choose candidates through a convention or other means short of an election.
Tennessee Democratic Party officials did not support the party registration bill.
It would have required voters to register in advance of an election as a Republican, Democratic or independent voter. And they could only vote in primaries in which they are registered.
The bill, opposed by Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, among others, failed in the House Local Government Committee. Four Chattanooga area Republicans on the panel voted against it, among them Rep. Esther Helton of East Ridge.
"Had the primaries been closed, I wouldn't be sitting up here right now," she told the Times Free Press Thursday. She noted "I'm not saying that" she won her GOP primary with the help of conservative or independent voters.
But she did say "I feel like I was not the Republican choice, and I think it would have made it more difficult for me to win."
Rep. Robin Smith, R-Hixson, a former Tennessee Republican Party chair, who backed Helton in her GOP primary, said as a former party chief, "I understand why there is a need for closed primaries."
But she said if "we were just to enforce [current] law as the statute is currently written, the state Republican and the state Democrat parties function as the state primary boards. So there's a way to do something now."
She said the parties "could work together and force a little stricter pulling of the [primary] ballot. And you do declare a party every time you pull a ballot."
In the past, Tennessee had a rich tradition of Republicans jumping into then-dominant Democrats' primaries to choose a general election candidate of their liking. Gardenhire and others argue that helped build the GOP into the dominant force it is today and there's no need to alienate independents or remaining conservative Democrats.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow him on Twitter @AndySher1.