Republicans Threaten Legal War in Memphis
After being narrowly defeated in a special election for State Senate, Republican businessman Terry Roland pledged to “bring in a sh–load of attorneys” from Washington to tangle up the Shelby County election process. His campaign’s comments appeared in an online report by the Memphis Flyer. This morning, Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Bob Tuke condemned Roland’s inappropriate threats and urged him to stand down from any legal challenges.
“The people of Shelby County have spoken,” Tuke said. “Ophelia Ford is the new State Senator from District 29. Terry Roland needs to accept that fact. But instead of displaying grace in defeat, Terry Roland is making bald-faced threats to bring in a gang of lawyers from Washington — just like the Republicans did in Florida. It’s clear that Terry Roland has every intention of trying to tangle up this special election in bogus legal knots.”
Tuke added: The Tennessee Democratic Party isn’t going to stand by and watch this happen. We will use every resource at our disposal to beat back the legal assault that’s been threatened. I’m calling on Terry Roland to accept his defeat and move on before this devolves into the kind of mess we witnessed in Florida.
