Bryson Won’t Take ‘Big Stick’ To Shirley Ward
Jim Bryson claims he’s got a ‘big stick’ when it comes to fair elections, but he won’t censure his chief supporter in West Tennessee, Shirley Ward, who last week was charged with felony voter fraud. “Earlier this year, Jim Bryson led the charge to oust Senator Ophelia Ford before the legal process examining her special election had wrapped up,” said Mark Brown, spokesman for Victory 2006, a project of the Tennessee Democratic Party. “Now, he’s sitting by idly while his top supporter in West Tennessee is charged with felony voter fraud.”
Ward, the Tipton County chairman of Bryson’s campaign, last week was arrested for felony voter fraud in connection with a local election. Ward is president of the Tennessee Federation of Republican Women and has served as Tipton chairman for a variety of GOP candidates, including Bryson, Senator Bill Frist and former gubernatorial and Senate candidate Van Hilleary. Ward also is the treasurer for TeamGOP, an attack-dog group run by her son, Jeff Ward, who hates Democrats in Memphis and West Tennessee.
In a letter to Bryson yesterday, Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Bob Tuke recalled Bryson’s aggressive efforts to unseat Ophelia Ford and his subsequent pledge on the campaign trail to take a “big stick” to anyone who participates in what he calls “fraudulent elections.” Tuke urged Bryson — as his party’s gubernatorial candidate — to seek Ward’s removal from the Federation of Republican Women and to bar her from continued participation in his campaign. To do less, Tuke added, would be “inconsistent with your previous positions on the integrity of the election process.”
Bryson, of course, refused. “Jim Bryson walks around attacking Democrats and blathering about fair elections then he won’t even stand up to Shirley Ward,” Brown said. “That’s double-talking Jim Bryson in a nutshell.” To read more about Jim Bryson’s Big Double Talk, go to www.bigbrysondoubletalk.com.
