Some 3rd Congressional District hopefuls who are pleading for civic responsibility in the Aug. 2 primary are sporadic voters themselves, reports Chris Carroll.
Democratic candidate Bill Taylor confronted his record of missing 10 elections in 10 years.
“Obviously I think voting’s more important now than I did in 2002 or whatever,” he said.
Republican dairy executive Scottie Mayfield has skipped 11 of 34 county, state and federal elections since 1990. He missed the 1996 presidential election and its Tennessee primary, leaving no trace of his thinking on former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole’s challenge to President Bill Clinton. (Mayfield voted in the Republican presidential primary in 1992.)
Later Mayfield failed to cast a ballot in the 2000 presidential primary, where he could have chosen from a field that included Texas Gov. George W. Bush and U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
Mayfield also is the only 3rd District Republican hopeful whose history shows him voting in an exclusively Democratic race.
Records show Mayfield cast a vote in the 1990 McMinn County Democratic primary. One of the 1990 Democratic school board candidates, Becky Jacquish, donated $250 to Mayfield’s congressional campaign this year.
A spokesman for Mayfield did not respond to detailed questions in several phone messages and emails.
Among the incumbent, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, and six 3rd District challengers, only 25-year-old Weston Wamp can claim a perfect voting history.