Were Knox Republicans For It, Against It or What?

by BHornback · February 5, 2015

On January 29, 2015 Tom Humphrey posted on his Humphrey on the Hill this post. The post was a list of 104 Republicans that were supporting Insure TN, Humphrey had received the information as a News release from Coalition for a Healthy Tennessee. The Coalition for a Healthy Tennessee was/is the group tasked with promoting the Governors Insure TN proposal. Of the 104 Republicans, #46 is/was the Knox County Republican Party Chair.

On February 3, 2015 at 11:06:55 AM EST an email was received by the Knox County Republican Party Chair to about 40 different individuals, some were Republican Precinct Chairs, several Republican elected officials, a couple of Republican Club Presidents and couple members of local media. I removed the phone number listed below her title in the email signature. The email addressed to precinct chairs said,

Subject: Insure Tennessee

Dear Precinct Chairs,

As some might be aware, my name was on a list supporting this legislation. However, at the time I had not read fully the details of what this meant. Basically, this is a version of Obama Care. I would like to contact our Legislatures in Nashville to tell them (with your support) that their constituents at home are not in favor of this. Please respond so that I may contact them for us all.

Many thanks,

Ruthie Kuhlman
Chair, Knox County GOP

On February 4, 2015 about 4:00 p.m. Knoxville time it was announced that Insure TN had failed in Committee. Senator Richard Briggs was one of the recipients of the email. As we now know, he is a member of the Committee and was one of the 4 votes for Insure TN. So, unless the Chair reveals what the returned votes of the precinct chairs were among the recipients of the email, we will never know if the precinct chairs were for it before they were against it before Briggs voted for it.