CONVICTED FELON SAYS HE VOTED FOR BERKE
Bribe-taking Democrat Ward Crutchfield endorses Berke, claims to have voted for him even though felons can’t vote in Tennessee until they complete their sentence
CHATTANOOGA – Former state Sen. Ward Crutchfield, who was convicted along with fellow Democrat state senators John Ford and Kathryn Bowers of taking bribes in the Tennessee Waltz investigation, has endorsed fellow Democrat Andy Berke to fill Crutchfield’s seat in the state Senate.
Crutchfield said Monday night that he has already voted for Berke in the 10th district special election, according to a Chattanooga newspaper report.
At a reception before the Hamilton County Democrat Party’s Kefauver Dinner at the Chattanooga Convention Center, Crutchfield - who is awaiting sentencing to federal prison for taking a bribe – slapped a Berke campaign sticker onto his jacket and announced that he had voted for Berke.
Under Tennessee law convicted felons lose their eligibility to vote but regain it only after they complete their sentence.
Crutchfield has not yet reported to federal prison to begin serving his sentence, so it is unclear how he was able to vote without breaking state law.
According to a report by Michael Davis in today’s Chattanooga News Free Press, Crutchfield attended a reception before the dinner and, reports Davis, “He tapped a Berke campaign sticker on his jacket and said, ‘I’m here. I voted’.”
“Convicted criminal Crutchfield’s possibly illegal vote for fellow Democrat Andy Berke is yet another indicator that a vote for Berke is a vote for more of the Democrat Party’s business-as-usual tolerance of illegal and unethical behavior in the state legislature,” said Tennessee Republican Party communications director Bill Hobbs. “The voters of Hamilton and Marion counties deserve better – and they will get it when they elect Oscar Brock to once and for all erase the stench of corruption on the seat that was for too long occupied by the corrupt Ward Crutchfield.”
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