State parties should be more transparent

The Tennessee Republican Party was involved yet again in another minor fracas last week, this time leading up to their annual fund-raising dinner.

The veritable architect of the Bush White House and the conservative political machine for much of the last decade, Karl Rove, was in town over the weekend for the state party’s big sit-down dinner and fund-raising event this past weekend.

Unlike in years past, this event was closed to the state’s press that was eager to get this glimpse at the health of the state and national GOP.

The state party also was not entirely accurate while stating their reasons for closing the event, specifically by intimating these events had been closed to the press for years. That is entirely untrue as reporters for this paper and others in recent memory have covered the event in question.

Ironically, Tennessee GOP officials were as late as last week publicly bemoaning the state media’s decision to simply pass on a press opportunity with a speaking surrogate for GOP Presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, a former Hewlett Packard CEO.

State party officials did not disabuse people of the notion that perhaps it was Rove himself who did not want to le the press into the affair. Whatever the reason, the end-result is another reasons for conservatives in Tennessee to scratch their heads and wonder what he state party is up to.

There are no rules here governing decisions of state parties in these matters. They are certainly not subject to state open meeting laws. However, they do purport to be leaders in the democratic process and should be willingly more transparent than to close their signature event, keeping it under wraps about out of the sunshine.