The Lottery Lout
SKB offers an essay on recent lottery happenings in Memphis involving state Sen. Steve Cohen, who appears to becoming a bit unglued over the whole lottery referendum thing. The esssay is by HB, the author of the sadly now-defunct Memphis blog Half-Bakered.

An excerpt: Cohen was snide and rude, as he seems to always be these days. He later talked to the morning crew at Rock103 and once again told voters how to not vote for the governor but vote for his amendment. It was pretty clear he didn't give a flip about Bredesen. Then they went into a discussion of workers at early-voting stations (two documented so far) who are directing people to vote for governor also (not just the lottery) and how Cohen is going to have those folks looked into and disciplined or removed!

It was surreal. A Democrat urging people not to vote getting incensed at poll workers who are directing people on how to vote. The guy has clearly pegged himself and his legacy on this issue. I hope he loses.

Amen to that.

UPDATE: I was asked why Cohen would want to discourage people from voting in the gubernatorial race. Here's why: To win, the lottery referendum must not only get a majority YES vote, it must also get one more vote than 50 percent of the votes cast in the governor's race. If there are 1 million votes cast in the governor's race and only, say, 950,000 in the lottery referendum, the lottery needs 500,001 to win, not just 475,001. Thus, a vote FOR the lottery is magnified by not voting in the gubernatorial race, but a vote AGAINST the lottery is magnified by also casting a vote in the gubernatorial race.

So Cohen, a Democrat, doesn't want lottery supporters to vote in the governors race. Which is hilarious because Phil Bredesen, the Democrat candidate for governor is for the lottery. So Cohen wants Bredesen to not cast a vote for himself for governor. Which would help Republican Van Hilleary, who is opposed to the lottery. Which isn't very smart of Cohen, because the amendment would, if passed, merely allow the Legislature to create a lottery, not require it to do so. A Gov. Hilleary might well put Cohen's dream on the back burner a while - or politicize the lottery legislation debate to Hilleary's advantage. Once it passes the referendum state, the lottery may well become a potent fund-raising tool of conservatives.