Tennessee’s political residency racket is foiled

The Tennessee Legislature’s plan to remove a Trumpy candidate from the election this year has failed. Morgan Ortagus, who worked at President Trump’s State Department, moved to Nashville last year and is running for an open house seat. A week before the April 7 filing deadline, the Legislature passed a bill mandating three-year residency.

That may be unconstitutional, but it also smells like swamp. A major sponsor of the bill supports one of Ms Ortagus’ opponents, former House Speaker Beth Harwell. What an exclusive little club. Governor Bill Lee has neither signed nor vetoed the residency law. No action by the Tennessee CEO means a bill will go into effect after 10 days. That happened on Wednesday.