MEMPHIS, TN - Today, the Republican Party of Shelby County published the reports from a series of background checks conducted on its candidates for the May 4 County Primary Election. This is the first time that a local political organization has conducted background checks on the candidates seeking its nomination for public office. The Party published the results on its website at www.ShelbyGOP.org and is pleased to report that each and every participating Republican candidate received a 100% clean bill of health.

While recent scandals such as the “Tennessee Waltz” have almost exclusively involved local Democrat Party officials, the parade of criminal indictments have caused many voters to lose faith in the system as a whole. In response, the local Republican Party was determined to raise standards and to restore the public’s trust. As part of that response, the Party adopted a new Mission Statement that you can view in its entirety on at www.ShelbyGOP.org. It’s entitled “Demand Accountability. Expect Results” and represents the most fundamental and core values of the Party.

Lang Wiseman, Chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party, said “We expect and demand that candidates maintain the highest standards of accountability and transparency, and we believe our background checks demonstrate that we’re willing to put our money where our mouth is. In fact, I would challenge the Democrat Party and Chairman Van Turner to exercise the same modest level of due diligence with Democrat candidates, and to join with us in our mission to clean up city and county government.”

“We want the voters to know that when they make a choice for the Republican candidate, they can have confidence in their decision. You have to have a background check to work at a minimum wage job, so why shouldn’t we expect the same from candidates asking to oversee millions of dollars in taxpayer funds? After all, isn’t running for office basically equivalent to a public job interview?”

The background checks were conducted with the consent of the candidates, and the vast majority of the Republican candidates eagerly agreed to participate in the project. Confi-Data, LLC of Bartlett conducts background search services to numerous local businesses, and at the request of the SCRP the company researched pertinent data related to bankruptcies, tax liens, criminal convictions, and state and national sex offender registries.

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