SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The 2016 campaign is already considered one of the nastiest, with all the talk about small hands, sweating and lock her up. But what looks like a grace note this week in Tennessee - State Representative Curry Todd was briefly arrested for failing to report to the Shelby County Sheriff's Office to talk about video of him tearing down the campaign signs of Mark Lovell - one of his three rivals in the Republican primary next Thursday.
Representative Todd told the Memphis Commercial Appeal, yes, I did pick up the signs the other day and took them. I wasn't trying to hide anything. It was daylight. He says the owners of the property gave him permission to remove the signs. But when Mark Lovell heard that Curry Todd had been arrested - quote, "I thought, we don't need our state representative in jail," he told the Knoxville News Sentinel. "He can get out, and the judge can decide what to do about it later." It's like lending money to your nephews, he added. You don't expect to get it back. I figured it was a good deed. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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