I've Been to the Mountaintop

The Golden Girl gets answers on the issues:

This morning I received an email from Ward Cammack spokesman Mark Brown, who assures me that Cammack will ban mountaintop removal mining as Governor. It's a high priority for him and he will work to get an outright ban through the General Assembly.

She also has a rant well worth reading on the governor's race and what it means to be a Democrat in Tennessee.

"Leans Republican"

Swing State Project rates the 2010 Tennessee Governor’s race as “Leans Republican” with this review:

Democrats have been slowly losing their downballot grip on Tennessee over the past decade; Republicans now have outright control of the state Senate, and are more or less tied with Dems in the House. With Phil Bredesen term-limited out of the governor's office, both the Dem and GOP fields are large, but they also both lack serious star-power. For the Dems, former State House Majority Leader Kim McMillan, state Sen. Roy Herron, businessman Ward Cammack and beer distributor Mike McWherter (son of former Governor Ned) are in the hunt, while Congressan Zach Wamp, Memphis DA Bill Gibbons, Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey round out the GOP field. Based on Tennessee's recent trend, we have to give the early edge to the GOP, but it's not an insurmountable one.

Stay Civil

Speaking of gay marriage, I recently had the chance to raise the issue with two Democrats running for governor in 2010.

First, Ward Cammack talked about the importance of civil unions to provide gay couples with equivalent rights under the law as heterosexual married couples. He then volunteered his ardent support for adoption rights for gay couples.

In a seperate conversation, former State House Majority Leader Kim McMillan came up with a similar answer, espousing* civil unions as something Tennesseans might accept because gay marriage was a bridge too far around here. Then I asked her about adoption rights and got a very personal reply. McMillan herself is adopted and couldn’t care less if an adoptive couple is gay or straight so long as they’ll provide a loving home.

So no distance between the candidates there, but good to know where they stand.

*Take time to appreciate my clever use of language.

Moving On Up

Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-TN) will get a seat on the all-powerful House Appropriations Committee in the next Congress. Will that peach assignment keep him in the House and out of the governor’s race in 2010? If Frist gets in (and he will), I bet Davis stays out.

Faith Hill for First Lady

The Golden Girl has been warning us for years… and now the New Republic says it could come true:

Tim McGraw is seriously considering a run at the governor’s mansion in 2010. He's been floating the idea for a few years now, but with the recent thrashing of lawyer Bob Tuke by Lamar Alexander in last month’s senate race, Tennessee Dems have been casting about desperately for a high-profile Democrat not named Harold Ford to take on Bill Frist, who is almost certainly going to run. And they could do a lot worse, I suppose, than the Indian Outlaw. Which is saying something.

Down the Road

What’s missing from this billboard?


There’s the candidate’s name – but what’s he running for?

Presumably, these ads are promoting Rep. Wamp for re-election to Congress. In reality, of course, they’re all about the governor’s race in 2010. A dead giveaway is that they appear far outside Wamp’s actual congressional district.

I saw a ton of these all over East Tennessee while travelling for the Thanksgiving holiday. Were these billboards paid for by Wamp’s congressional campaign?

If so, I suspect they technically follow the letter of the law if not the spirit. After all, Wamp isn’t an official candidate for governor yet and shouldn’t be raising or spending money on his gubernatorial campaign already.

Wamp wants to make it official in January, if only Bill Frist would hurry up and announce one way or the other. Since Wamp doesn’t have Frist’s star power, he needs to start campaigning now.

My prediction: Frist is in, and no big-name Republican or Democrat has the guts to run against him.