November 7, 2009

East Meets West Meets Middle

A pair of Twitter updates from Tennessee gubernatorial candidates demonstrates that the pack's pre-holiday trips back and forth across the state are in full swing.

Sen. Jim Kyle, of Memphis:

Enjoyed meeting democrats in Knoxville this morning at Shoney's on Western Ave. Chip Forrester to be featured speaker. A large crowd
.

Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, of Blountville:

In Clarksville today. Meeting with officers from Fort Campbell and veterans groups. Taking part in a parade. Looking forward to a good day.

I will be meeting with one or more candidates here in Chattanooga in the next week or two.

Posted by joe lance in TN Gubernatorial Elections at 9:01 AM | Comments (0)

November 5, 2009

Straw Poll for Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates in Hamilton County

From Facebook: The Hamilton County Democratic Party will hold its annual Estes Kefauver Dinner on Monday, November 16 at 6:00 p.m. in the Choo Choo's Imperial Ballroom. Five Democratic gubernatorial candidates will be there, and a straw poll will be conducted.

The candidates are:

(Corrected start time.)

Posted by joe lance in TN Gubernatorial Elections at 12:44 PM | Comments (0)

October 26, 2009

Let's Be Blount About Education

Tonight in Maryville, a group of concerned citizens hosted a candidate forum dedicated to the subject of improving education in Tennessee. Several of the men and women running to be our next governor were in attendance. Here are a few status updates, and there will be more as it comes across the wires.

"Really enjoyed the Blount education forum tonight. The BEI is a great example of grassroots movement in support of education." — @BillHaslam

"Big day in E Tn-raised 175K tnght in Knox w/ John Rich who came to Blount 4 education evt. Will hve enough money 2 win/make Tn even better!" — @zachwamp

Ward Cammack's announcement

WVLT

WBIR

Maryville Daily Times

Hat tip: Brian Hornback

Posted by joe lance in Education & TN Gubernatorial Elections at 10:47 PM | Comments (0)

Do We Need County Primaries?

Officials in Putnam County, Tennessee are looking into that question, according to a report by Nashville station WSMV. Not surprisingly, the local Democratic and Republican parties are saying "not so fast." Naturally, they seem to like having the taxpayers foot the bill for their internal candidate selection processes.

It is debatable whether voters in populous counties like Shelby, Davidson, or Hamilton, which have partisan elections for all but school board posts (the latter being limited to nonpartisanship by state law), possibly benefit from having primaries. (However, if elected positions like Trustee, Court Clerk, and Register of Deeds—I mean, come on: Register of Deeds—were stripped of their party labels, that might change.)

Small and mid-sized counties certainly do not need to take on this cost, and so I approve of the Putnam County Commission's actions. Be sure to read all the comments at Post Politics.

Posted by joe lance in Elections at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)