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March 19, 2008
Primarily speaking
Maybe it's just me, but it seems as though there is a slight increase this election year in challenges to incumbent General Assembly members by contenders within the incumbents' own parties.
House District 4: We start off with a primary rematch between current Rep. Kent Williams and former Rep. Jerome Cochran, who wants the seat back.
House District 7: Rep. Matthew Hill is being opposed by Todd Smith, a name that was dropped last November by an anti-Hill blogger. Also, according to comments below, former Rep. Bob Patton is also challenging Hill.
House District 18: Rep. Stacey Campfield was said to be challenged by Tommy Prince. But that was last year. Now it's Ron Leadbetter whose name is being mentioned. Either way, Campfield will have to fight off a challenge, at which he proved successful in 2006.
House District 52: Well, it was to be a primary between incumbent Rep. Rob Briley and Eric Stansell. But then Mike Stewart stepped up. Then, of course, Rep. Briley announced that he will not be seeking re-election. But originally, this would have counted as a primary challenging an incumbent.
Senate District 8: Sen. Raymond Finney gets his challenge from Rep. Doug Overbey. Overbey's seat will therefore be open.
Senate District 22: There were reports that former Montgomery County mayor Doug Weiland will be challenging Sen. Rosalind Kurita. But this more recent article lists a Tim Barnes as her opponent.
If you've been paying attention, you've noticed that most of these are Republican contests, and that many will take place in the GOP stronghold of East Tennessee — and each of these is a contest between the area's traditional moderate population and a new(ish) crop of more hardline conservatives. For more on this, see Tom Humphrey's excellent column of a couple of months ago. (HT: the late Volunteer Voters)
At least two Congressional seats will feature meaningful primary contests this year. This is no doubt due in part to the highly partisan makeup of the districts that cover the state's southwest and northeast extremes. To get elected in the First (R) or the Ninth (D), one must only win one's primary.
U.S. House, District 1: Johnson City Mayor Phil Roe will try again to defeat first-term incumbent U.S. Rep. David Davis, who narrowly won in an open contest that featured a whole stack of candidates. Update from comments: Mahmood (Michael) Sabri, whom I believe ran as an Independent in 2006, has picked up papers as a Republican in this race.
U.S. House, District 9: U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen is facing a rematch with Nikki Tinker, and now it looks like Jake Ford will run as a Democrat too (last time he was an Independent).
Surely I've missed some; help me fill in the blanks.
State House Elections , State Senate Elections , US House Elections | By joe lance | 09:12 PM
Comments
Todd Smith’s Web Site
Here's the Web site for Todd Smith's campaign: www.smithworksforyou.com. It looks pretty good. He sure has more experience than Matthew Hill.
http://impeachmatthewhill.blogspot.com/2008/02/todd-smiths-web-site.html
Posted by: Elmer Gantry at March 20, 2008 01:44 AM
Posted by: Elmer Gantry at March 20, 2008 01:51 AM
Posted by: Elmer Gantry at March 20, 2008 02:22 AM
Former Rep. Bob Patton is also running against Current Rep. Matthew Hill
Posted by: jason at March 20, 2008 11:21 AM
According to the news article "Web site takes issue with Davis record" (http://www.themiddleclass.org) appearing within the March 20, 2008 edition of the Johnson City Press, Mahmood (Michael) Sabri has also picked up his papers to run as a republican primary candidate against David Davis during the August 7 GOP primary.
Posted by: Elmer Gantry at March 20, 2008 11:57 AM