Campaign Staff News and more

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April 26, 2006

Campaign Staff News and more

Matt White's new "Inside Baseball" column launched the other day at the Tennessee Politics Blog. Every indication is that this will be a must-read whenever it happens, just like everything else on TPB. Among other things, White reported that the Jim Bryson for Governor campaign has hired Gregory Gleaves as its manager. It sounds like the Tennessee Republican Party is treating its gubernatorial primary like the Democrats treated theirs for US Senate. That is, it would seem so from the Mark Albertini/Jim Boyd point of view. Gleaves is from the home office (not currently, but until recently).

In local campaign news, County Commission candidate John Bailes (my next District 8 Commissioner, if our efforts are successful) has switched treasurers. His official campaign started with the staunch help of transportation executive Bill Lusk; but Lusk went on to file and run his own campaign for the Tennessee House of Representatives. The Bailes campaign needs someone who can concentrate on just this one very important race, so I'm glad to see them moving on this. The May 2 primary is important for GOTV numbers, but the real battle starts after the two candidates are formally selected by their parties' (and other) voters.

It's by no means breaking news, but I found last week's KNS story on special-session fundraising to be most enlightening. (Append this item to your memory of the big fundraising parties that were deliberately moved up-calendar to avoid being associated with the eve of an ethics session.) Chattanooga Times cartoonist Bruce Plante apparently thought something of the story, too. Unfortunately, I can't provide you a link to his depiction at this time, but it featured his standard General Assembly caricatures hooting over a bag of loot and saying that it had been a "very special" session indeed. (Nevermind, the site came back up. Here it is.)

Rep. Stacey Campfield, the only state legislator who consistently blogs (whether or not you appreciate his style or his politics, you have to give him that), posted about Rep. Susan Lynn's bill (HB2500: PDF/Summary) that would prevent the private sale of cell phone records, and how that bill fared (or, rather, didn't) in the House Constitutional Protections committee. I asked for and received feedback from one Jon Davidson, an independent candidate who is challenging committee member Rob Briley in District 52. As soon as I can, I will post that response here, so be on the lookout for it. Mr. Davidson is very strong on constitutional protections, from what I can tell. (By the way, today Rep. Campfield alerted us to the fact that Susan Lynn has started her own blog to deal with discussions of suspected autism enabler thimerosal. This is a very important topic for me personally, as the wife and I struggle with the infant vaccination question every time it comes up.)

That's about all I can fit in right now. I know you've already seen the updated State Senate 11th District list, which is down to one candidate now (Bo Watson). I consider Bo one of the good guys, so even though I much prefer for voters to have a choice in any election, I have no doubt that Watson will make a fine State Senator.

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