Because He’s Wreckable

By Kleinheider Posted on May 26, 2008 at 12:10 pm

As a legislative session ends and a campaign season begins, House Republican Leader Jason Mumpower looks at ways to get himself sitting in Jimmy Naifeh’s chair:

Bristol Republican Jason Mumpower says he often refers to himself as Tennessee’s House minority leader “to gig myself with the term minority” and as a reminder that he is fighting to win a majority.

Mumpower needs four seats for Republicans to win that majority and replace Democrat Jimmy Naifeh as the House speaker.

While the 2008 legislative session just ended, the Memorial Day weekend signals the unofficial start of Mumpower’s campaign season. He is targeting anywhere from five to eight House seats for Republicans to win this year, including the 2nd House District seat held by Democratic incumbent Nathan Vaughn of Kingsport.

Is it unfortunate, due to his vulnerability in his East Tennessee District, that Nathan Vaughn must be the focus of a lot of GOP political energy? After all, if Democrats were picking their favorite Democrats you’d have to believe that Vaughn would be right there at the top of the pack.

Then again, is Vaughn a Republican favorite, because his political judgment is affected by the knowledge hovering over him that he good get picked off by a Republican at anytime? If left to his own devices in a safer district would his record be different?

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