Mike Padgett Concedes To Bob Tuke, The Name You Know Claims Second
Posted on August 7, 2008 at 10:22 pmTennessee’s one and onliest Southern Appalachian Democratic candidate congratulates the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Bob Tuke:
“My hearty congratulations go out to Bob Tuke tonight,” Mike Padgett said Thursday evening.
“Bob is a true Tennessee hero, and he ran a gentleman’s campaign. I have offered him my full support because we both understand how important it is to working Tennesseans that Bob bring Lamar Alexander home.”
The big story out of this race, however, is the out of nowhere, unknown upstart candidate Gary Davis.
With little fundraising and literally no media attention until tonight, Davis outpolled two candidates who were considered “legitmate” by the mainstream and citizen media by virtue of money and position and came within 10% of the current nominee. The question is: how?
Is the Davis story a triumph of an underground, stealthy grassroots campaign? Is it an example of a rare victory for the little guy against big money and big media?
Or is the explanation more troubling? Did Davis’s voters believe that they were voting for one of the two sitting Congressmen in the state, Lincoln Davis and David Davis, with the same surname?
A look at the map leads one to believe that Tennessee may have just had its own statewide theatrical version of the Distinguished Gentleman.
Davis, “the name they knew“, seems to have trumped everything: money, organization and just plain common sense.
A sad commentary on the political savvy of the Tennessee voter.
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Associated Press
Comments
5 Responses to “Mike Padgett Concedes To Bob Tuke, The Name You Know Claims Second”
I don’t see how a Davis mistake could be made. The full names were on the ballots, and if a voter sees that s/he has made a mistke, it’s easy enough to go back on the touch screen. So does this mean voters don’t know the full names of the incumbents?
What’s so “sad” or “troubling” about it? It’s an easy mistake to make if you don’t know the first names of the people.
[...] Kenneth Eaton, can’t believe that an unknown, unfunded candidate, who campaigned little was able to come in second in the Democratic primary: I’ll give Mr. Davis a little more credit than other bloggers. He [...]
It sounds likely to me that some voters were confused about whom they were voting for. If the public can confuse Jerry Cooper and Jim Cooper, voters can think they’re choosing Lincoln when they’re actually picking Gary.
[...] The surprise second place showing by Gary Davis in the Democratic Primary continues to puzzle political observers. From the Tennessee Journal: We haven’t figured out yet how Gary G. Davis managed to finish second in the Democratic U.S. senatorial primary and beat Bob Tuke badly in Hamilton County. People may have confused him with someone else, his place on the ballot could have caught their attention, or maybe they’d actually heard of him. [...]