Perpendicular Prospects

By Kleinheider Posted on September 21, 2008 at 2:54 pm

New voters energized by Barack Obama will likely not help Obama win the state here in Tennessee but they may not be useful in turning the tide in crucial down ticket races either:

Robin Smith, who heads the Tennessee Republican Party, doubts that enthusiasm for Obama will help legislative races. Most of the new voters are in urban areas and college campuses, she said, while many of the key legislative races this fall are in rural areas.

“I think the state Democrats are in a very tough quandary, because the top of their ticket message is absolutely perpendicular to what their state party is trying to pull off,” she said.

Hayden acknowledges that Tennessee is generally not a state in which state candidates benefit from top-ticket turnout, because “our voters split their tickets, and they do so a lot.”

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Tags: Barack Obama, Becky Ruppe, Kim Sasser Hayden, Randy Camp, Robin Smith  

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