Senator Lowe Finney Weds

By Kleinheider Posted on July 5, 2008 at 11:55 pm

U.S. Senate candidate Mike Padgett breaks the news and offers congratulations:

The very best of wishes to state Sen. Lowe Finney and his beautiful bride, Tiffany Staggs, who were wed earlier today at the chapel on the Lambuth University campus in Jackson.

Lowe has been a good friend both personally and politically. He has a big future ahead as a leader in Tennessee Democratic politics, and Tiffany will make a wonderful “first adviser.”

SEE ALSO: The Wedding Announcement

permalink | Comment on this post

Tags: Lowe Finney, marriage, Tiffany Staggs, Wedding  

In West Tennessee, “That Guy” Now Has A Name

By Kleinheider Posted on June 13, 2008 at 7:45 am

Newscoma brings home the importance of Senator Lowe Finney’s endorsement of Mike Padgett for U.S. Senate:

Endorsements from local candidates who are still enmeshed in their communities are rather important. I have asked democrats here about who they are going to support and they don’t always know the candidates.

Seriously, they don’t or they know them as “that” guy.

You know, “that” guy that worked in the courthouse in Knoxville or “that” guy with the combat boots or “that” guy with the auto business and so on.

So, when Finney says I’m backing Padgett, they know Lowe. And for some folks, if it’s good enough for Lowe, it’s good enough for them. Not everyone is this way, don’t get me wrong and I’m by no means saying that’s always the way it is, but our access is much more limited than let’s say, someone who lives in Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville or Chattanooga.

permalink | Comment on this post

Tags: In West Tennessee a member of Project Mayhem does have , Lowe Finney, Mike Padgett  

State Senator Lowe Finney Endorses Padgett For U.S. Senate

By Kleinheider Posted on June 12, 2008 at 2:29 pm

Following up yesterday’s endorsement list which featured Shelby County Commisioner Sidney Chism, the Mike Padgett for Senate campaign is showing a bit of West Tennessee shake and bake action with the endorsement of Jackson’s own State Senator Lowe Finney.

“Mike Padgett has visited 86 of the 95 counties in this state, showing Tennesseans what the people of Knox County already know,” Finney said. “That Mike is a public servant in the truest sense of the word – their concerns will be his mandate in the U.S. Senate.

“Mike has heard the people of rural Tennessee talk about the struggles they face, and he has responded with a sound, innovative roadmap to put prosperity again within their reach.”

For the East Tennessean Padgett to show these kinds of endorsements in West Tennessee is significant. In an a statewide primary with Bob Tuke, if Padgett can turn them out strong in his native East Tennessee and Chism and Finney can get out the African Americans of Memphis and the rural yellow dog whites of West Tennessee respectively, Padgett can concede Tuke’s Middle Tennessee base and still come out golden.

Senator Lowe Finney, a cousin to the McWherter family, was the incumbent slayer of 2006, taking out the party switching Don McCleary which was crucial in assuring that Democrats maintained an even split in the state Senate.

Finney’s campaign manager in that effort was Jed Brewer who currently manages the campaign of Mike Padgett.

Along with this endorsement, the Padgett campaign released its policy paper for rural Tennessee called “TN 2.0: Rebuilding, From the Farm to the Front Porch.”

The plan, populist in nature, contains a request for an $8.40 “living wage” while calling for tax relief and “eliminat[ing] the estate tax for 99.7 percent of estates.”

Padgett also pushes something called the “New Homestead Economic Opportunity Act” would help entrepreneurs starting a business in a rural area in population decline a federal match on money to start a small business.

The plan pushes nuclear power as the campaign did in its energy plan but not as path to energy independence but as an avenue to good paying jobs for rural Tennesseans.

As expected from an economic nationalist like Padgett, the plan explicitly decries our current trade deals calling for their renegotiation and offers the promise of rewards for companies who do not offshore or outsource although specifics seem to be lacking on this point.

Will incentives to outsource just be removed or incentives to stay incountry be instituted? What would those be? The plan doesn’t say.

The plan does say that do to the current rate of displacement in rural area that unemployment benefit period would be extended and that the family farm needs protection.

Padgett would enforce country-of-origin laws that require labels to show where food was raised and he would limit farm subsidies to $300,000 per person to prevent agribusiness from horning it.

A rather ambitious proposal, all in all, for a fiscally conservative electorate.

UPDATE: The Brainstem analysis of “The Plan.”

permalink | 7 Comments

Tags: Big Shelby, Bob Tuke, Grand Divisions, Jackson, Jed Brewer, Lowe Finney, Mike Padgett, Ned Mcwherter, Sidney Chism, West Tennessee  

Bob Tuke’s McWherter Endorsement Implication

By Kleinheider Posted on June 1, 2008 at 2:36 pm

Sean Braisted notes that in the same campaign email where Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Bob Tuke hails his victory in an online poll as an “organizing test”, the campaign also attempts to subtly imply the endorsement of popular Governor Ned Ray McWherter.

Tuke met with Governor McWherter in West Tennessee this week. Tuke and Governor McWherter are old friends, and they talked in detail about how to beat Lamar Alexander in November. Both left the meeting feeling energized about how the Tuke v. Alexander match-up is coming together and they agreed that it’s time to “Take the Hill” on Election Day!

Now as Sean notes, the McWherters, both former Governor Ned and son, Mike, have donated to both Democratic candidates in the race and have issued no public endorsements. However, if one candidate did have a claim to be closer the “McWherter family” as it were, would it be Tuke or opponent Mike Padgett?

Mike Padgett and Gov. McWherter are both Hillary Clinton supporters serving on Clinton’s Tennessee Steering committee. Tuke served, until his announcement for the U.S. Senate, as Barack Obama’s Tennessee Political Director.

Speaking of the that steering committee list, another name would seem to jump out if one were going to play the “endorsement by association” game. Jed Brewer, currently the Padgett for Senate campaign manager, was also intimately involved in Mike McWherter’s abortive campaign for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate this cycle as well as running the incumbent-slaying campaign of state Senator Lowe Finney, a McWherter cousin.

Of course, none of this implies McWherter family endorsement either but it does provide a little context to the Tuke campaign’s attempt to shade a sitdown with an aging former Governor as an endorsement of candidacy.

permalink | Comment on this post

Tags: Barack Obama, Bob Tuke, endorsement, Hillary Clinton, Jed Brewer, Lowe Finney, Mike McWherter, Mike Padgett, Ned Ray McWherter, Tennessee Senate Race