Tom Leatherwood: Nobody’s Puppet

By Kleinheider Posted on April 23, 2008 at 11:03 am

Republican candidate for Congress in the 7th District Tom Leatherwood writes in to put to bed any rumors or speculation that his campaign is about dirtying up Marsha Blackburn for a future run for Governor at the behest of another candidate:

I read with interest and amusement the speculation by Mr. Turnbow that I launched my campaign for Congress to advance some future candidate’s campaign for governor. Let me assure you that’s not the case.

As you may remember, my first campaign was in the 1992 Republican primary against the “unbeatable” TN State Sen. Leonard Dunavant. No one gave me much of a chance, but I decided to enter the race because Sen. Dunavant was a leading proponent of a state income tax. I felt he was wrong on the issue and that Republicans should hold their own accountable. I made my case to the party faithful and won.

Today I am concerned that Republicans in Washington have lost their way. Judging from Republican losses in the 2006 Congressional elections, most Americans agree. Our 7th District Representative has become part of Washington’s me-first culture. Her recent announcement of “accounting errors” is just the latest example. It’s bad enough to collect money from special interests to pay your family members, but losing track of hundreds of thousands of dollars due to “accounting errors” is inexcusable.

This year, as in 1992, I believe Republicans must hold their own accountable, and that’s the sole reason I’m running.

Regards,
Tom Leatherwood

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Tags: Bill Frist, Bill Haslam, Marsha Blackburn, Mike Ragsdale, Tennessee Republican Civil War, Tom Leatherwood  

The First Major Political Operation In The 2010 GOP Gubernatorial Primary?

By Kleinheider Posted on April 21, 2008 at 12:51 pm

Is Tom Leatherwood’s challenge of Marsha Blackburn not really a challenge to her incumbency but instead an attempt by someone to dirty her up so she eschews a run for Governor in 2010? Mr. Turnbow sure thinks so:

I’ve been around politics long enough to recognize when something doesn’t pass the smell test and this Tom Leatherwood challenge doesn’t come close to doing that in my opinion. I think someone like a certain ex US Senator or a certain Mayor or Congressman from over in the east state is behind this Leatherwood challenge of Marsha.

Their motives are simple, since everyone knows Marsha is looking at the Governors race they went out and found a well known politician in a county that any Republican has to win in the primary if they want to win the nomination for a statewide office. Their best hope would be that he defeats Marsha but the more realistic hope would be to try to force Marsha to lash out sometime this summer against the well known Shelby County GOPer Leatherwood and hope it turns off a sizable number of GOPers in the vote rich Shelby County area. To the point where they will refuse to support her for Governor in two years in the GOP primary.

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Tags: Bill Frist, Governors Race, Marsha Blackburn, Mike Ragsdale, Tom Leatherwood