The End Of West Tennessee Political Dominance

By Kleinheider Posted on December 10, 2008 at 5:31 pm

Frank Cagle talks it out:

The Democrats ignored the pleas of their governor and (until January) their speaker, and elected Odom over Fitzhugh. Given the growing conservative Republicanism of rural West Tennessee, it probably marked the end of West Tennessee dominance of state government. Any Democratic coalition in a Restoration, of course, will need the Black Caucus and they may again be back in power. But it seems that the sun has set on the West—unless they produce another political genius like McWherter.

permalink | Comment on this post

Tags: Add new tag, Craig Fitzhugh, Jimmy Naifeh, Ned Mcwherter  

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