Laying Tennessee’s Democratic Losses At Obama’s Feet

By Kleinheider Posted on December 11, 2008 at 12:26 pm

Sean Braisted thinks certain insiders may be too quick to do so:

The overall theme of the missive though, is not so much about Chip, but a defense of the campaign strategies leading into election day. After all, even those candidates who lost did a lot better than Barack Obama. Which, I guess could be true, the problem I have with this line of thinking is that historically, there have been plenty of Democratic Presidential candidates who did far worse than Barack Obama, but we still managed to win or hold the House and Senate. In 1972, McGovern got beat 67-29 by Nixon in Tennesse, and yet, we still maintained control of the House and Senate.

Now, I’m sure the situation wasn’t entirely comparable, but surveying other states, like Kentucky which gained a Democratic seat despite Obama being trounced, it just seems like its too easy to lay the blame on Barack Obama’s feet, and I think I and others are concerned that if no lessons are learned from this past election cycle, we are doomed to repeat history in 2010.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Charles Robert Bone, Chip Forrester, Tennessee legislature  

What Y’all Really Want?

By Kleinheider Posted on August 10, 2008 at 7:14 pm

Kay Brooks and Ben Cunningham report that the webmasters of the Tennessee legislature’s website would like your help in better serving the public.

Tell Santas Naifeh and Ramsey what you want by Christmas here.

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Tags: Tennessee legislature, website  

Putting Pen To Paper On Odom’s Designs

By Kleinheider Posted on April 18, 2008 at 2:38 pm

Although you hear rumblings of such things from time to time, this is the first time I’ve seen anyone write it down. From the Tennessee Journal:

It has long been speculated that if the Democrats maintain control of the House in November, [Rep. Gary] Odom will challenge Naifeh for the speaker’s position. But distribution of the newspaper article, which Odom jokingly described as Frist’s “first mail piece,” likely had nothing directly to do with any such aspirations.

Whether he has designs on the speaker’s job or not, Odom clearly wants to play a lead role in defending his party’s majority. He will be somewhat less free to get out to other districts than he had hoped because he faces a challenge of his own. Republican Timothy Lee, a paramedic paramedic, stands little chance against Odom but will force him to campaign some in his own district.

Naifeh too has an opponent, Covington Republican Rory Bricco, but is expected to win reelection handily.

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Tags: Bill Frist, Gary Odom, Jimmy Naifeh, Rory Bricco, Speaker, Tennessee legislature, Timothy Lee