The national media is growing increasingly fond of West Tennessee's congressional races, and the attention only figures to grow as the Aug. 5 primary elections and Nov. 2 general elections grow near.
There is, of course, the 9th Congressional District race between incumbent Steve Cohen and former Memphis mayor Willie Herenton, with race as a subtext, though whether it will become a real factor remains to be seen. One local poll commissioned by Sheriff and Republican county mayor candidate Mark Luttrell indicated little desire among likely voters to be drawn into a race-based campaign, but the Aug. 5 primary is several months away.
And then there is the 8th Congressional District, the fingers of which reach into Millington and parts of Frayser and Raleigh. It is considered one of only 19 "toss up" districts nationwide, with Republicans hoping to turn the district red after the retirement of "Blue Dog" Democrat John Tanner. Throw in the fact that the National Republican Campaign Committee's chosen candidate is a high-school educated gospel singing farmer named Stephen Fincher, from a place called Frog Jump, and it is like catnip for national publications. It only adds to the intrigue that Fincher is being attacked by Mid-South TEA Party candidate Donn Janes, who is running as an Independent, for relying on farm subsidies and campaign contributions from other subsidy-reliant farmers. Soon enough, the national media should glom onto the fact that the 8th also features two Republican physicians -- Shelby County Commissioner George Flinn and Jackson Clinic chairman Ron Kirkland -- as serious candidates. And Democrat Roy Herron, who may have the strongest religious credentials of anyone in the race, makes for an interesting candidate, as well.
On Monday at the Clifford James/Odell Horton Federal Building, those races collided, with Janes and TEA Party members protesting comments Cohen made on a nationally-syndicated talk show describing the Republican party as hostage to its most extreme right-wing elements and hostile to diversity.
Most observers believe 7th Congressional District representative Marsha Blackburn is safe, but she appears to be facing her strongest Democratic opponent yet in Austin Peay State University college professor Greg Rabidoux.
Last week, The Washington Post looked at the 8th District race with a Frog Jump dateline, and Roll Call focused on the NRCC's efforts to bolster Fincher at the expense of Kirkland.
From The Washington Post:
There is, of course, the 9th Congressional District race between incumbent Steve Cohen and former Memphis mayor Willie Herenton, with race as a subtext, though whether it will become a real factor remains to be seen. One local poll commissioned by Sheriff and Republican county mayor candidate Mark Luttrell indicated little desire among likely voters to be drawn into a race-based campaign, but the Aug. 5 primary is several months away.
And then there is the 8th Congressional District, the fingers of which reach into Millington and parts of Frayser and Raleigh. It is considered one of only 19 "toss up" districts nationwide, with Republicans hoping to turn the district red after the retirement of "Blue Dog" Democrat John Tanner. Throw in the fact that the National Republican Campaign Committee's chosen candidate is a high-school educated gospel singing farmer named Stephen Fincher, from a place called Frog Jump, and it is like catnip for national publications. It only adds to the intrigue that Fincher is being attacked by Mid-South TEA Party candidate Donn Janes, who is running as an Independent, for relying on farm subsidies and campaign contributions from other subsidy-reliant farmers. Soon enough, the national media should glom onto the fact that the 8th also features two Republican physicians -- Shelby County Commissioner George Flinn and Jackson Clinic chairman Ron Kirkland -- as serious candidates. And Democrat Roy Herron, who may have the strongest religious credentials of anyone in the race, makes for an interesting candidate, as well.
On Monday at the Clifford James/Odell Horton Federal Building, those races collided, with Janes and TEA Party members protesting comments Cohen made on a nationally-syndicated talk show describing the Republican party as hostage to its most extreme right-wing elements and hostile to diversity.
Most observers believe 7th Congressional District representative Marsha Blackburn is safe, but she appears to be facing her strongest Democratic opponent yet in Austin Peay State University college professor Greg Rabidoux.
Last week, The Washington Post looked at the 8th District race with a Frog Jump dateline, and Roll Call focused on the NRCC's efforts to bolster Fincher at the expense of Kirkland.
From The Washington Post:
But for one important detail, Stephen Fincher could be a perfect "tea party" candidate: a gospel-singing cotton farmer from this tiny hamlet in western Tennessee, seeking to right the listing ship of Washington with a commitment to lower taxes and smaller government. The detail? Fincher accepts roughly $200,000 in farm subsidies each year.From Roll Call:
Some tea party activists say Fincher, a Republican candidate in Tennessee's 8th Congressional District, isn't "pure" enough to deserve the backing of a movement built on the idea that government must spend less. But others have pledged their support, highlighting a division over what constitutes orthodoxy in the amorphous cause -- and who gets to decide.
As congressional primary campaigns gear up across the nation, tea party activists face some of their first big choices since coalescing last year in opposition to President Obama, health-care reform and growing federal spending: picking candidates. In many cases, they will have to decide between purity and pragmatism, between ideals and organization. And their choices will provide clues to the long-term fate of the movement. Will mainstream Republicans, with their bigger budgets and more polished candidates, harness the tea party's energy at the expense of home-grown activism? And for whom would that be a victory -- the Republicans, the tea party or both?
Fincher's opponents say they are noticing a pattern and that Fincher is letting his supporters in the state party and on Capitol Hill do his political dirty work for him on the campaign trail. "I don't understand why the candidate is not speaking," Kirkland said Thursday. "Congressmen and political kingmakers in Jackson are speaking for him."
But Westmoreland [Georgia congressman Lynn Westmoreland, an NRCC vice-chairman] indicated that Kirkland should worry more about his own words and deeds. "It seems this doctor Kirkland was for the health care plan before he was against the health care plan," he said.
Westmoreland was referring to comments Kirkland made at a July 4, 2009, Tea Party event in Jackson, where Kirkland indicated he was in agreement with "most of what's contained" in the version of the health care bill that was working its way through the Senate Finance Committee at the time, with "the singular exception of the public health care option."
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