GOP Wins TN 62
Our next door neighbors in Tennessee elected Republican Pat Marsh in a special election today. Pat Marsh got 56% of the vote, defeating Democrat Ty Cobb who got 41%. Constitution Party candidate Chris Brown also ran (as an Independent). All of the candidates are from Shelbyville.
Tennessee’s 62d District covers much of Lincoln County (Fayetteville), all of Bedford County (Shelbyville), and a little bit of south Rutherford County. Marsh won in all three Counties. The District has been represented by a Democrat since forever, and ironically, the special election was called to replace Curt Cobb (Ty’s brother), who resigned the office to work for Bedford County.
The race was a priority for both parties, the mud got slung pretty hard, and I think I read somewhere that the race cost around a total of $200,000 (for a part-time job that pays $20,000). Governor Bredesen (D) campaigned for Cobb; State Senator Jim Tracy (R – Shelbyville) campaigned for Marsh. I was wondering if the Constitution Party candidate would hurt Marsh in the election, but that didn’t happen.
BTW – Democrat Cobb declined invitations to debate his opponents.
The election expands the GOP majority in the Tennessee House to 50 representatives (vs 48 Democrats).
React, Hubbard should learn a lesson from this. There needs to be credible GOPers on the ballot for every single one of these seats in the Shoals next year. The days of letting Roger and them run unopposed should stop. The GOP in Tennessee has won nearly a dozen seats since ‘02 from districts that had never elected GOPers before. Theres no reason the Bama GOP cant do that in the shoals and other democrat areas in the state. Btw you should point out that even though the GOP now has a50-48-1 majority. The democrats still control all the major committees in the Tennessee state house and will continue to do so under the rules thanks to the House Speaker Kent Williams(R). Mr Williams calls himself a carter county republican b/c the state GOP kicked him out in Febuary after the democrat caucus elected him Speaker.
At the least, a GOPer should run against the unopposed Dems to make a name for themselves and then run for election to a lower position. The Dems have been using that tactic for a while now and that’s how they’ve slowly filled ranks.