Bryson sets focus on unseating Bredesen
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Republican challenger Jim Bryson, meanwhile, was kicking off a 30-day bus tour in Williamson County aimed at reaching “all the Tennesseans whom Phil Bredesen has ignored.”
“I hope he can’t find any of those,” Bredesen told The Associated Press. “I’ve tried real hard to be out there for everybody.”
The results were never in doubt in the primaries for Bredesen, who collected nearly 90 percent of the vote, and Bryson, a state senator from Franklin who finished with 50 percent of the GOP ballots.
Now a new campaign begins to the November general election. “Today is really the first of 95 days,” Bredesen said. “I am looking forward to getting out and campaigning.”
About 50 supporters greeted the incumbent in a parking lot outside Litton’s restaurant. In shirt sleeves and yellow tie, Bredesen went from one to another shaking hands. “Four more years,” some said. “Best governor ever,” said others. “We appreciate you,” said one man. “Nice job.”
“Using a commonsense approach, he has made great strides the last four years and that’s why we need him for four more years,” former Knox County Executive Tommy Schumpert told the crowd.
Bredesen won the 2002 race by 3 percentage points, but started the 2006 campaign with a huge advantage in fundraising and name recognition. Running for re-election, he said, is “in part a referendum on what you have done in your first term and in part what you want to accomplish.”
He said he had to deal with “some difficult financial situations” particularly involving TennCare, Tennessee’s expanded Medicaid program. “But I can report to you we are in just so much better shape today. We have now had four balanced budgets and we have run surpluses for four years.”
But Bryson, whose bus tour to all 95 counties took him to Chattanooga on Saturday for a joint appearance with Senate GOP nominee Bob Corker, attacked Bredesen’s record in a victory speech Thursday.
Noting that 170,000 adults were cut last year from TennCare to control costs, Bryson said he will appeal to “all the people who care as much about our moral compass as our bond rating.”
“My grandmother told me when I was growing up that the way you handle your money is that you didn’t spend more than you took in and you put some aside for a rainy day,” Bredesen said Friday. “And that is what we did and I am proud of that.”
Bryson described Bredesen as “a governor who thinks small and tinkers around the edges.”
“That is kind of amusing,” Bredesen responded, “because when I get criticized, I would say 98 percent of the time, it is for thinking big and not paying attention to details.”
Bredesen said he wants to concentrate on expanding pre-kindergarten programs, increasing high school and college graduation rates, refining the Cover Tennessee health care plan and economic development.
Prompting a cheer from the crowd, he said he would do that, “if I am fortunate to be re-elected and I expect to be.”