Hilleary defeats Henry in fight for GOP nomination
NASHVILLE — Van Hilleary defeated Jim Henry Thursday in a hard-fought battle for the Republican nomination for governor and the chance to face Democrat Phil Bredesen in the Nov. 5 general election.
With 74 percent of precincts reporting, Hilleary had 64 percent of the vote, or 268,448, to Henry’s 31 percent, or 128,424 votes.
Hilleary, a four-term congressman from Spring City, gave up his 4th District seat in hopes of succeeding Republican Gov. Don Sundquist.
‘Tonight, the people of Tennessee said they’re ready for a fresh start,’ Hilleary told supporters gathered in the ballroom of a Nashville hotel. ‘From Mountain City to Memphis, they delivered a mandate.’
Henry, a former state GOP chairman absent from politics for more than a decade, gave Hilleary a tough challenge, particularly in the final weeks of the primary. But Hilleary’s lead — and his anti-income tax rhetoric — was too much to overcome.
Hilleary said Democrats and independents would unite with Republicans to elect him and ‘put the income tax behind us.’
‘On my watch, Tennessee will not have an income tax. Now that is a pledge Phil Bredesen will not make. He cannot make it, because he does not believe it,’ he said.
Bredesen, who won his party’s nomination in 1994 but lost in the general election to Sundquist, opposes an income tax but not as fervently as Hilleary. Bredesen says he could manage the state with its current resources.
Hilleary said Bredesen’s record is to claim opposition to taxes during a campaign but raise them while in office.
When Bredesen was Nashville mayor he raised taxes to help build new schools, a library and stadiums for professional football and hockey teams.
Hilleary supporter Chris Schwear said he expects voters to see through the hype over Bredesen bringing the Tennessee Titans and Nashville Predators to town.
‘They’re fun to go to, but we’re paying for it. My property tax has doubled in the past year and I blame Bredesen,’ Schwear said.
But some Republican voters said they may vote for Bredesen in the fall.
‘A lot of Republicans think Bredesen is one of us because of his economic ideas and his philosophy,’ said Julian Wells after he voted at Brentwood Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Rather than spend the night partying, Hilleary decided to campaign — starting at a Dickson Waffle House and ending up in Dyersburg at 7:30 a.m. at the Hewish Detergent factory. He said it was the first of several ‘Round the Clock Campaign Tours.’
‘We’re going to talk to every Tennessee family who’s tired of being lied to and tired of paying taxes that are too high,’ he said.
Knoxville minister Bob Tripp, who said his candidacy was ‘a spiritual calling,’ actively campaigned across the state for the GOP nomination, but finished a distant third behind Henry.
Henry called Hilleary to congratulate him and promise his help. Republicans plan a unity meeting on Saturday in hopes of bringing the party back together after the bitter primary that had Sundquist saying the congressman would make a ‘horrible governor.’
‘Let’s leave here with our heads high. It was a noble venture,’ Henry told supporters in Knoxville.
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Hilleary centered his campaign on Sundquist, a two-term Republican who lost party and public support after he reneged on a 1998 re-election promise to oppose an income tax. Under term limits, Sundquist couldn’t run for a third consecutive term.
Hilleary said a vote for Henry was like electing Sundquist to a third term. He aired TV ads saying that Henry helped former Gov. Ned McWherter, a Democrat, lobby for an income tax to fund his education reforms in the early 1990s.
Henry, 57, said he was opposed to an income tax but supported a constitutional convention to allow voters to decide how to change the state’s tax system.
Bredesen, 58, a former Nashville mayor who made millions as a health care executive says better management will help Tennessee repair the its health care program for the poor, TennCare, and its finances.
Hilleary, 43, rode a Republican wave to Congress in 1994. There he established himself as a conservative leader on national defense and reducing the size of government.
He served two volunteer tours of duty in the Gulf War as a C-130 navigator and was part of a crew that rescued three marines from a burning oil field. He remains in the Air Force Reserve as a major.
Henry, a Navy veteran, was 28 years old when he was elected in 1973 as mayor of Kingston, a small town near Knoxville. Five years later was elected to the state House. He later went on to become House Republican leader and state GOP chairman from 1984-1988.
He lost re-election in 1990 and worked as an industry recruiter before going to work for and then buying OmniVisions, a child placement agency for the mentally handicapped. The company employs 650 people in Tennessee and North Carolina.
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On the Net:
Jim Henry: www.jimhenryforgovernor.com
Van Hilleary: www.vanhilleary.com