Alexander, Clement to battle for Senate seat
NASHVILLE — Former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander easily won the Republican nomination for Senate on Thursday, brushing aside his opponent’s campaign claims that the two-time presidential hopeful was past his political prime.
Alexander will face eight-term Rep. Bob Clement, who coasted to the Democratic nomination in the closely watched race to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Fred Thompson.
With 87 percent of precincts reporting, Alexander had 257,083 votes or 53 percent, and conservative Rep. Ed Bryant had 212,369 votes or 44 percent. Five other candidates split the rest.
‘Thank you for a chance to carry our banner as we support our president, as we support our country, as we support our values,’ Alexander told supporters.
Bryant told a tearful crowd of supporters that Republicans needed to come together. He said he would hit the campaign trail on behalf of his former rival.
‘I told Lamar I’d be happy to help him any way I could, because we need to keep this seat,’ Bryant said.
Tennessee voters also chose candidates for governor and three open House seats.
In the governor’s race, Rep. Van Hilleary beat former state lawmaker Jim Henry for the GOP nomination.
Hilleary will face Democrat Phil Bredesen, a former Nashville mayor who was given a second chance to win the job. Bredesen lost in 1994 to GOP Gov. Don Sundquist, who is barred from seeking a third term this fall.
Hilleary had 271,810 votes, or 64 percent, while Henry had 129,328 votes, or 30 percent.
Thompson’s decision to retire after only one full term has complicated GOP efforts to overturn the Democrats’ one-seat majority in the Senate. It also set the stage for the biggest political turnover in Tennessee since 1994 and gave Democrats a chance to recoup losses from that year’s GOP landslide.
White House political chief Karl Rove had urged Bryant not to run against the better-known Alexander for the sake of party unity. But the four-term congressman who was a House manager during President Clinton’s impeachment refused to clear the way for Alexander, a former U.S. education secretary and governor many remember for walking 1,000 miles in 1978 to court voters in a distinctive plaid shirt.
Bryant, 53, instead launched a vigorous campaign in which he called Alexander, 62, too liberal and a political has-been. Alexander called Bryant an ineffective lawmaker and the party’s worst hope of attracting moderate voters in the general election.
Clement, 58, had little opposition in his primary and banked more than $1 million, while Alexander and Bryant spent most of their campaign funds fighting each other.
Clement said he was ready for the fight and wasn’t bothered by Alexander’s name recognition. He suggested that his opponent was better-known for his presidential runs.
‘He hasn’t been active in Tennessee in over 20 years,’ he said. ‘Maybe the people in Iowa and New Hampshire know more about him than the people of Tennessee.’
Like Bryant, Hilleary cast himself as the more conservative candidate in the governor’s race. In Congress, he fought for a smaller government, school choice and a strong national defense.
Hilleary, 43, spent an enormous amount of time and energy on the campaign trail trying to link Henry to Sundquist, who was criticized after failing to oppose an income tax.
Bredesen won the Democratic nomination for governor in 1994 but the New York native lost to Sundquist amid criticism that he was a millionaire outsider trying to buy the race. Bredesen, who has lived nearly 30 years in Tennessee, this time relied on contributors to raise more than $5 million.
Bredesen told cheering supporters at a Nashville hotel that Tennessee needs better management to repair its finances and health care system.
‘These are complicated challenges for a governor,’ he said. ‘Washington politics can’t do it. Gimmicks can’t do it.’
Among the crowded races for the three open House contests, state Sen. Marsha Blackburn won the GOP nod in Bryant’s solidly Republican 7th District. If she wins this fall, Blackburn would become the first woman sent to Congress from Tennessee who did not succeed a husband who died in office or while campaigning.
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Tennessee Secretary of State: http://www.state.tn.us/sos/index.htm