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Daily Dose for July 19, 2006
Daily Dose
Corker Releases Poll / Attack Ads -- US Senate candidate Bob Corker released the results of an internal poll that he released to supporters last week that shows him with a commanding lead in the race to replace Bill Frist. The poll showed Bob Corker with 46% of the vote, Ed Bryant 24% and Van Hilleary 17%. The poll of 600 likely Republican primary voters was conducted by Glen Bolger of Public Opinion Strategies on July 10-11, 13. The margin of error is ±4.0%. Corker also released his first negative TV ad. The ad accuses both Ed Bryant and Van Hilleary of voting for Congressional pay raises, although the Corker camp refused to provide specifics in documentation, while both the Hilleary and Bryant campaigns denied either voted for Congressional pay increases. Release of the ads generated immediate speculation that Corker's poll numbers were more vulnerable than the POS poll showed. According to one source, the ads are running in the Knoxville and Nashville markets - which may be two areas where Corker may be hotly contested by Ed Bryant. Corker is the subject of a human interest story in today's Tennessean.
No More Radio Listening at Polling Spots -- A brief blurb in the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports that a radio was playing inside an early voting polling location in Knoxville when an ad for US Senate candidate Bob Corker came on the air, obstensively violating the prohibition on campaign material in the polling location. Election officials have since ordered no radios to play inside polling locations.
PACs Established to Funnel Money to Clement Campaign -- The race for Mayor of Nashville is still a year away, but allegations are already starting to fly that frontrunner Bob Clement helped set up several PACs to accept donations from wealthy Nashville business people to circumvent the maximum personal contribution limit of $1,000. According to today's City Paper, several PACs with "Education" in their title were set up by Larry Woods’s law firm, a Clement confidant. One major contributor to one of the PACs — retiree Neil Parrish — told The City Paper he donated $5,000 to the “Education Equals Success PAC” in order to work around a limit donors face when giving funds straight to individual candidates. Of the $5,000 that Parrish gave “Education Equals Success” on May 31, for example, $2000 was given to Clement, $50 to Davidson County Trustee Charlie Cardwell and the rest had remained unspent as of June 30. Parrish, asked if he was asked to donate to the PAC for general education campaigning or for Bob Clement, replied Tuesday, “If it could help Bob Clement, I wanted to do it, and that’s the reason I did it.” Asked why he did not give directly to the Clement campaign, Parrish said, “Because you have limits on that.” Individuals may donate $1,000 to a campaign, but PACs can donate up to $5,000. State Registry of Election Finance man Drew Rawlins wouldn't speculate on the donations, but said if the PACs were established to circumvent the individual contribution limit, they would be operating illegally.
Harper Staffer Fired, Then Rehired -- A staffer for State Sen. Thema Harper who was fired for viewing offensive material on a state computer was rehired by the state to a higher paying job four months later, according to the Nashville City Paper. Tevin L. Thompson, then Harper’s executive secretary was let go in March and then rehired by the Tennessee Regulatory Authority (TRA) on July 14. The TBI determined that the offensive material on the state computer was not criminal and Sen. Harper gave Thompson a positive reference.
