Home | Entries [Previous |Next]
0 Comments
Daily Dose for August 23, 2006
Daily Dose
Bredesen Goes to Mayo -- Governor Bredesen is still in bad health, according to reports - and will check himself in the Mayo Clinic today. According to a source TNPoliticsBlog talked to earlier this week, Bredesen has lost significant weight in the past two months and appears to have a more serious illness than the flu-like symptons caused by a tick bite, but more information about the Governor's health has not been disclosed for fear it will threaten his on-going campaign for reelection. The Governor's staff maintained Bredesen was on the road to recovery. Dept. Govenor Dave Cooley told the AP that he has been talking to the Govenor on a daily basis about state issues, but that state government was slow this time of year. Under the state constitution, there is no provision to deal with the transfer of power in the event of the incapacitation of the Governor.
TN Senate Race Most Expensive TV Buys in Country -- Campaign Media Analysis Group has concluded that the $5M spent by GOP primary contestants and the $1M spent by Democratic challenger Harold Ford, Jr. so far in the race for the US Senate make it the most expensive race in the United States. The group says that political and issue advocacy television advertising is on pace to shatter the mid-term election spending record set in 2002 and could possibly surpass the record set in 2004. Based on the current pace of advertising, and the overall political landscape, CMAG forecasts an additional $400 million in federal election TV advertising before Election Day 2006.
Gov May Have Acted Unconstitutionally in Rejecting SC Nominees -- Gary Brewer, a trial lawyer from Morristown and Barry Ward, two members of the state's judicial panel that selects potential Supreme Court nominees, says the Governor may have violated the Constitution by rejected a slate of supplied candidates based solely on race. Randy Nichols and Michel Bottoms, two other members, defended the Governor. However, the group will allow two candidates - J. Houston Gordon of Covington and George T. “Buck” Lewis of Memphis - to reapply for the job, notwithstanding an Attorney General's ruling that the two candidates could not be reeligible after being rejected, even if the Governor's reason was because there were no black candidates. The replacement candidate will fill Nashvillian Adolpho A. Birch Jr.'s seat. Birch is currently the only black justice on the five-member state Supreme Court.
Haslam Named to Kennedy Center Board -- President Bush has named James Haslam, founder of Pilot Oil Company, to the Kennedy Center's board of trustees, the White House said Tuesday. The Kennedy Center is Washington DC's premier entertainment venue. Haslam would be named for a six-year term starting Sept. 2.
Chattanooga Recyclers Need Lower Petition Number -- An effort to keep Chattanooga's curb-side recycling program will need fewer names on a petition to actually get on the ballot in the Scenic City. Jerry Summers, attorney for the election office, told the group they will only need to get 6,372 signatures to be on the ballot. That number is 25% of those who voted in the last mayors race, rather than the number previously considered valid, which comes from state ballot initiative requirements.
Becton Fired in Memphis -- Recent political candidate Sondra Becton was fired Tuesday from her government job as a benefits specialist in Shelby County's finance department. Becton was accused of using her position to obtain and distribute confidential information about an employee of her opponent, Chris Thomas, in the Aug. 3 election for Probate Court Clerk. Becton lost to the incumbent Thomas, her former boss, by just 604 votes. According to a report by Deputy County Atty. Danny Presley, Becton admitted to retrieving from her county computer an "employee profile" payroll document about Probate Court clerk's office administrator Annita Hamilton.
