Daily Dose for July 18, 2007

Alexander with $1M

Alexander with $1M -- Senator Lamar Alexander seems to be safely on the way to reelection. He has raised slightly over $1 million, chiefly through a Nashville fundraiser where he picked up $538,000. Alexander: "Fundraising is going well ... We're right on schedule. We have more events scheduled in the latter half of the year, and we haven't begun any out-of-state fundraising yet." Alexander has yet to field a serious Democratic challenger.

Whitaker, Kisber Lead in State Trips -- Tourism Commissioner Susan Whitaker leads the way with the most tax-payer funded trips. Whitaker is in charge of convincing folks to visit Tennessee, but took trips to London, England to participate in a BBC documentary about Elvis. Whitaker's total trip cost is $7,313. Matt Kisber, Commissioner of Economic and Community Development fell in second place with $6,726 in reimbursed travel expenses, including trips to Australia and China.

Nashville Council Race Highlights Residency Law Problems -- If you're running for office, how do you really tell where someone lives? Billy Joe Walls, Buddy Baker and Lillian Pharris all say that fellow Metro District 20 candidate Brenda Inglis lives at an address in Pegram, in Cheatham County. But records show two different addresses for Inglis, a Nashville addresss, the address she used to qualify to run and the Pegram address. According to state law, residency is defined as "a place in which the person's habitation is fixed, and to which, whenever the person is absent, the person has a definite intention to return." But local Election Commissions are not charged with verifying residency.

Richardson Wins in District 89 -- Democratic candidate Jeanne Richardson won a special election yesterday in Memphis for former State Rep. Beverly Marrero's seat which was vacated when Marrero moved up to the State Senate. A mere 814 people voted in the race, with Richardson capturing 558 of those votes.

Posted by Adam Groves | Email This |