Daily Dose for July 03, 2008

Ford Trial Starts, Bredesen to Testify Today

Ford Trial Starts, Bredesen to Testify Today -- Former State Sen. John Ford's trial for public corruption begins today. Ford is accused of accepting money from TennCare contractors while representing their interests as a lawmaker. Yesterday, the defense outlined their strategy of attacking OmniCare and Doral Dental executives who made the deal with Ford. Today's action will feature Gov. Phil Bredesen. Gov. Bredesen, who was subpoenaed by the government, has said he was asked by Ford in 2003 to help direct more business to OmniCare, a TennCare provider who was paying Ford.

Alexander Still Far Outpaces Dems -- Sen. Lamar Alexander still far outpaces his potential Democratic primary opponents. Alexander has raised more than $600,000 for the quarter and has over $3M on hand, according to Tom Ingram. That is triple what Bob Tuke raised same time period and outpaces Mike Padgett, who has not yet released his numbers. Nashvillian Kenneth Eaton says he has written a $275,000 - taking away the thunder of the Tuke fundraising release from earlier this week.

Bluff City Looking for Recall -- Seems like Buff City government just can't get it together. Earlier this year, Robert Thomas resigned as Mayor of the City and immediately a group of town residents launched a recall effort aimed at three members of the Bluff City Board of Mayor and Aldermen. Now, another Mayor has resigned and a recall effort has been relaunched, this time targeting four members. it will be at least November before recall questions would go before Bluff City voters. The earlier recall effort made it to the signature phase, but completed petitions were not filed by the deadline for the August ballot.

Posted by Adam Groves | Email This |