Jackson Baker alerts us to the NashvillePost.Com report (sorry, kids, subscribers only, so I'm not linking it) that Senator John Shelton Wilder (D-Mason), formerly the longest serving Lt. Governor in US history, plans to retire this week.
If this is true, we are in deep, deep, doo-doo, as Rep. Delores Gresham (R-Somerville) will be favored to win in November; she has already announced her candidacy for the District 27 seat.
This will solidify the GOP lock on the State Senate, as word from the East is that Independent Mike William of Maynardville is also looking at retirement. The combination of these events would turn a 16-16-1 Senate to an 18-15 GOP Senate, blocking ANYTHING progressive from getting through the legislature.
4 comments:
Someone needs to recruit Rep. Randy Rinks to run. He already represents two of the more Republican counties in District 27 (Hardin and McNairy) and routinely wins easily.
We knew he was going back to his cotton gin already, he even said so when he lost the speakership. (Or at least, he signaled it to anyone who was listening.)
I suppose that's also why I never really blamed Rosalind Kurita for her vote for Ron Ramsey. What was formerly known as the Democratic majority in the Tennessee Senate is frankly not based on electoral success.
Wilder is really old, and this was inevitable one way or another. He gets to leave on his own terms, and the TDP owes it to him to give him a really, really good send-off when he does. But it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that he is going to leave.
But if John Wilder is the linchpin of a majority in the Senate, then the state party needs to get its ass in gear and win some fucking elections. Kurita had all of this figured out from the beginning, and she took the time to come to Memphis and tell us personally, if you'll recall, Steve.
I don't see this happening. Everyone I talk to in the Senate say that he's still running for re-election.
This Nashville Post article doesn't even feature any quotes.
Steve isnt Wilder the one that saved Mark Norris from the redistricting chopping block in '02? I have never understood why a lot of you dems in Memphis want him to stay in office. He protects the GOP every chance he gets and he hangs out with religious leaders in the Jackson area that most of you guys would find highly offensive. I agree with Will. This man will stay there until the voters toss him out or the good lord above calls him home. Oh and Dwayne....you have a point. But from what I hear he has no desire to do that. He did drop his name out a few weeks ago to run against Riley Darnell for Secretary of State in November. That surprised me though because from what I hear he loves his real estate business in savannah and the senate or the sos job would require him to spend more time in Nashville than he already does.
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