The political dirt is already beginning to fly in the District 17 Tennessee Senate Republican primary between Representative Susan Lynn and A.J. McCall. Liberal bloggers and some media pundits are declaring that Lynn may be in trouble because sitting legislators “just don’t” endorse someone running against their colleague. As we have highlighted in this space in recent days, this supposition is quite correct. Some legislators may indeed be inclined to support McCall, but few would do so under normal circumstances while the legislature is sitting. Multiple sources on the Hill have confirmed to The Examiner that many of Lynn’s legislative colleagues were not entirely certain of her status as a candidate.
“I get the impression that there was a real miscommunication there. I’ve talked to a lot of people since this happened and very few of them were aware or certain of Susan’s place as a candidate, whether she was going to actually run” said Rep. Frank Niceley (R- Strawberry Plains). “We get in trouble when we become involved in primaries where other legislators are involved, because as much as we might talk about ’forgive and forget,’ you do remember it when someone works against you up there.”
Niceley said the same conduct in regards to primaries where fellow legislators are concerned might also be applied to a lesser degree to Tennessee’s 2010 gubernatorial primary. “We all have our favorites, and there is nothing wrong with that. We do have to remember that we will likely have to work with whoever wins the primary whether we are for them or not, so we should be very careful how we do things during a primary like this.”
Would Kent Williams have made a deal to be elected Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives if Republican legislators had not campaigned against in such a public way in his 2008 primary? It is difficult to determine whether Williams complete motive was mere power, or if Williams wanted to deny power to those who he saw as trying to personally malign him. Over-involvement by legislators campaigning against Williams may not have been the ultimate cause of his betrayal, but it certainly didn’t help matters.
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