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Alexander Holds Upper Hand in ’08 [TN] Senate Race as Dems Look for Volunteer
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Race
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem May 29, 2007 07:57pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Saturday, May 26, 2007 01:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By Ryan Kelly | 3:45 PM; May. 25, 2007 | Email This Article
There was some uncertainty heading into the 2008 Senate campaign cycle about whether Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander would seek a second term: The former two-term governor, University of Tennessee president, Education secretary and two-time aspirant for the Republican presidential nomination was 62 years old when he won his Senate seat in the 2002 contest.
So Republican strategists were relieved in April when Alexander announced that he will run again next year — and that he had raised more than $700,000 in the first three months of 2007, ending the year’s first quarter with $816,000 in cash on hand in his campaign account.
The fact that open seats are more difficult to hold than those in which an incumbent is defending is only one reason why GOP officials were anxious for Alexander to run. After years of Republican gains in the Southern state of Tennessee, Democrats have been showing more fight of late, with Democrat Phil Bredesen winning two terms as governor and Republican Bob Corker having to fight with all his might to fend off Democrat Harold Ford Jr. by 3 percentage points in the 2006 open-seat Senate race.
Alexander enters the campaign season in a relatively good position to retain his seat. Tennessee has voted Republican in five out of the past seven presidential elections — even denying native son Democrat Al Gore the state’s electoral votes in his 2000 contest with George W. Bush — and hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1990. |
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