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began last Monday and concludes tomorrow (sat) afternoon. The actual primary is next Tuesday.

And to complicate things (at least in Shelby County) we're also having a city and county general election. I cannot tell you the number of times I've been held up in the voting line while a poll worker tries to explain why a person has to choose which state party primary they wish to vote in, and the (usually senior) voter freaks out because he/she wants to vote for one or the other in the general election. The poll worker has to patiently explain that he/she can vote for whomever they want in the city/county races, but they have to choose one or the other in the primary. This is apparently a difficult concept for some to grasp.

You might ask, "Why don't the city and county just align their electorial calendar with the states' and have their primaries and general elections at the same time?" My answer would be, "Who the heck knows."

for each them.  

Thanks.

for the TN race.  Van Hilleary will stand down in 4 days when he's shut down at the polls.  But it's a shame that Bryant and Van Hilleary couldn't have figured this out 6 months ago before they blocked each other and opened the door for Corker.  

This post also reminds me of K. Harris and what a disgrace it is that she didn't back out and make room for another candidate who could win.  The R.S. eds were all over that one, and deserve kudos for seeing where her campaign was headed.

"In the Rasmussen Reports survey of 500 likely voters, conducted July 16, Corker leads Ford 49% to 37%. Representative Van Hilleary leads Ford 44% to 40%, and Representative Ed Bryant leads the Democrat 44% to 41%."

I'd rather have a real conservative who wins by 3 to 4 points than a cheap imitation conservative who wins by 12. The base is fed up with Congressional Republicans because they've failed to deliver on the promises and principles made in the Contract with America and have given up on limiting government. Corker looks to add to this dissatisfaction if he adds his voice to DC.

We'll see how many elections Republicans win when with that "wider slice" once the disillusioned base falls out of the electorate.

You also find a false equivalency between conservative ideological purity and liberal ideological purity. Shame on you. Reminds me of how Anthony Kennedy makes his decisions on the Supreme Court. Instead of examining the facts and determining what the correct course of action is, you two just split the difference and figure that's good enough. That's the type of decision-making that only the weak-minded engage in, and it's absolutely pathetic.

You must understand that the choice here is between Corker and Ford.  There is no way Hilleary could beat Ford and Bryant's campaign does not inspire confidence that he could beat Ford either.  Many of you believe that Tennessee is such a Republican state that someone like Ford would have absolutely no chance of winning a statewide race.  You're wrong.  Ford is very crafty and a very good campaigner, and he is going to roll up huge numbers here in Memphis.  I am confident that we will hold the seat, but there are a whole lot of GOP activists across TN who are very nervous about this race and it has nothing to do with Corker's record as mayor.  The nervousness is caused by Ford's campaign with its unanimous media support and its deep pockets.  

With that in mind, this criticism for a supposed lack of supreme ideological purity is misplaced and unhelpful.  The primary is practically over and it appears Corker is running away with it.  He's winning because he didn't jump into the gutter head first as soon as the race began like Hilleary and Bryant.  

Also, it really makes me nervous when I see well intentioned Republicans acting like Kossites in their demands for ideological purity.  The GOP is successful electorally because it appeals to wider slice of the public than the Dems do.  It is the Democrats who are purifying their party into the wilderness and that is not a pattern we should follow.  If you want all Republican politicians to perfectly follow your ideal formula for conservatism, you are never going to be satisfied because the GOP is first and foremost a pragmatic party not an ideological one.  We would rather win the race and be able to get 75% of what the ideologues want actually moving in the government instead of getting 100% purity from our candidates  and losing the race to the hucksters and demagogues in the Democratic Party.  

Dishonors are even, both of you tone it down a couple of notches, go have a beer or something.

Thanks.

but you might want to ease up on the comment here.

You have no idea how Corker will vote on judges.

Taxes ... okay, he raised them as mayor.

Just seems your laying a little too much juice on the previous poster who does point out fairly that Corker has a big lead on Ford in the polls.

On Corker himself:

So Corker might throw a Haynes to the dogs?  At this point, I want enough real conservatives that we get a conservative SCOTUS nominee through and despite my dislike for McCain and Graham, they have been there with us on SCOTUS.  Do we really think there is any reason to believe that Corker won't be with us on SCOTUS?

Frankly, I'm still worried that we're headed into 50/51/52 status on the elections and will take just about any GOPer who can win an election these days for the US Senate.

So, SCOTUS is all that matters, Oz? You've been voting for GOP senators just so that they could vote the right way on the first two nominations that occurred in the past 11 years!? Well...if all GOP senators believe that that's all that matters, no wonder they've been behaving so badly.

Court of Appeals judges are at least as important as SCOTUS vacancies because they hear EVERYTHING and occur much more frequently. SCOTUS doesn't have time to correct every single error that lower courts make. They only have time to correct the truly heinous mistakes and settle controversies between the circuits. If Court of Appeals nominees weren't so vitally important, Democrats wouldn't be doing everything in their power to keep these steller conservatives off the bench. Democrats have been throwing everything they have, including the kitchen sink at these people and pseudo-magnanimous GOP Senators Graham and McCain have taken up aiding them by conspiring to keep a superbly qualified nominee like Jim Haynes off of the very important 4th Circuit. It is absolutely outrageous!

That these senators had the good sense to vote for John Roberts (which doesn't even distinguish them from half of the Democratic caucus) and Sam Alito doesn't earn them many browny points. You don't have to be a "real" conservative to do that, as you incorrectly suggest.

If we were talking about an even mildly purplish state like Colorado, I might concede Corker. But this is Tennessee we're talking about here. They didn't vote for a Democrat for president when it was their own son!

If Corker gets elected, I hope he proves me wrong, but I hope he does not get that chance. If he does get elected and proves me right and turns out to be another abominable taxcut-and-spend Republican (or worse yet, a tax-and-spend Republican) it's going to take another monumental effort by the Club for Growth to unite behind one of these candidates in 6 years to oust Corker. Bryant and Hilleary could short-circuit that future primary slugout by withdrawing now.

There are other states to worry about losing - Tennessee is not one of them.

It is certainly not too late yet for one to withdraw. I hope that they take a look at the polls and realize that they've run out of time to persuade enough of the electorate to change their votes for either one of them and then decide to not split the vote. I don't care much which of them runs, but according to what I read in Novak's newsletter, I've gleaned that Bryant runs the strongest against Corker and in the general.

This whole situation just makes me sick.

The polling I heard today will not make you feel any better.

It appears Hilleary and Bryant have split the conservative vote - roughly 23% to 23%.

This leaves Corker with about 39%. If one believes in polling data, this is insurmountable - if anywhere near accurate.

Also, Tennesseans can cross-over in primaries. The memo handed down among Democrats is to vote for Corker - since he is deemed the easiest of the three to beat.

Since I voted for Ed Bryant, I sympathize with your post. But I don't look for Hilleary to drop out.

Then 46% beats 39%.

According to Novak, Bryant polls stronger against Corker (and thus presumeably Harold Ford as well). That's the only reason I think Hilleary should drop out. But honestly, I'd be happy if either of them did. They are destroying our chances of getting a rock solid Conservative in the seat, and if they really put the country before their egos, they'd work something out.

We're going to get another Lindsey Graham/Chuck Hagel in Congress now and not be able to evict him for decades. Absolutely disgusting.

Club for Growth aided by some heavyweight social conservatives need to get together and beat one of these guys into submission.

percentages.

I'm simply saying that no one is going to drop out of this race at this point.

Four years ago, Bryant was running against Lamar Alexander for the Senate (Fred Thompson's seat) and Hilleary was running for Governor. Everything was hunky dory between the two then.

The real failing is that one couldn't talk the other out of running BEFORE their respective campaigns got underway this year.

Regarding your reference to Graham and Hagel: Corker would most likely be worse than either of those two.

But, he would still be better than Harold Ford.

Let's hope we will have something to cheer about (meaning a Corker loss) in a couple of weeks.

The GOP seems to have gotten shooting itself in the foot down to an art form.

one of them might want to move to Florida?

And you can send the other one to Hawaii, since it would be neat-o to have SOMEone running.

Then who would replace Frist?

I am a TN voter and have voted early in this race.  I intially backed Bryant as a West Tennessee favorite, but switched my vote at the last minute to Corker.  The reason is how the two more-conservative candidates have behaved themselves recently.  Their attacks on Corker were shallow and nit-picky.  I can accept Corker's assertion that he has honestly changed his view on abortion because of a renewed faith, and I understand that the decisions and roles he played as a mayor are quite different than what he would be asked to do as a Senator.  Ideologically he is probably closer to Lamar Alexander than Bill Frist, yet no one questions Lamar's GOP credentials.  As an active TN Republican I feel confident Corker will be a reliable Republican vote in the Senate on all matters.  

Ed and Van have now each run two ineffective statewide campaigns.  Hilleary is simply incompetent as a high-profile politician.  He has a vacant, dear-in-the-headlights look about him and his positions tend to be reflexive and reactionary instead of thoughtful and pro-active.  Almost any other Republican would have defeated Bredesen in 02 and Hilleary blew it, and frankly he does not deserve to be a Senator.  His House seat has been in Democratic hands since he gave it up in 02, so Van should go home and reclaim his seat.  His ambitions for higher office were misplaced.  

Ed Bryant is an excellent public servant who would make a wonderful conservative Republican senator.  This seat should have been his for the taking and there is still the chance that he could pull it off.  The problem is he is not an effective campaigner.  His media campaign against Corker has been so incessant and harsh that he looks shallow and desperate.  His press secretary has been sending out voluminous amounts of e-mails that are 100 percent negative with no politically redeeming value.  I had to e-mail that press secretary twice to get removed from their list because I was sick and tired of getting 10 e-mails a day telling me how evil Corker is.  The conduct of Bryant's campaign has not been befitting of someone seeking to be a member of the United States Senate.  Period.

Finally, a recent Rasmussen poll shows Corker leading Ford 49% to 37%.  http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2006/State%20Polls/July%202006/tenneseeSena
te.htm

This the largest lead of any of the candidates and Bryant and Hilleary are stuck in the margin of error with our local Memphis Congressman.  The reason is that Corker pulls the highest percentage of Republicans along with Democrats and Independents.  Corker is more moderate but so are the bulk of TN Republicans in East Tennessee where the most GOP votes are.  The other more conservative enclaves of the GOP around suburban/exurban Nashville and East Shelby County (Memphis) are not going to vote for Ford regardless of who the GOP nominee is, but Corker pulls in the independent vote that Ford needs and locks out East Tennessee for the Dems, which is what Hilleary failed to do against Bredesen and the Dems picked up votes in Knoxville and tipped the race.  Corker won't let that happen, and he has run a more optimistic and inclusive campaign.  He deserves our support on Redstate and he has already won mine.  

I'm not a resident of TN but, personally, I like Van Hilleary.  Numbers the way they are, I would hope one gets out to support the other particularly if the campaign's internal polling shows the same things the public polls do.  

Corker winning the primary would not be a good thing - if both Hilleary and Bryant stay in the race, I hope conservatives will make the decision en mass to support just one of the candidates.  

DW (Daryl Waltrip) in his campaign commercials

nt

When your taxes skyrocket to bail out Social Security and Medicare or when the lesser conservative Corker publically vacillates about the nomination of strong conservative judges to the bench like Jim Haynes is suffering from right now at the hands of Lindsey Graham/John McCain in his nomination to the 4th Circuit, or when he joins Voinovich in crying on the Senate floor about the nomination of John Bolton to be UN Ambassador - you can remember and take comfort that at least you voted for the Republican that you thought would win by the largest margin instead of the Conservative who would be the strongest voice for pro-market reforms of the government and other conservative causes.

Candidates who move to the right just to win elections are not to be trusted. They will always gravitate back to their roots - if not further to the left as they "grow" in Washington.

Bryant and Hilleary need to work this out so that one of them gets elected and not Corker. Corker would be a disaster, I'm sure.

In Tennessee, we need to get one of the men who is the real deal elected - not the cheap imitation.

So I guess I meant send Corker. Still a huge improvement down there.

Yes, next week, August 3rd.

The window of opportunity for Hilleary to bow out has come and gone.

Say hello to the next Lindsey Graham/Chuck Hagel/Ted Stevens/John McCain.....

Races like these are where runoffs are so helpful. A RINO/squish might take the largest vote overall, but fail to get a majority, with the rest of the field split between several conservatives.

Take South Carolina's 2004 Senate Primary, for example. RedState-endorsed Jim DeMint never would have made it out of the primary were it not for the runoff system. The anti-free market protectionist and one-term governor David Beasley got a plurality but not a majority in the first primary, with Jim DeMint placing second. Thomas Ravenel had also run a conservative campaign and took a large chunk of the conservative vote. Afterwards, once Ravenel graciously endorsed DeMint, DeMint easily consolidated the conservative vote and cruised past Beasley in the runoff.

Bryant (or even Hilleary) would easily crush Corker in a runoff.