State Democrats feel frustration as vice president loses Tennessee

By John Commins Nashville Bureau

NASHVILLE -- News that Tennessee fell to Texas Republican Gov. George W. Bush was met with a low groan at the bar of the Sheraton Hotel across the street from Legislative Plaza, where partisans for Vice President Al Gore huddled around television sets to await returns.

In 24 years of public service, it was the first election Al Gore ever lost in Tennessee. He has served the state as a member of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

"I'm not surprised,'' said Pat O'Rourke, a Nashville attorney and Gore supporter. "I pretty much hear people talking, and I know the pulse of my state. The idiots."

Six blocks away, at the Wildhorse Saloon in downtown Nashville, the mood was buoyant with the news that Tennessee's 11 electoral votes were in GOP hands.

"This was a big win,'' said Chip Saltsman, chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party. "We had a great grassroots organization. We had a great ground game in this state, and we've always said Tennessee knows Al Gore best.''

David Kustoff, director of the Bush 2000 campaign in Tennessee, said voters in the Volunteer State simply identified better with Gov. Bush.

"We said all along that the voters were more enthusiastic for Gov. Bush than the Al Gore voters were," he said. "That was reflected in the polling and the size of the rallies and the intensity of the rallies and the fact that we could keep up with the demand for bumper stickers and yard signs.''

Mr. Kustoff blasted CNN's apparent premature call that Vice President Gore had won Florida's 25 electoral votes.

"To put those folks from Florida in the Gore column and to try to take the wind out of our sails and try to affect those other states, that was uncalled for,'' he said.

On the Legislative Plaza, the mood was upbeat, despite the poll figures. Thousands of Gore supporters flocked to await the vice president and running mate U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. When word that Tennessee was in Republican hands filtered out into the streets, some Gore partisans met it with a shrug.

"Remember, in 1844 James K. Polk didn't win Tennessee and he still won the White House," a man with a top hat and frock coat and carrying a James K. Polk poster told a group of Russian journalists. "History will repeat itself."

Greg Wanderman, executive director of the Tennessee Democratic Party, rejected Republican suggestions that Vice President Gore was too liberal and out of step with Tennessee voters.

"What we're seeing is evidence of Al Gore not having run for an office in the state of Tennessee since 1990,'' Mr. Wanderman said. "I don't think this reflects in any way that Al Gore was off the pulse of Tennesseans.

"We knew Tennessee was going to be a battleground state,'' he said. "My guess is the Republicans had a much larger early voting effort than we did, and that may have been the deciding factor.''

U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said his own re-election victory resulted in his becoming the top vote-getter in Tennessee history.

"It basically shows Tennessee is Republican Country," Sen. Frist said. "That's basically reinforced by Mr. Gore losing.''

(Staff writer Andy Sher contributed to this story.)