Tennessee: State Assembly races get ‘nasty’

NASHVILLE — The campaign trail through Tennessee’s legislative races is getting increasingly muddy as candidates and party organizations dish dirt on rivals and accuse them of lying, behaving like clowns, coddling drug dealers and violating state ethics or campaign finance laws.

Ed Cromer, who edits The Tennessee Journal, a nonpartisan newsletter, said the harshest attacks come in some of the closest races.

“They’re trying to win, drive their opponents’ negatives up and win that way,” Mr. Cromer said. “It has gotten quite nasty.”

Voters need to ask themselves “are the ads truthful, and, two, are they out of bounds even if they are truthful?” he said.

Much of the fiercest fighting involves the three hottest Senate races in the evenly divided Senate, which spurred the National Conference of State Legislatures last month to cite Tennessee as one of the nation’s top 10 legislative battleground states.

The Senate is split 16 to 16 between Democrats and Republicans with one independent. In the House, Democrats have a 53-46 edge.

Just in time for Halloween, the Tennessee Democratic Party is running a television ad attacking former Roane County Executive Ken Yager, a Republican running against Morgan County Executive Becky Ruppe, a Democrat, in the 12th Senate District, which includes Rhea County.

The ad, which Democrats say is intended to deliver a serious message humorously, spoofs a horror movie trailer. The spot portrays Mr. Yager as a deranged, hockey-mask wearing, chain-saw wielding “job killer” who presided over a 25 percent plummet in manufacturing jobs during his final four years in office.

“The new name in terror,” the ad’s announcer says as a woman shrieks and the chain saw roars. “Ken Yager is the Job Killer.”

The ad states that in addition to the 25 percent loss of manufacturing jobs, “unemployment ran higher than the statewide average” during Mr. Yager’s 24-year tenure.

Yager campaign manager Robert Kuykendall charged that the Democratic attack ad was “false” and “tasteless.”

“It appears instead of discussing the issues, Becky Ruppe and her liberal friends in the Tennessee Democratic Party are playing with numbers to hide her dismal record as Morgan County executive,” Mr. Kuykendall said, accusing Democrats of “trying to cherry pick numbers.”

Senate Democratic Caucus political director Mark Brown noted the ad is “delivering a hard-hitting message with a little bit of humor.”

“Everything we’re doing is documented,” he said.

In the Senate’s District 26 contest, Republican Rep. Delores Gresham’s attacks appear intended to undermine Democrat Randy Camp’s credibility in light of his recent ad charging she had voted in favor of a legislative pay hike and pension increase.

“Delores Gresham is being dishonest when she says she never voted to increase her pension,” Mr. Brown said. Rep. Gresham voted for the pension hike when it initially passed the House, then voted against when it came back up after differences were ironed out with senators, he said.

Rep. Gresham’s campaign manager John Jackson did not return calls.

In the Senate’s 4th District contest, another pivotal race, Republican Mike Faulk’s latest ad accuses incumbent Mike Williams, a one-time Republican turned independent, of making a “sharp left turn” and refusing to rule out voting for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

After an outside Republican group sent a direct mail piece that calls Sen. Williams a clown, the senator struck back, asserting in an ad that “lawyer Mike Faulk represents child molesters and drug dealers and voted against funds to fight the spread of meth.”

In other Tennessee legislative contests, candidate attacks and counterattacks are increasing:

* Tennessee Republican Party spokesman Bill Hobbs charged Friday in a news release that Democrat Cleveland Derrick Bain, a candidate in the open House District 40 seat, is “running for office after he ran from the law,” citing the candidate’s arrest six years ago during spring break in Florida for drinking under age and attempting to disguise himself as a 24-year-old.

The Republican in the race, Republican Terri Lynn Weaver, was recently accused by Democrats in a complaint of accepting $500 more than she should have from a contributor. She returned the money.

* Democrats have launched an ad attack referencing a well publicized incident this year involving underage youth who said they drank alcohol at a party held by Rep. Tom DuBois, R-Columbia, who is fending off a challenge by Democrat Ty Cobb in the House’s District 64 race.

Rep. DuBois has said he didn’t know the youths were at the event. The ad states Rep. DuBois “thought he could get away with it” and noted that one of the youths was involved in a DUI accident.

“Risky for others,” states the ad, noting Rep. DuBois voted for the legislative pension increase. “Great at helping himself.”

* House Minority Leader Jason Mumpower, R-Bristol, won’t say whether a now-defunct political action committee he created is behind a recent direct-mail piece attacking Democrat David Davidson, who is running against Rep. Phillip Johnson, R-Pegram, in the House’s District 78. The mailer cites a DUI arrest of Mr. Davidson.