Robin Smith

Robin Smith of Hixson said Saturday she will step down as Tennessee Republican Party chairwoman effective May 30 to actively explore running for the 3rd Congressional District’s GOP nomination.

“I’ve been overwhelmed by contact from grass-roots supporters, from elected officials, from major donors asking me to take a strong look at the 3rd Congressional District seat,” Ms. Smith said in an interview.

Ms. Smith, who turned 46 on Saturday, said she expects to spend “at least a month out in the district listening, talking with people, making sure that the issues and the cause that I would stand for, if I ran for Congress, would be that which is truly desired. Then I’ll move forward.”

She said the “appeal” of running is “not necessarily that of personal satisfaction, it’s more about serving the public.”

U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., has already announced he is not seeking re-election to the 11-county district in order to run for governor in 2010.

Earlier Saturday, Ms. Smith notified the state GOP’s 66-member State Executive Committee of her decision in a telephone conference call.

If Ms. Smith gets into the race, as some Republicans expect, she would join Chattanooga attorney Chuck Fleischmann and Bradley County Sheriff Tim Gobble, who already have announced they are running in the GOP primary.

State Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, meanwhile, said Saturday he is “still considering running” for the seat and will make a decision after the end of the current legislative session.

“I certainly have not ruled it out and have been encouraged by people to give it full consideration,” he said.

Ms. Smith said she continues to hold to principles of limited government and spending as well as governmental accountability she considers vital to the country’s future.

“My agenda is not a personal agenda, it’s one for a cause,” Ms. Smith said.

While Democrats now control Congress and the presidency, Smith said “there needs to be a voice that sometimes has the courage to stand up and maybe serve, not just necessarily in stark opposition, but (to) speak candidly about a new opportunity for vision.”

Ms. Smith has been state party chairman since August 2007 and previously served as state vice chairman. Before that, she was chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party. She noted she has worked for many candidates over the years.

In her statement, Ms. Smith said that during her tenure as state chairman, “Tennessee Republicans made history by putting forward a message of freedom and limited government that rejected the national shift toward unchecked liberalism and delivered the first Republican majority in the Legislature since Reconstruction.”

Tennessee Republicans last fall gained majorities in the state House and state Senate for the first time in 140 years. But their 50-49 majority in the House proved too thin in the speakership race when all 49 Democrats supported Republican Kent Williams of Elizabethton, who voted for himself, making him speaker over Republican House leader Jason Mumpower in a 50-49 vote.

After charging that Rep. Williams “surpassed Judas as a poster child of betrayal,” Ms. Smith, at the urging of executive committee members, later booted him out of the state GOP. But the speaker continues to attend Republican Caucus meetings.

During last year’s presidential campaign, the state party generated national attention by attacking then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama. In one instance, the state GOP issued a news release using Mr. Obama’s middle name, Hussein, and featuring him wearing what officials called “Muslim attire.” That drew admonitions from U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who later became the GOP presidential nominee.

About 43 percent of the Republican primary vote is in Hamilton County while about 17 percent is in Bradley County, Republicans said.

Former state Sen. David Fowler, R-Signal Mountain, recently said he thinks Ms. Smith is best positioned to run for Congress, given fundraising skills she has developed and ties she has forged with grass-roots GOP activists in Hamilton County and across the district.

“She would be the odds-on favorite,” Mr. Fowler said.

On the Democratic side, former state Commerce and Insurance Commissioner Paula Flowers of Oak Ridge has announced she is running. Democrat Brent Benedict, a computer systems analyst from Chattanooga who ran against Rep. Wamp in 2006, has said he intends to run.

State Sen. Andy Berke, D-Chattanooga, has said he will not run.

Last week, state Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, said he would not run.

The 11-county district includes Hamilton and Bradley counties along the Georgia border and stretches north through Rhea, part of Roane and into Anderson County and into Claiborne County on the Kentucky border before dropping south to take in Grainger County and part of Jefferson County.