Year two of race for governor begins

As of today, the race for the open Tennessee governor's seat will have reached the one-year mark, and candidates have seven months remaining to scramble for position in the primaries.

"It's still very much a matter of attention that the press may pay to the candidates; then, of course, obviously, fundraising and building of organizations," said John Geer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University. "We obviously have a long way to go."

Dr. Geer said the general public hasn't "really tuned in to the race very much" since the contest kicked off Jan. 4, 2009, when former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., announced he was not running.

That opened the doors for most of the current Republican field -- U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn.; Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam; and Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons -- to jump into the race. Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, and candidate Joe Kirkpatrick entered the GOP contest shortly thereafter.

Most of the candidates in the Democratic field -- former state Rep. Kim McMillan, of Clarksville; Mike McWherter, son of former governor Ned McWherter; Nashville businessman Ward Cammack and state Sen. Roy Herron, of Dresden -- entered the race in early spring. State Sen. Jim Kyle, of Memphis, joined the race in August.

ELECTION DATES* April 1: Last day to file petitions to run for state offices* Aug. 5: State primary election* Nov. 2: State general election

Since then, two Democrats -- Sen. Herron and Mr. Cammack -- have dropped out.

Even so, Dr. Geer said it probably won't be too easy for someone new to jump into the gubernatorial campaign in either primary scramble unless it's a big name such as Dr. Frist or former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn.

The two biggest goals for the runners are fundraising and name recognition, he said. Candidates already have touted hundreds of thousands of dollars raised.

As of the reporting period that ended June 30, Mr. Haslam had raised about $3.6 million, nearly three times as much as any of his GOP competitors. On the Democratic side, Mr. McWherter led the fundraising with about $650,000.

The next reporting deadline is Feb. 1.

Name recognition, however, has been a little harder to quantify.

No recent polls have measured how well voters know the candidates. A July poll from the Southern Political Report found that half of respondents didn't know whom they would vote for in either the Republican or the Democratic primaries.

Brad Coker, managing director at Mason-Dixon Polling and Research, said that's OK for right now, since most people's attention is focused on Washington, D.C., rather than Nashville.

"The most important thing a candidate can do from the two-year to one-year mark is raise money," he said.

Mr. Coker said most of the money raised is likely being funneled into the primary rather than the general election, especially on the Republican side.

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