Sherrell faces 'very steep climb' in 4th District challenge to DesJarlais

photo Lenda Sherrell and Scott DesJarlais

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - In a ramshackle campaign headquarters just off the town square here, Democrat Lenda Sherrell last week was firing up the troops in her bid to unseat the most controversial congressman in modern Tennessee history.

"We are ready," the 67-year-old retired accountant and grandmother declared to the 40 or so mostly youthful volunteers just before early voting began in the Nov. 4 election.

"You are here in Murfreesboro, but you're not alone. Your counterparts are in all 16 counties across this district. This is how we're going to win."

Easily said, and Sherrell does enjoy a nearly 2-to-1 advantage in cash on hand.

But she remains the decided underdog against Republican U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais in the state's 4th Congressional District.

"I haven't seen a shred of data in the district that would indicate she has a chance," said David Wasserman, U.S. House editor for the Washington-based, nonpartisan The Cook Political Report. "People get wrapped up in who raises more money. We know that Scott DesJarlais isn't attracting a lot of donors this cycle and yet he still was able to win the [GOP] primary" against state Sen. Jim Tracy.

That was despite the well-documented controversies surrounding DesJarlais, 50, a South Pittsburg physician.

DesJarlais has been in the national limelight since he defeated Democratic incumbent Lincoln Davis four years ago. With tea party support, DesJarlais began in 2010 by blasting President Barack Obama, touting family values and his "pro-life" stance while appearing with his wife, Amy, in ads.

But scandals from his troubled first marriage, which ended in 2001, were rumored during the 2010 race and escaped full-blown after DesJarlais' 12-point victory in 2012 over Democrat Eric Stewart: DesJarlais sitting outside his wife's bedroom door with a gun, threatening suicide; supporting her two abortions; sleeping with at least two patients and urging one of them to get an abortion; prescribing pain pills to a patient he was dating.

However, despite being shunned and financially starved by most of the state's Republican political establishment, DesJarlais scraped out a 38-vote win over Tracy, who vastly outspent him and had hammered the congressman over his past troubles.

Now, DesJarlais, rated the fourth-most-conservative House member, faces Sherrell in the largely rural, mostly white district that stretches from Cleveland in the east to Murfreesboro in the west and has a decided Republican tilt.

Arkansas-Tennessee Live Blog

Sherrell, a Cumberland County native who is the daughter of a rural letter carrier and a teacher, is a certified public accountant who worked for several large health care companies. She retired after a dozen years as comptroller for McCallie School in Chattanooga.

Sherrell says she's running to help ensure the continuance of the "American Dream," a world where 4th District residents support their family at good wages, educate their children and have a secure retirement.

"That's not happening today," said Sherrell, who now lives in Monteagle, and blames DesJarlais for not doing more to address real concerns. She said she supports raising the minimum wage and noted "people are worried about whether Medicare and Social Security are going to be there for them."

DesJarlais, she said, "has consistently voted against things that really help people in the district," citing his support of a plan that would "essentially turn Medicare into a voucher system."

Sherrell cut her political teeth the past few years by working as a volunteer district head of Organizing for America, a national grass-roots group with ties to Obama that has backed efforts like the Affordable Care Act.

As someone who has developed multimillion-dollar budgets, she said, she'd like to take a pen to the federal budget.

She said she got into the race in January, after taking a hard look at the 4th District's demographics. It's a winnable race, Sherrell said. A third of the voters are moderates who tend to vote for the candidate and not the party, Sherrell noted. Another figure she cites: 54 percent of adults are women, "sort of a natural constituency," said Sherrell.

She initially said she would not get into the messy details of DesJarlais' past. But in a recent television ad, she draws a direct line from abuse allegations made by DesJarlais' first wife to his recent votes against extending a federal domestic violence law.

DesJarlais said it contained provisions he couldn't support.

He was not available to be interviewed for this report. He recently has undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatment. His campaign says his health outlook is "positive." DesJarlais appeared last week at a Tennessee Farm Bureau event in Murfreesboro.

DesJarlais' spokesman, Robert Jameson, charges that Sherrell "wants to make this race about anything and everything but her political ideology and her record."

"She never mentions the fact that she worked for a far-left group that was charged with furthering President Obama's liberal agenda," Jameson said, citing the federal health care law commonly known as Obamacare, as a case in point.

"Quite frankly, her views are out of touch with what the vast majority of people in the 4th District believe," Jameson said.

Sherrell has said she wants to work to improve Obamacare.

Last week, the DesJarlais campaign hit Sherrell in a direct-mail piece labeling her "Liberal Lenda" and citing her work in Organizing for America. Jameson said it's fair to link Sherrell with Obama, noting, "the president said while he's not on the ballot this time, his policies are, and many of his policies are embodied in Lenda Sherrell."

Wasserman said voters in the conservative district are "loath to send anyone with a 'D' next to their name to Washington as long as Obama is president."

Kent Syler, a political science professor at Middle Tennessee State University, said Sherrell has proven to be "a very good candidate who has raised an impressive amount of money."

"But it is still a very steep climb," Syler said.

Molly Mann, of Viola, Tenn., said she usually votes Republican and backed Tracy in the GOP primary. She's supporting Sherrell in the general election.

"I would say the main reason I was looking for another candidate was I just can't vote for Scott DesJarlais because I think he was a hypocrite," Mann said, citing the abortions. "Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely."

Tricia Stickel, president of the Maury County Tea Party, said she remains "definitely a fan of Congressman DesJarlais."

Those events, Stickel said, were more than 14 years ago and he "wasn't a congressman then."

"In the South ... I've found that they don't like people to be dragged through the mud and embarrassed. So I think all that negative campaigning really has helped him with his own constituents," Stickel said.

Contact staff writer Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0500.

Upcoming Events