NASHVILLE - Calling state Sen. Todd Gardenhire "one of Tennessee's worst state lawmakers," state Democrats have launched a new website that borrows from a tradmark Donald Trump phrase to attack the Chattanooga lawmaker.
The website's address? Firetoddgardenhire.com.
The site went live this week as Tennessee early voting in the Nov. 8 general election got underway.
According to Democratic Party Chairwoman Mary Mancini, whose party is backing Democrat Khristy Wilkinson of Chattanooga in the Senate District 10 race, Gardenhire "represents the very worst of the Republican Party in Tennessee.
"He is a wealthy investment banker who, while on the state health insurance plan, voted against access to affordable health care for 300,000 hard working Tennesseans, voted against public money for public education, and voted against equality," Mancini said in a news release.
That's a reference to Gardenhire's votes in a Senate committee during the 2015 legislative session that successfully torpedoed Republican Gov. Bill Haslam's proposed Insure Tennessee plan.
The plan sought to use federal dollars available under President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act to extend Medicaid coverage to at least 280,000 low-income Tennesseans. Gardenhire said he couldn't support the plan, as did most Republicans in the GOP-run General Assembly.
The website also features Gardenhire's comment to an East Ridge protester, whom the senator said followed him in and out of a men's restroom haranguing him over his second vote against Insure Tennessee back in 2015. The senator called the man, an "a---," according to a video that drew national attention.
The Democrats' site also features another controversial statement made by Gardenhire during an abortion debate in which he suggested his own vasectomy was tougher than requirements in a bill regulating abortion clinics.
Mancini drew a direct line from Gardenhire to Trump.
"Todd Gardenhire was Donald Trump before Donald Trump was Donald Trump, building a reputation in the state Senate for making outrageous comments and acting like a schoolyard bully," Mancini said in her news release.
"We're confident that when voters take a closer look at Todd Gardenhire's record, they'll get a clear picture of who he really is and they'll vote to elect Khristy Wilkinson," Mancini said.
The website's name refers to the controversial billionaire businessman Trump's role in "The Apprentice," in which he told competing contestants seeking a chance to work for him "you're fired" when they didn't measure up.
Calling it an "odd election year," Gardenhire said by telephone Friday that he has been keeping his campaign "positive, and just talking about what I've accomplished in the last four years and what I hope to do in the next four years."
He said he understands "the state Democrat Party's objective is to elect Democrats at all costs and that's fine. But I'm going to stay on my positive notes and stay away from the comments that they've made.
"I'm proud I was part of the movement to give teachers $100 million to improve teachers' salaries," said Gardenhire, the vice chairman of the Senate Education Committee. "And I'm proud the [National Rifle Association] has endorsed me. I'm proud that the Family Research Council has given me a 100 percent voting record rating. And I'm proud that the National Federation of Independent Business has given me a 100 percent rating."
Moreover, Gardenhire said, he is "very proud that Planned Parenthood gave me a zero rating. I'm proud of my accomplishments."
A married mother of two, Wilkinson is a former adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
She unexpectedly won the August Democratic primary over Nick Wilkinson, a top aide to Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke. The two Wilkinsons are not related. Berke poured personal money from his political action committee into Nick Wilkinson's effort.
It has been unclear how engaged the Tennessee Democratic Party would be in the contest. The district includes Chattanooga, East Ridge and Collegedale in Hamilton County and much of rural, heavily Republican, rural Bradley County.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow on Twitter @AndySher1.