NASHVILLE - Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell this week got an up-close and painful introduction to an occupational hazard perhaps better known by U.S. Postal Service workers than politicians.
The state's most powerful female politician was bitten several times by a dog as she went canvassing door to door for votes in her Nashville district.
"I was knocking on the door - I was at the front door - and the dog came around from the back of the house and I was stuck on the front steps," Harwell, a Republican first elected to the state House in 1988, told state Capitol reporters on Thursday.
"So I did what I normally do with a dog, which is throw out my hands and say, 'Sit!' Real firm," Harwell added. "And this big dog just reached up and grabbed a finger."
She displayed a heavily bandaged middle finger on her right hand. Another bandage was on the side of her hand. The dog, which Harwell described as standing about waist high, also bit her on her hip as she sought to maneuver away.
Harwell managed to get away from the dog and down the steps. Her next stop was an emergency room, she said.
"I had to go to the hospital, but I'm on antibiotics and I'll be fine," Harwell said, grinning as she dryly added, "the perils of door knocking, right? You know they [homeowners] weren't even home. I couldn't even get a vote out of them."
Harwell, who in 2011 became Tennessee's first woman speaker, faces Democrat Chris Moth in the House District 56 general election on Nov. 8.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow on Twitter @AndySher1.