TOWNSEND, Tenn. – Former Gov. Don Sundquist predicts a Republican candidate will win the governor’s race if the party’s primary doesn’t turn too vicious.
Now retired and living with his wife, Martha, in a Laurel Valley home adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Sundquist told The Knoxville News-Sentinel the GOP will reclaim the governor’s office if “they can keep it civil.”
The two-term governor said Shelby County District Attorney General Bill Gibbons and U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp of Chattanooga have made “uncalled for and unnecessary” comments about Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam’s finances.
Sundquist also said President Barack Obama should develop a closer working relationship with Southern governors, similar to the way former President Franklin D. Roosevelt did.