NASHVILLE - Former Tennessee governors Bill Haslam and Winfield Dunn are split on which U.S. Senate candidate they're backing in the state's 2020 Republican primary, according to two GOP hopefuls' campaign financial disclosures.
Haslam, who forwent his own Senate bid after leaving the governor's office in January, cut a $2,800 check on Sept. 26 to the campaign of Bill Hagerty, Haslam's one-time economic development chief and later a U.S. ambassador now seeking to replace retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander.
Meanwhile, Dunn, who served from 1971-1975 as the state's first Republican governor in half a century, plunked down $1,000 on Sept. 23 for his favorite, Nashville trauma surgeon Manny Sethi, according to Sethi's third quarter Federal Election Commission filing.
Hagerty reported raising $1.9 million in his disclosure for the July 1-Sept. 30 period. He spent just $24,436.67 and reported $1.82 million in cash on hand at the end of the reporting period.
For his part, Sethi, who entered the contest in early June, reported raising $338,000, mostly from individuals. And he also made another loan, totaling $500,000 for his Aug. 6 GOP primary effort.
It comes on top of two prior loans Sethi has made, raising his personal stake to $1.52 million. Sethi, who announced in June before Haslam made up his mind, reported having $2.04 million in cash on Sept. 30.
Bill Hagerty / Staff File PhotoHagerty, who once ran a venture capital firm, made no personal loans.
Hagerty's support from Haslam was hardly unexpected, with the former governor earlier this year broadly hinting he would back him. Hagerty, who previously ran a venture capital firm, also has full-throated support from yet another former boss, President Donald Trump.
In fact, Trump announced in a July tweet that Hagerty was running for Senate and had his endorsement, even as Hagerty was still serving as U.S. ambassador to Japan and unable to talk politics. He announced in early September.
Besides Haslam's contribution, Hagerty's disclosure also shows the former ambassador has $5,000 contributions from five separate leadership political action committees belonging to sitting Republican U.S. senators: Richard Shelby of Alabama, Tim Scott of South Carolina, Cory Gardener of Colorado, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma.
Outgoing Sen. Alexander has not made any reportable contribution. Neither has former Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Corker of Chattanooga. But Corker's daughter, Julia Corker Spickard of Nashville, contributed $2,800 to Hagerty, while two former top Corker aides, onetime chief of staff Todd Womack of Chattanooga and former communications director Micah Johnson, gave $500 each.
A check of Tennessee's incumbent GOP congressmen, including U.S. Reps. Chuck Fleischmann of Ooltewah and Scott DesJarlais of South Pittsburg, show none of them venturing out at this point to contribute to any of the Senate candidates.
But a former Republican congresswoman who ran unsuccessfully for the GOP's gubernatorial nomination in 2018 has. Diane Black of Gallatin and her husband, David Black, each maxed out on primary and general contributions to Hagerty, kicking in $5,600 each. The $2,800 they each designated for the general election can't be used in the primary.
And contributing to Hagerty was a Coral Gables, Florida, resident by the name of John Ellis Bush. He's better known as Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who unsuccessfully sought the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.
Sethi's area contributors included Hamilton County Circuit Court Judge John Bennett ($250), Ruby Falls President Hugh Morrow Jr. ($240), Chattanooga developer Jim Sattler ($2,250), state Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma ($1,000), a PAC belonging to state Rep. Dan Howell, R-Georgetown, Fidelity Trust Co. CEO Matthew McGauley of Chattanooga, Signal Mountain accountant Robert Decosimo and retired Chattanooga businessman Jim Hudson ($4,800).
Manny Sethi / Staff photo by C.B. SchmelterDisclosures by Sethi, a Vanderbilt Medical Center trauma surgeon, show he also has strong support among physicians, not just in Chattanooga but in other parts of Tennessee as well as a number of states. The local list includes Dr. Timothy Ballard ($1,000), Dr. Jad Dorizas ($1,000) and Dr. Mark Freeman ($250). Other contributors include the Tennessee Orthopaedic Society ($,1500) and American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons PAC ($10,000).
Then again, Hagerty has support from retired HCA Healthcare Chairman Thomas Frist of Nashville who gave $2,800. No contributions from former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist were on anyone's disclosure.
Sethi's disclosure shows his net expenditures at $358,936, the bulk of that coming during the third quarter.
His campaign staff includes some of Republican Gov. Bill Lee's campaign veterans, including Chris Devaney of Lookout Mountain who also served as a senior adviser in the Lee administration before departing to become Sethi's campaign chairman and senior adviser.
Hagerty, meanwhile, has hired Ward Baker, a former executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. In 2018, Baker spearheaded conservative firebrand and then-Congressman Republican Marsha Blackburn's victory over former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen in the U.S. Senate race to succeed Sen. Bob Corker.
Sethi's latest disclosure shows he has paid more than $60,000 to political consultants StoneRidge Group of Alpharetta, Ga., on marketing and internet media as well $37,500 to Nashville-based H and C Strategies, another consulting firm.
Last month, he paid $14,876 to Strategic Perception on "media/video." The company is owned by veteran political ad maker Fred Davis who has previously done work for both Haslam and Alexander, among others.
Borrowing a page from Lee's campaign strategy, Sethi is presenting himself as a conservative outsider. This week, his campaign announced he is running his first television ad.
In it, Sethi, who was born in the U.S. of parents who immigrated from India, features his mother who describes how she and her husband, both physicians, came legally to the U.S.
"Let 'em try to call me a racist," Sethi says in the ad as he touts a hard-line anti-immigration approach. "We're gonna have an illegal immigrant invasion if Republicans don't win in 2020."
Meanwhile, there's a new entrant in the GOP primary. George Flinn, a Memphian who has a radiology practice, owns several radio stations and has spent millions of dollars on unsuccessful campaigns ranging from Congress to U.S. Senate, announced last week that he is running.
In the Democratic field, Nashville attorney James Mackler, who bowed out of Democrats' 2018 U.S. Senate primary to make way for Bredesen, is running this cycle. He has so far disclosed raising about $347,000, and has $296,000 left.
But now there's another Democrat in the Democratic primary. Marquita Bradshaw of Memphis, an environmental activist with ties to national groups, announced shortly before the third quarter ended Sept. 30 and has not filed a report.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow him on Twitter @AndySher1.