Nashville's The City Paper has a news report and a blog post out today on how Republicans in Tennessee are uniting behind Fred Thompson, and what that's doing to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign in the state.
Top members of Tennessee’s Republican Party — often divided between its social versus economic wings — has quickly coalesced behind Fred Thompson’s undeclared presidential bid. While Thompson’s support has grown in the Volunteer State, it has conversely caused a drop in what once was rising support in Tennessee for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Minus a few holdouts, leading Republicans in the state are now almost all in former Sen. Thompson’s camp. Rep. Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) said Thompson’s interest in running most clearly hurt Romney’s chances of winning the primary in Tennessee.
“Mitt Romney is certainly an honorable, good person,” Harwell said, adding she had met with the former Massachusetts governor. “But again, I think once Fred Thompson seriously looked at that, people stepped back and said that’s what I want."
A few years ago, three of the top-10 zip codes in giving to the GOP were in the Nashville area, so the loss of Tennessee is a big blow to the Romney camp, though the blow was lessened a bit by the decision of uber-fundraiser and Nashville businessman Ted Welch to stick with Romney.
The City Paper's political blog also looks at the partisan sniping over some remarks Thompson made regarding Cuba.
Better dead than Fred.
Posted by: Jazzbeaux Beiderbecke | July 2, 2007 9:26 AM | Permalink to Comment