Outgoing Sen. Bob Corker is under pressure from his fellow Republicans over his obvious distaste for Rep. Marsha Blackburn, the GOP nominee to succeed him, and his praise of former Gov. Phil Bredesen, the Democratic candidate for the Tennessee Senate seat. Polls show Bredesen leading, and a Democratic win in Tennessee could endanger Republican control of the Senate. This is what it looks like now that Corker is holding his nose about Blackburn:
He appeared alongside her last week at the Hamilton County Lincoln Day dinner. And he’s started using Blackburn’s name instead of awkwardly calling her the “nominee” or “this person.”
“I plan to vote for her. I’ve said nice things about a friend [Bredesen]. But it’s just the way I am,” Corker said in the interview. “I’ve had a long relationship with him and have a respect for him and would always say nice things about him, but I’m supporting Marsha Blackburn.”
He’s using her name! But Corker isn’t alone as a Republican not enthusiastic about Blackburn:
“He’s a person that would get things done,” Tom Cigarran, a former Corker donor and chairman of the Nashville Predators hockey team, said of Bredesen in an interview Wednesday. “Marsha Blackburn, not so much.” Cigarran, who credited Bredesen with revitalizing downtown Nashville and reforming Medicaid, is backing the former Democratic governor and said people in his social and political circles are, too — “unless they are far-right fanatics.”
There are others. Colleen Conway-Welch, the widow of prominent GOP fundraiser Ted Welch, held a fundraiser for Bredesen in February. And Autozone founder Pitt Hyde, a reliable Republican donor from Memphis, is considering supporting Bredesen, according to two GOP sources familiar with the talks. Hyde did not return a request for comment.
That … doesn’t sound good. For Blackburn and for Republicans.
Take back the Senate. Can you give $3 to the Democratic nominee funds in Nevada and Arizona?