Bill Haslam Wins the Tennessee Election

Posted on 08. Aug, 2010 by Anna Zimmerman in Headlines, Politics

The Tennessee Republican election bid is over with Knoxville mayor Bill Haslam as the winner. The announcement was made immediately following the Thursday night state computer system malfunction. Haslam will be the Republican nominee to become the next governor of Tennessee and will now face Democrat Mike McWherter, a West Tennessee businessman and son of former Gov. Ned McWherter. After a contentious and expensive 19 month long campaign,  Haslam won the fifty percent of the Republican primary vote.Wamp came in second with twenty percentage points behind Haslam. Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey finished third with only twenty-two percent of the vote.

The Republican primary for the nomination for governor finally came to an end.  It went, however, not without its own controversies as both Haslam and U.S. Representative Zack Wamp made accusations at each other’s participation links with the interests of gambling. Wamp insinuated at one point that an association between commercial interests and gambling may have been formed pointing the obvious that his opponent owns the Haslam Pilot Travel Centers in several states where casino gambling is legal. The Knoxville mayor immediately brushed off the allegations and proceeded to accuse Wamp some of his own.

In any case the voters didn’t seem too bothered with the allegations and offered their full support to Haslam making him the Republican Gubenatorial winner in this stage of the Tennessee Election Results. It is known that Haslam replaced retiring four-term mayor Victor Ashe after defeating Madeline Rogero in the Tennessee election back in 2003 and was reelected in 2007. He formally announced his candidacy for Tennessee governor in a newsletter sent to supporters on January 6, 2009. He ranks one among the collected contributions for the Gubernatorial race. Since the announcement, he had collected contributions of $3.9 million through with campaign between January and July 1 in 2009. Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey earned $1.3 million  U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp got only $1.2 million until July.

Former U.S. Senator Howard Baker endorsed Haslam for the gubernatorial election stressing his executive experience both as mayor and previous president of the family founded Pilot Corp truck stop chains. U.S. Congressman Jimmy Duncan has also endorsed Haslam for the Republican nomination for governor. According to The Tennessean Haslam appears to be the best  bet as he is most likely to be able to beat Gov. Phil Breden’s pro-business coattails.

Tennessee is one of the many states that hold primaries prior to the midterm elections in November. According to a poll released by Middle Tennessee State University last March 3, 2010, most Tennesseans didn’t care about the party affiliation of the next governor. Be it a Republican or Democrat, they consider the issue of play as the key to which candidate comes out on top. Democrats have held the seat for more than three decades.

Meanwhile, Memphis’ former longtime mayor Herenton lost the Democratic primary to U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, after the white incumbent got 34,603 votes, or 81 percent, to Herenton’s 8,176, or 19 percent. In the 8th District, gospel performer Steve Fincher won the Republican primary. It is reported that these three candidates waged the most expensive House race in the country.

Tags: Bill Haslam, Tennessee Election Result