As the heat intensifies in the Tennessee Republican Primary campaign for Governor House Speaker Beth Harwell has aired her first negative ad. In the Harwell ad each of her three opponents are depicted as bickering children while she’s the “adult” in the room. Harwell touts the fact that as Speaker she has balanced the budget, lowered taxes, outlawed sanctuary cities and reduced the size of government.
Beth Harwell “ADULT IN THE ROOM ad:
ANNCR: “You have a choice for Governor. Behind all the fighting and posturing Diane Black, Randy Boyd and Bill Lee only offer political promises.”
HARWELL: “I am the only candidate who offers proven results instead of political promises. Under my leadership as your Tennessee Speaker we’ve already balanced the budget and lowered your taxes. Already outlawed sanctuary cities and reduced the size of our state government.”
ANNCR: “Beth Harwell, the adult in the room.”
As Harwell’s critics have noted, EVERY Speaker has balanced the budget because it is required by law. And while some taxes were lowered as part of the IMPROVE Act, the tax cuts primarily went to big businesses while the fuel tax increase of over $300 million a year hits working families in Tennessee.
Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill notes that Bill Lee is the only candidate who has said he won’t go negative. “Harwell clearly understands that she has to bring down her opponents’ poll numbers in order for her to have any path to victory,” Gill says. “Her ad is cute and creative and will cut through the noise pretty effectively, but right now she is trailing all of the other three and has a lot of ground to make up with little time remaining.”
Where do you look at the polls, and what is the state of the race according to the polls a week later from your last post? I kind of had the impression Boyd was always in third place.
thanks
I expect Beth will get a child size portion of the votes cast. And after those years of doing Haslam’s bidding too!
Vis a vis coverage of the Gov race, leftwing smear merchant Cari Wade Gervin wrote this week’s Nashville Scene cover story about how all four Republican candidates are in a “race to the bottom” by mentioning that they are protecting “Tennessee Values” which is a dogwhistle to Tennessee’s Democrat monopolized racist past.
Oh, and that illegal aliens are more valuable than citizens because they pay sales tax and all of them have advanced college degrees.
Can’t produce ID or a passport but they all the rocket surgeons graduated summa cum laude from La Universidad de Tierra de Fantasia. Uh-huh.
The good news? She was fired from The Scene this week so I hope my PPO covers these stress fractures to my ribs from laughing so hard.
An illegal actually does contribute more than her now.
The Star should hire her and then fire her after her first article calling everybody racists and bigots is published. Get the inside dirt on the Freeman takeover. And then fire her. Hell, you could get that in the interview.
That, or send her to do stories on the victims of illegal criminal aliens.
Beth’s ads have been so embarrassing–really lame. Her disappearance act on the Gas Tax only surfacing after it was a done deal disqualified my vote from anything in the future.
It is coming down to Boyd/Black and ALL other Rs need to really look at this–they might not love Black but Boyd is just another go-along, get-along rino/gopE ILLEGAL LOVER–his nickname is very accurate: LA RAZA RANDY and I was very happy to see Diane hit him on it in a new ad last night
As the polls come in it is apparent that Beth Harwell will not be the next Governor of Tennessee but Randy! Boyd might. I believe it’s a good time for conservatives inclined to vote for Beth to reevaluate their plans. As conservatives we up against a unified group of centrists, tepid conservatives of the more frigid type and Democrats who will vote in the Republican Primary (thanks Beth) as they cast their ballot for Randy!. In order to prevail, conservatives must unify behind whichever candidate is most likely to defeat Boyd.
There is no movement conservative candidate in this race so there is no reason for conservatives to be “in love” with any of them. We all have our favorites, but a stubborn clinging to our favorite will result in a Gov. Randy!, and we all know that of the four major candidates a Gov. Randy! will be least sympathetic to conservative policy preferences. There is simply no reason for us to do that to ourselves.
No reason to race down to the polls during early voting. Rather let’s wait until August 2nd in order to get the best handle on which candidate is most likely to defeat Boyd. This will give us an opportunity to cast a most strategic vote for ANYBODY BUT BOYD while showing the centrist establishment that runoff or not conservatives can unify and win.
Where is all this BOYD BOYD BOYD coming from?? Stuart – you are scaring me. Harwell is a nobody in this race as you stated… but why does Boyd captivate you so much? Why does he worry you so much? It seems like you either like DC Diane, or want to go with more of the non-politician TRUMP DNA of Lee… two choices. I can’t figure out why TN would even second look at Boyd… and I dont understand why he has your dander up so much that you say VOTE BLACK… if concern is for Boyd in your EYES, just VOTE LEE. Why not? No history pure bred Lee is better opportunity than Old Mutt Dog Crazy in the head Diane that cant learn new tricks, lies on the porch and never voting, and bites….
JL, there are two major political ideologies in the U.S. conservative and liberal. The Democratic Party is a party completely controlled by solid liberals so as a conservative I think it would be swell if the Republican Party was controlled by solid conservatives. Unfortunately that is not the case.
In order to bring about solid conservative control of the Republican Party the voters have to at least nominate solid conservatives to every office possible. Randy! Boyd is the most liberal candidate of the four candidates that are running for the Republican nomination for Governor. Randy! is the only candidate who wants to pattern himself after centrist/tepid conservatives Mitt Romney and he is the only candidate who thinks immigration sentimentalist Jeb! Bush is the type of person appropriate to kick off his campaign. Randy! is the only candidate to self describe his ideology as “moderate” before he engaged in this campaign. Randy! is the only candidate to make a six figure contribution to an organization the lobbies to make Tennessee welcoming for Hispanic immigrants, legal and illegal. Randy is the only candidate whose Republican pedigree shows a close association with the centrist/tepid conservative Haslam wing of the party.
With that unique background JL conservatives can expect Randy! to be most hostile to the policies conservatives favor, and most sympathetic to those that they oppose. If you are a conservative you needn’t be scared, but you should be concerned and want to take action so ANYBODY BUT BOYD becomes our next Governor. Whether you and I can understand it or not, every poll that I have seen has Boyd #1 or #2. That’s what has my “dander up.”
I like Diane because the Heritage Foundation says her lifetime voting record is 78% conservative and the Club For Growth says 80%. Good but not great. Lee has no political record whatsoever but he wants the top political job in this state. To paraphrase you “I can’t figure out why TN would even second look at [Lee]. . . .” You don’t like Diane, I don’t like Lee. LETS BOTH FORGET IT!!! The name of the game is not having anyone named Randy! Governor of this state for the next eight years beginning next January. The way we accomplish that is both of us and every other conservative unite and vote for whoever has the best chance of beating Boyd as per the latest polls come August 2nd. No runoffs in Tennessee to make us unite, we get one chance to pull this off. GOOD LUCK TO US ALL!