Many political observers have been surprised that an anticipated barrage of negative campaign ads have been held back thus far in the Tennessee Republican Primary for Governor. The wait is over as Congresswoman Diane Black has unleashed a new attack at that hits two of her opponents, Bill Lee and Randy Boyd as being “two moderates.” While the ad is particularly scathing in its treatment of Boyd, the inclusion of Lee in the spot seems to confirm that Lee is enjoying a surge in recent polls — which is particularly damaging to Black’s Middle Tennessee numbers.
The transcript of the new Black ad, which began airing today, reads as follows:
“Diane Black, endorsed by the NRA. And she helped write Trump’s tax cut.
Is Diane Black “too conservative”? Randy Boyd says she is. But Randy Boyd also disavowed Donald Trump in 2016. Boyd even calls himself the “most hated political entity — a moderate.”
Bill Lee’s a moderate too. He pushed for a liberal Nashville Mayor who tried to make Nashville a sanctuary city.
This race is simple. Two Moderates or Conservative Diane Black.”
Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill said the ad is consistent with two major themes that we are seeing in campaigns throughout the state: candidates claiming they are more aligned with President Trump and more anti-illegal immigration than their opponents. “The last several weeks we have pointed out that both the Black and Boyd campaigns believed they were leading in the polls and neither wanted to fire the first shot and risk a backlash. The first shot has now been fired by the ac-tual campaign teams,” Gill noted.
“It is a bit surprising that there has been so little activity by independent expenditure committees in Tennessee this campaign season,” Gill added. “Other than a couple of radio ads and a single television spot run by Jobs for Tennessee, there are not any big ad buys that have been placed by any outside groups at this point. That may change soon.”
[…] flyer fits in with two themes that Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill recently pointed out about the Republican […]
[…] aired an ad targeting both Lee and Randy Boyd as “Two Moderates” just last week. She added a second ad that […]
[…] Black fired the first direct shot, but the Randy Boyd campaign has responded quickly and Black has already followed up with a second […]
[…] Lee with 20.3 percent and Harwell at 6.9 percent. These figures underscore the reason why Black launched an attack ad targeting both Boyd and Lee earlier this […]
Theology seems to be gaining in interest as a subject among the candidates. I was leaning toward Black until her railroad ad…she said she was given her Christian faith by her parents, and I appreciate her sentiment.
But it is bad theology. God and God alone is the giver of all good things, and especially our faith. A true believer would never give credit to humans, as noteworthy as they can be, when the credit is clearly due to God and his grace.
LaRaza Randy donated $250K to the illegal loving establishment here in Nashville run by the former head of LA RAZA ( The Race) that advocates invasion and taking over the QSW of the USA–WILL NOT vote for this phony
Bill Lee donated to SELF DESCRIBED PROGRESSIVE Megan Barry–WILL NOT vote for him
Harwell went MIA during the Gas Tax Vote when she could have helped kill it–WILL NOT vote for her
That leaves Diane Black for whom I am happy to vote.
Lot of new names. Huh.
I try to stay tuned in and this noteworthy “going negative” by Black is no unexpected since she’s been smeared by Team Boyd constantly for the last several months without interruption on tv and radio.
Lee has been keeping the Above It All personal story. Team Boyd have been smear merchants from Day One.
Not hard to see who’s who. Huckabee and Dance give endorsements in the last week and dammit we need to see some results in new polling! Sling that mud.
They only person you all are going to help is Beth Harwell who will wind up looking like the only adult in the room.
It’s no surprise that she would be the one to go negative. As the previous posting correspondent indicated, she and her husband are corporate welfare leeches. He makes his money from a company that does drug testing as its mainstay and then makes sure that his rice bowl is left alone by legislation. They say they are for Tennessee but then put up an architectural monstrosity that shows their true colors, i.e., members of an elitist cabal. Meanwhile, my local community accepts private donations to ensure the kids at school have shoes…really, that’s not hyperbole, but a matter of public record.
As far as being a Trump supporter, first consider what relevance that has to governing Tennessee. The Trump administration is taking steps to reduce the size and scope of the Federal government and migrating the centralized functions to either the states or to the private sector. It will be incumbent upon the Governor to seize the initiative and craft policies that will make Tennessee more prosperous, prepare its workforce for the increased automation of manufacture and agriculture, and reduce crime – all crime, not just illegal immigration. But even so, this newspaper ran an article in 2017 (http://tennesseestar.com/2017/10/19/never-trumper-jeb-bush-to-headline-la-raza-randy-boyd-gubernatorial-fundraiser-in-nashville/) quoting then-candidate Mae Beavers said of Black: “it is curious that Rep. Black is now claiming to be a big supporter of President Trump, when she was a speaker at the Never Trump meeting held in Sea Island, Georgia in early 2016.”
As for being “conservative”, among the 9 members of the Tennessee GOP delegation, Black, Blackburn, and Fleischman share the second to lowest ranking as per the Freedom Index (https://www.thenewamerican.com/freedom-index) – even Sen. Corker ranks higher than Black (something to keep in mind about Blackburn too – she ranks below Corker!), and Corker is certainly no Trump supporter. Sen. Alexander has the lowest ranking among the GOP delegation – the 2 Democrats rank lowest of all, naturally. So in other words, over half the Tennessee GOP delegation carries a higher ranking than Black, much higher in most cases, based on voting records in the current Congress…whichplaces her in the moderate to liberal minority. Oops!
The best part of Black’s run for Governor is that she is vacating a seat that can now be filled with a true conservative, not some Johnny-come-lately faux “supporter” of President Trump.
Rep. Black has proven herself to be a bigger government is better swamp creature of the highest order and Tennessee needs and deserves better, as Governor and as U.S. Representative – fortunately we have that opportunity in Lee and Matheny, respectively.
This is classic Diane Black. To her, the truth is a nebulous, malleable, political prop, which she historically manipulates in a bit of campaign prestidigitation!
Boyd certainly is at best, a moderate, but more likely a “more government control” liberal. But so is Ms. Black. During her tenure in the US House, until this last election year cycle, she never met a “continuing resolution” she didn’t support! In her words, “going against leadership (Boehner/Ryan) is so hard”! And how about the exponential increase in our Federal debt during her time in DC? Sorry, that does not make you a Conservative!
And her exaggeration of Bill Lee’s $500 contribution to the Megan Barry campaign is “Black calling the kettle Black”! The well funded D & D Black political machine has made plenty of contributions to many shady, not Conservative candidates, purely for their personal gain.
And what about her claim that she led the fight against the proposed State income tax.
A closer review indicates that she was not one of the leaders (Beavers, Blackburn, Gill and Valentine) but straddled the fence until the outcome was guaranteed! Way to go DB!
Or, if Ms. Black is such a big proponent of President Trump, why didn’t she endorse Trump before the Convention? Or maybe more telling, why did she attend an American Enterprise Institute meeting in March of 2016, which where the topic was how to derail Trump?
NO, Ms. Black is a chameleon, bent on staying elected, staying in a position to benefit from the next tax-payer funded boondoogle, and funding the “Kennedy-like” lifestyle.
She won’t get my vote!
Every single person who knows Mae Beavers should be insulted by Diane Black’s dishonesty. Bill Lee is a conservative. He is not a professional politician. He has never given his family members no bid contracts from the government. It is heartening to know that the momentum I am seeing in yard signs and other indicators and the straw poll victory for Bill over Diane in her home county must be getting to her, for her to stoop to lying 5 weeks out.
Kay White is the only true Trump conservative running for Governor. Why doesn’t The Tennessee Star ever give her some press coverage?
What we are engaged in is the election of our next Governor, rather than engaging in a test of ideological purity of everyone who obtained 25 signatures in order to stick their name on the ballot. There is no conceivable way Kay is going to be our next Governor so a vote for her is truly a wasted vote and insofar as she is responsible for the wasting of conservative votes it’s actually harming the effort NOT to have Randy! Boyd become our next Governor. There is no reason for The Tennessee Star to contribute to this harm by giving Kay any more publicity than necessary.
Because that’s how they play the game the one who should get the job gets snubbed and buried. no doubt
Boyd is a illegal loving liberal – not a “moderate”.
Lee seems to be a nice guy without a clue.
Nice guy without a clue. EXACTLY who I want to govern me. Maybe we need to keep our Government more clueless than we are…I don’t want smarter people trying to find new ways to oppress the masses. Let’s elect the dumbest people we can!
Diane Black the corporate welfare queen needs to go to a debate rather than go negative