Tennessee Senate and Other Stuff

2008 PRESIDENTIAL RACE
An instrument playing Governor of Arkansas, a "Man from Hope" running for President...Sound familiar? If you're thinking Bill Clinton, you're wrong. Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R), who went to High School with Clinton, is preparing to run for the GOP nomination in 2008. More on this later.
TENNESSEE
Hold on to your seats, boys, it's gonna be a long ride...
Here's the potential candidates for the U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee that Senator Bill Frist (R) is likely to vacate in 2006.
1)--Bob Corker (R)-Corker is the longtime mayor of Chattanooga. He ran against Bill Frist, then an unknown, in the 1994 GOP Primary to face incumbent Senator Jim Sasser (D). Corker should do well in Northeast Tennessee and the Chattanooga area, but he's otherwise unknown, since most Tennesseeans have long forgotten his name from 1994.
2)--Ed Bryant (R)-Bryant ran a Conservative campaign in the 2002 Senate primary against moderate former Governor Lamar Alexander. Bryant lost, and has since been waiting in the wings for his next chance. Bryant, who represented Tennessee's 7th Congressional District until he gave up his seat in 2002, should do well in the areas just west of Nashville all the way down to the Mississippi border (the extent of his old district). Remember, this is Tennessee; the state uses Gerrymandering to draw districts favorable to incumbents.
3)--Beth Harwell (R)-Harwell is a State Senator representing part of Nashville (the rich suburbs). I honestly don't know very much about her, except that she is not known well enough state-wide for a Senate run, and she definitly won't win in Nashville.
4)--Van Hilleary (R)-Hilleary is the man who ran against Phil Bredesen (D) in 2002 for Governor, and had his butt handed to him. Hilleary represented the huge, sprawling 4th District until his run. The district stretches from Campbell County on the Kentucky border to Lawrence County way down on the Mississippi border. Hilleary should do well in this area, as well as extreme Northeast Tennessee (Bristol, Kingsport, etc.), seeing as how he just barely squeaked by in his own district in 2002, but crushed Bredesen in Bristol.
5)--Harold Ford (D)-Ford is the only announced Democrat running thus far (although more may follow). Ford has represented Memphis (the 9th district) since 1996, when he was just old enough to serve in Congress. Ford, an African American, should do well in heavily black southwest Tennessee, as well as Nashville and Johnson City, where he is polling 60% against any potential opponent.
Several other potential candidates have been floated, including: Governor Phil Bredesen (D), Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell (D), former Vice President Al Gore (D), and former Congressman Bob Clement (D). Most, if not all of these men will stay out to show solidarity behind Ford.
This should be a close and exciting race.
Out to lunch.