Local GOP leaders call for unity
The bumps and bruises from Thursday’s intramural squabble might still be tender, but now it’s time to forget them and suit up for the big game in November, local Republicans heard Monday.
U. S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann and the entire Republican state legislative delegation joined several county GOP elected officials and party stalwarts for a unity rally at the weekly Pachyderm meeting.
Fleischmann said he’d attended a unity event in Nashville over the weekend and that statewide Republicans feel urgent about being unified and strong going into the Nov. 6 general election.
He said there will be a “battle royale” for Congress this year and that the House is “very competitive.”
“We’ve got to hold the House and I’ll tell you why: Nancy Pelosi wants to impeach President Trump. Nancy Pelosi can’t hold the [ speaker’s] gavel,” Fleischmann said. “The Democrats are so far left they’ve fallen off the charts.”
He said the party feels more confident it will keep control of the Senate — especially if Tennessee Republicans elect Marsha Blackburn to replace Bob Corker. But he said national Democrats will be spending for their Senate nominee, former Gov. Phil Bredesen, “Chuck Schumer’s No. 1 recruit.”
Asked for comment, Bredesen’s press secretary, Alyssa Hansen, said in a statement: “It’s been clear from the beginning that the opposition wants to turn this into a hyper- partisan race to the bottom while Governor Bredesen is focused on reaching out to Tennesseans of all political stripes.”
She said Bredesen is “a proven leader with a track record of getting things done for our state.”
County party Chairwoman Marsha Yessick congratulated Thursday’s winners and consoled the losers, urging them to stay active and perhaps run again in the future.
She obliquely acknowledged the bitterest and muddiest battle, between Esther Helton and Jonathan Mason for the House District 30 seat being vacated by Marc Gravitt. Yessick said in her year-plus tenure she’d been told about competing GOP factions on either side of the Tennessee River, the groups commonly referred to as the Hixson and Highway 58 mafias, who supported the two candidates.
“We’re not going to have that; we’re going to dam that river and come together and support the people on both sides of that river,” Yessick said. Helton and Mason were present, sitting a few tables apart.
Like Fleischmann, she said Republicans must work to keep Congress in GOP hands and help Trump achieve his agenda.
“We have to stand behind our president — promises made, promises kept,” she said, including 3.5 million jobs, the “greatest tax cut ever” and meetings with Kim Jong Un of North Korea and Vladimir Putin of Russia.
Critics have said neither meeting produced much of material benefit to the U. S. and derided Trump for his apparent deference to Putin.
Yessick said the media should leave the president alone.
“What he said behind closed doors is none of our business yet,” she said.
State Sen. Bo Watson said the most important task for loyal Republicans is filling campaign coffers, especially for candidates who depleted their resources in competitive primaries.
Handing an envelope to Helton that he said contained a substantial contribution, Watson said, “This is how you win elections.
“What does the red wave look like? It looks green today.”
Contact staff writer Judy Walton at jwalton@ timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6416.