Tuke vs. Padgett in Dem Senate primary

Former Tennessee Democratic Party chairman will be candidate for U.S. Senate, setting off battle between Clinton/Obama endorsers

Email | Print By Ken Whitehouse

Bob Tuke

Former Tennessee Democratic Party chairman Bob Tuke, a Nashville attorney, will be a candidate for the U.S. Senate, NashvillePost.com has learned.

Tuke flirted with the idea last year and had said he wasn't running then, but as reported a few weeks ago by NashvillePost.com, he had been reconsidering that decision. NashvillePost.com has learned that he is soon to make a public announcement making official what he has hinted to other media outlets – that he is a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Lamar Alexander.

While there are already three other Democrats who have indicated that they are running, the real battle in the primary will be between former Knox County Clerk Mike Padgett and Tuke. Padgett has endorsed the presidential candidacy of Sen. Hillary Clinton, while Tuke is on the state steering committee for Barack Obama.

While it is still to early to tell if this Democratic primary will become as bitter as the national campaign, the candidacies of Tuke and Padgett should be mutually beneficial. That is because Alexander is seen as almost impossible to beat – it is likely he wouldn't acknowledge even having an opponent – and any type of scrum generated by a Tuke-Padgett rivalry would generate more attention than if one of them were the sole established Democratic party candidates.

But don't mistake that analogy for an actual coordinated plan: NashvillePost.com has learned that the Padgett campaign has actively been reaching out to Democratic Executive Committee members and other party officials in anticipation of a Tuke run.