Roe looks to overturn freshman’s win (Tennessee GOP primary)

The Hill ^ | April 17, 2008 | Aaron Blake

[Clintonfatigued]

Freshman Rep. David Davis (R-Tenn.), who won a crowded Republican primary in 2006 with just 22 percent of the vote, is in a two-man race this year with one of his vanquished foes.

Johnson City Mayor Phil Roe (R) finished fourth in 2006 with 17 percent of the vote, but has quietly become one of the few challengers in the country this year to out-raise an incumbent. He reported collecting $120,000 between January and March, compared to $80,000 for Davis, who still holds a 2-to-1 advantage in total cash.

Better still, with the 2006 runner-up to Davis deciding against another campaign, Roe doesn’t have any serious competition to dilute his challenge to Davis for the GOP nod in 2008. Whoever wins the primary will almost certainly carry the conservative district in the fall; Davis won with 61 percent of the vote in 2006 in what was a banner year from Democrats.

“It’s tough beating an incumbent. I’ve looked at the odds, I know that it’s hard to do, but I really think we have an excellent shot,” said Roe, who has retired from his medical practice and is starting his campaign earlier in order to devote more time to the race.

[Clintonfatigued]

An interesting primary in Tennessee. Freepers from that state would be best-qualified to comment on it.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Roe’s challenge sounds like sour grapes. Davis has already established himself as a rising Conservative star in TN. Upending incumbents in primaries in this state is rare and last happened in 1966 (when Ross Bass was beaten for the Senate seat by Frank Clement in a brutal rematch, which caused the Dems to lose the seat; and 72-year old Tom Murray in West TN who was beaten by a 36-year old upstart named Ray Blanton). The one incumbent running the biggest risk of primary defeat is Steve Cohen in the 9th, who is too liberal, too Jewish and too White for his Black district.

[darkangel82]

I can understand primaries againt losers or RINOs, but do we really need to split the party with a primary in TN-1?

[fieldmarshaldj]

Even if Roe upends Davis, it’s unlikely we’ll lose the seat. The 1st and 2nd districts are amongst the most historically GOP in the nation. The 1st last elected a Democrat in 1878, the 2nd not since 1852.

[SoConPubbie]

Judging by their web-sites, the incumbant David Davis is a much better candidate than Phil Roe.

Candidate Davis is out front with where he stands and is strong on limited government, Illegal Immigration, Military related issues, social issues etc.

Candidate Roe on the other hand says nary a word about his position on the issues on his web-site leading me to believe he is probably much more liberal than Mr. Davis.