TN-4: Davis Announces Early for Tennessee Governor

[Brittain33]

I don't know why Davis would do this to Democrats.  They would almost certainly lose this seat without him running. 

Why are you so sure? He won it from a departing Republican in 2002, hardly a good year for Democrats in Tennessee or anywhere. Democrats still have quite a bench in the state.

[Brittain33]

In the district is what matters. Don't want to run in a Republican leaning district with the carpetbagger tag.

Do we have any reason to believe there aren't Democrats in this district in the state legislature? This isn't South Carolina or Texas, middle Tennessee still (to the best of my knowledge) still elects plenty of Democrats. Yes, it's tough to make the transition from state to federal, but Lincoln Davis did it in modern times. This district was drawn to be competitive for Democrats vs. the 1990s edition.

[Brittain33]

"quite a bench" is now random state legislators?

For a seat in the House of Representatives? Absolutely, it is. Where do you think most Representatives come from, and what is the biggest obstacle to electing Republicans in Massachusetts or Democrats in Florida?

Remember, I was responding to the argument that this district is a certain loss for the Democrats if Davis leaves. The existence of state legislators (which, I grant, is hypothetical right now because I'm not going to the TN web site) means that Democrats have people they can run there.

[Brittain33]

Quite a bench is a number of candidates with both personal popularity and some political skill, money doesn't hurt either. If their bench consists of a few ho-hum state legislators who are party line political hacks, at least they have some bench.

Fair enough!