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Gloves come off in GOP gubernatorial race




Gloves come off in GOP gubernatorial race

Gloves come off in GOP gubernatorial race

Tennessee’s Republican gubernatorial candidates are doing more than slinging mud in the final days of the race. They’re mud wrestling.

As early voting arrived July 13 and with the Aug. 2 election approaching, the rhetoric is getting rough, leading some pundits to call this a “race to the bottom.”

After being hit with an ad accusing him of backing Democratic candidates with donations, Franklin businessman Bill Lee responded with his own ad saying he won’t “go down that road.”

“It’s not what a leader does,” Lee says. Furthermore, he points out “dishonest” attack ads “reveal a lot more truth about the person running the ad than the person in the ad.”

And even after being largely ignored in the barb-throwing between U.S. Rep. Diane Black, Knoxville businessman Randy Boyd and Lee, House Speaker Beth Harwell started running a TV ad distinguishing herself as “the adult in the room.”

The piece portrays the other three as children throwing tantrums as Harwell says they can only make promises while she has delivered in the Tennessee General Assembly by balancing the state’s budget, cutting taxes and outlawing sanctuary cities. The ad also shows Harwell reading a book to the trio as a mother or teacher would to calm them down.

“My opponents are spending a great deal of time arguing over things we’ve already done in Tennessee,” Harwell says. “We outlawed sanctuary cities in Tennessee even before President Trump’s election. We strengthened the law just last legislative session by adding monetary penalties to any local municipality that chooses to defy the law.

“Tennessee has been recognized two years in a row as the most conservative state Legislature in America by the American Conservative Union. We’ve balanced our budget and cut taxes for everyone without adding debt. As a result, Tennessee is the envy of nearly every other state.”

Harwell, who reportedly has spent about $2.6 million overall in the race, avoided getting entangled in snares with the other three until her ad started running last week.

On the contrary, Boyd has poured more than $15 million into his campaign, a good deal of it responding to ads from Black.

“I thought (Harwell’s) commercial was kind of funny and comical, so I just laughed that one off,” Boyd says.

During a bus stop tour Thursday in Murfreesboro, Boyd said he wants to try to stay positive but when attacked his campaign will defend itself.

“Some other people took some swings at us first, and, unfortunately, I feel like we needed to respond. But I’m hopeful before the end of the race people can start focusing on the positive again. We’ll do our best to do that,” Boyd says.

The Black campaign says a political action committee (PAC) supporting Boyd ran a radio ad with toilet-flushing sounds attacking her early in the campaign. Black’s group says the ad is false.

“A Randy Boyd-related PAC has been attacking Diane Black for months,” says Black’s spokesman Chris Hartline. “While the attacks are untrue – the ads have been pulled off the air in some areas of the state – Randy Boyd continues to repeat them. Diane is running a positive campaign but voters need to know they have a choice between conservative Diane Black, self-described moderate Randy Boyd and Democratic donor Bill Lee.”

Black has run ads calling Boyd and Lee “two moderates” and another focusing on Boyd as an “anti-hunter.” More pointedly, Black recently ran TV pieces accusing Lee of donating money to former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, a liberal Democrat, and former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen, as well as former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean. That ad, which warns voters not to get burned again by Lee, contends his support of those politicians shows backing for sanctuary city policies.

The Black campaign points toward a news interview in which Boyd is described as a Republican but not an “ideologue.”

“I’m probably the most hated, disrespected, untolerated political entity in existence. I’m a moderate,” he says in the Knoxville Mercury article.

Asked about the statement in that article, Boyd says it was made about four or five years ago, and he was speaking in context of sitting down and talking with people who have political differences.

Ronald Reagan was a great example. He talked with Tip O’Neill, and they got things done. Today in Washington, D.C., nobody talks to anybody with an opposing view. So nothing happens,” Boyd says. “I’m a conservative in that I believe in smaller government, lower taxes. I believe in fighting for the Second Amendment and fighting for the right to life. I believe in balancing our budget. I believe in enforcing our borders.”

While Boyd says he is trying to stay positive, though, a recent ad his campaign released describes Black as “D.C. Diane” and calls her a “20-year professional politician” whose net worth increased by more than $40 million while she was in the “D.C. Swamp.”

“While enriching herself, D.C. Diane worked to raise our taxes by $160 million, while cutting her taxes by millions. And as budget chair, D.C. Diane let the debt soar to $21 trillion. D.C. Diane Black: Out for herself, not us,” says Boyd’s ad.

Black has spent a reported $10.2 million, much of it on TV ads describing her stance against illegal immigration. Boyd has countered those with ads contending she voted to make it easier for illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses while she was in the state Senate.

But Black’s ads seem to be pointed more at Lee late in the primary campaign.

“We have more cash on hand right now than any other campaign, and we’re surging in the polls,” says Lee’s spokesman Chris Burger.

The Lee campaign doesn’t deny the donations to Barry and other Democrats, but Burger says Lee has given $164,540 to candidates with 99 percent of that money going to Republicans.

“Negative, dishonest attack ads are everything that’s wrong with politics,” Burger says.

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