Mae Beavers may leave State Senate
In today’s Lebanon Democrat, a story from reporter J.R. Lind reveals that the Tennessee Republican Party may have an unexpected open Senate seat fight on its hands in 2010.
State Senator Mae Beavers is considering staying home in 2010 and running for Wilson County mayor - a job that pays over $100K. From Lind’s presently hard-copy-only story:
State Sen. Mae Beavers says she’ll decide once the legislature adjourns whether she’ll run for Wilson County Mayor in 2010.
“I have had a lot of people calling and wanting me to run, and we’ll be making a decision next week or the week after,” she said.
The only announced candidate is former Lebanon Mayor Don Fox.
If Beavers does run for county mayor, it could trigger a domino effect, opening up the Senate seat Beavers, a Republican, has held since 2003. Republican A.J. McCall, a local businessman who unsuccessfully challenged Rep. Stratton Bone last November, said if Beavers runs for mayor, he’ll run for Senate. He had said he would be trying for Bone’s seat again in 2010.
Rep. Susan Lynn, also a Republican, said she would wait on Beavers’ decision before making her own.
Nashville Chatter Class sources say Democratic Senate Caucus Chair Sen. Lowe Finney has already been to Wilson County several times to interview potential Democratic candidates in anticipation of Beavers leaving the Senate.
If Beaver does leave, it means a Senate district which identified 50/50 Republican/Democrat is up for grabs in the last election before redistricting. If the 17th District seat is up for grabs, it would become a statewide race and possibly the key to controlling the Senate and the entire redistricting process.
H/T: Kleinheider
UPDATE: Lind’s story is now online here. (They are apparently a little slow manipulatin’ the Internets in Lebanon.)
