The Jackson Sun has reported that State Senator Roy Herron (D-Dresden) has announced he has raised 675K in his bid to replace retiring Congressman John Tanner (D-Union City) since his entry into the race on December 2nd. A caveat of this total is that 250K are funds donated by Herron to his own campaign, which in itself shows a rather large commitment and ability to self-fund. This rather large figure however has not completely cleared the primary field for Senator Herron as retired State Representative, and former House Transportation Chairman, Phillip Pinion (D-Union City) says he is still considering the race and states he can raise the funds to compete with Herron if he chooses to enter the race.
Source link: http://www.jacksonsun.com/arti…
On the Republican side of the aisle – gospel singer/farmer/agri-business operator Stephen Fincher, of Crockett County, announced shortly after the Herron release that he had 620K from two quarters of fund-raising. Fincher was the touted candidate of the NRCC even before Tanner’s retirement due to his fund-raising ability, but this has changed somewhat now that Dr. Ron Kirkland of Jackson has entered the race as of January 4th. Dr. Kirkland is a highly respected doctor and military veteran from the district’s largest population center, Jackson. Big strengths to Kirkland’s campaign will be his ability to raise money and/or self-fund, strong ties to business/professional community within the district, and links to strategically important northwest Tennessee via his family ties to Union City.
Source links:
Jackson Sun (on Kirkland): http://www.jacksonsun.com/arti…
Knoxville News-Sentinel (Fincher fundraising/Kirkland): http://blogs.knoxnews.com/hump…
A lot of that money was donations that were returned from shutting down his governors campaign and having people re-donate. I wouldn’t expect such a large haul next time around, although he may be able to keep pace with Finch.