Previewing the Tennessee House Primaries

By Scott Bland  //  August 2, 2012 | 10:41 a.m.

Updated 12:20 p.m.

In 2010, open seats and several Republican pickup opportunities combined to make Tennessee one of the most interesting, quirky states of the cycle. It was an early proving ground for unlimited outside money in House primaries, and several of those nominating contests were extremely competitive. Those themes are repeating themselves in this year's Tennesee primaries, where two incumbents have tough contests and outside money is again playing a role in today's votes.

In the 3rd District, freshman Republican Rep. Chuck Fleischmann drew three challengers, including well-funded dairy mogul Scottie Mayfield and Weston Wamp, the son of the man who held the seat from 1995 through 2011. Fleischmann has defended the seat energetically, expending his campaign treasury and recognizing his danger early after winning the 2010 open primary with just 30 percent of the vote in a large, divided field.

Yet neither Mayfield nor Wamp effectively capitalized on Fleischmann's lack of stability. Mayfield was even considered an early favorite to take the seat, with pre-existing name recognition from his family's dairy business. But he ran a startlingly issue-free campaign, declining to detail policy positions on a number of occasions and saying that could wait for when he got to Washington. He also did not attend most of the candidate forums, leading the Chattanooga Times Free Press to title their endorsement editorial "Anyone but Mayfield." (It also certainly didn't help when Mayfield's son slashed the tires of a Fleischmann staffer's car.) Wamp, meanwhile, ran a flight of eye-catching TV ads but also got sidetracked into competing with Mayfield for the anti-Fleischmann vote for long stretches of the primary.

Fleischmann still figures to get a relatively low percentage of votes today (and could still lose), but his more focused campaign -- touting his hardscrabble roots and his work in Congress -- put him in the driver's seat of a race that threatened at one point to careen out of his control.

In the state's other notable primary, freshman GOP Rep. Diane Black faces a repeat challenge from Lou Ann Zelenik, the former Rutherford County Republican chair and one of the leading opponents of the construction of a mosque in Murfreesboro, a hot local issue. Zelenik argues that Black is insufficiently opposed to the mosque, but, like Fleischmann, Black recognized her danger early and spent over $2.3 million on her campaign through July 13, the pre-primary reporting deadline. Zelenik's spending pales in comparison, but she does have the help of two well-financed outside groups: Citizens 4 Ethics in Government and the Congressional Elections PAC, both of which were financed by Zelenik's former fundraising chair, an investor named Andrew Miller. Black's incumbency and money gives her an advantage, but Zelenik and the outside groups are airing sharp TV ads against her, and Black also came out of the 2010 primary with something less than a mandate of support with the base: She beat Zelenik with 31 percent, and by just a few hundred votes, in a more crowded 2010 field. This year, the one-on-one matchup created greater danger for Black, triggering her big pre-primary spending.

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