Tennessee: Seventh District

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R)

Marsha Blackburn (R) Elected 2002, 3d term up
Born:	06-06-1952, Laurel, MS
Home:	Brentwood
Education:	MS St. U., B.S. 1973
Religion:	Presbyterian
Marital Status:	married (Chuck)
Elected  Office:	TN Senate, 1998-2002.
Professional Career:	Retail marketing consultant, 1973-98.
DC Office	509 CHOB, 20515 202-225-2811 Fax: 202-225-3004 Website: blackburn.house.gov
State Offices	Clarksville:931-503-0391; Franklin:615-591-5161; Memphis:901-382-5811;
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Rural Tennessee north of Mississippi is one of the most sparsely settled areas in the state. Along each side of the Tennessee River, as it flows north and widens out into Kentucky Lake amid heavy forests, are small rural communities; many go back to pre-Civil War days and some have not grown much since. One of those towns is Waynesboro, where Davy Crockett delivered campaign speeches from the base of a huge natural stone double bridge overlooking the Buffalo River. Farther west is McNairy County, where Sheriff Buford Pusser of Walking Tall fame carried his big stick until his untimely death in 1974; in Fayette County, outside of Memphis, black sharecroppers in 1959 were removed from white-owned land and they created a “tent city” that extended for a decade and was the longest civil rights protest in the nation. Here, the land is flatter and more open, a northward extension economically and demographically of the northern Mississippi farmlands. This mostly empty land is bounded on two sides by large metropolitan areas, Nashville to the east and Memphis to the west. South of Nashville is booming Williamson County, which had more slaves than whites prior to the Civil War, was occupied by the Union Army for three years and was a scene of devastation; now, though some pockets of poverty linger, its bedroom communities of Franklin and Brentwood make it the most affluent, highly educated and fastest-growing county in Tennessee. To the north, along the Cumberland River, is fast-growing Clarksville, with many well-restored 19th century homes, a large industrial park and the sprawling Fort Campbell army base, which is home to the 101st Airborne Division and has more than 20,000 military personnel just across the Kentucky border.

The 7th Congressional District of Tennessee spans this territory, packing Republican voters from Montgomery County’s seat of Clarksville, south through the western half of Cheatham County and most of Williamson County plus a bite of Nashville-Davidson, then rambling west across the Tennessee River and south to the Mississippi border and finally to the white neighborhoods on the east side of Memphis and Shelby County. On the map, this looks like a rural district. Demographically, it’s mostly suburban. The 7th grew by 12% between 2000 and 2005, making this the fastest-growing district in the state. Almost 40% of its votes are cast in metro Memphis and 30% in metro Nashville, mostly in the Republican stronghold of Williamson County; another 11% are in Montgomery County and only 21% in the smaller rural counties. The 7th is nearly as solidly Republican as the 1st District in faraway East Tennessee. In 2004, when John Kerry won Nashville by about 25,000 votes (55%-45%), George W. Bush carried the four rapidly growing counties in the southern and eastern suburbs of Nashville by 91,000 votes (66%-33%), with 72% in Williamson.

The congresswoman from the 7th District is Marsha Blackburn, a Republican first elected in 2002. She grew up in a Farm Bureau family in Laurel, Mississippi, where her father sold oil-field production equipment. Her interest in gardening and canning won her a 4-H college scholarship at Mississippi State University, where she majored in merchandising and clothing. She helped pay her way through college by selling books door-to-door and then became a sales manager with Southwestern Company, which sells educational materials, and moved to Williamson County. (Her hilltop home is known as “Up Yonder,” named by its former owner, Grand Ole Opry star Minnie Pearl). Blackburn became director of retail fashion for a Nashville department store and was appointed by Governor Don Sundquist as executive director of the Tennessee Film, Entertainment and Music Commission. In 1992, she was the Republican nominee against Bart Gordon in the 6th District and attacked his spending record and the congressional pay raise; she lost 57%-41%. She was elected in 1998 to the Tennessee Senate, where she became an outspoken opponent of Sundquist’s proposed income tax. She was well known there for her appearances on conservative radio talk shows and for organizing rallies opposed to the income tax.

When Congressman Ed Bryant decided to run for the Senate, Blackburn sought to replace him. Seven candidates ran in the Republican primary; three were familiar figures in the Memphis area. Blackburn was the only well-known candidate from the Nashville area. She benefited from $100,000 in advertising and another $90,000 in contributions by the anti-tax Club for Growth, and from attacks by the Shelby County candidates on one another. She ran as pro-life, pro-gun and pro-military. The Memphis area cast 50% of the votes and the Nashville area only 25%. But Blackburn won 40% to 20% for the runner-up. She took 78% in the Nashville area, and was competitive in the Memphis area, with 24%. Blackburn easily won the general election and has not been seriously challenged since.

In the House, Blackburn continued her low-tax message and her voting record was among the most conservative. She urged across-the-board cuts for non-defense discretionary spending. She cosponsored the bill to make sales taxes deductible in states that have no income tax; it was passed as part of the corporate tax bill. On telecom issues, she urged renewal of the federal ban on Internet access taxes and filed the Video Choice Act, to create more diversity in cable programming by reducing regulations. She became an outspoken advocate of securing the nation’s borders, including the 700-mile fence along the Mexican border.

Blackburn was mentioned as a possible candidate for the Senate or governor in 2006. But once she won a seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, she had sufficient incentive to remain in the House. After the 2006 election, she was one of four candidates to chair the Republican Conference, but she was eliminated on the second ballot. Instead, she became a deputy whip and communications chairwoman for both the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican Study Committee.

Committees

• Energy & Commerce (26th of 26 R)
  Oversight & Investigations; Commerce, Trade & Consumer Protection; Health; Energy & Air Quality.
• Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming (5th of 6 R).
  

Presidential Vote

District Demographics (More Info)

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R +12
• Area size: 6,349 square miles
• Urban Population: 61.0%
• Rural Population: 39.0%
• Population 2000: 632,139
• Population 2005 (est): 707,771
• Median Income: $50,090
• Poverty Status: 8.0%
• Military Veterans: 14.2%
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 83.5% White; 11.4% Black; 1.5% Asian; 0.2% Native Am.; 0.1% Hawaiian; 1.1% Two+ races; 0.1% Other; 2.2% Hispanic Origin;
• Ancestry: 12.3% USA%; 9.1% English%; 9.1% Irish%;
• Occupation: Blue collar 24.0%; White collar 64.0%; Gray collar 12.0%;