Fincher prepares for battle with Herron
August 13, 2010
| JACKSON — The Republican challengers for Tennessee’s 8th Congressional District came together Thursday to back nominee Stephen Fincher as he gears up for the fall race against Democrat Roy Herron. Dr. Ron Kirkland, Randy Smith and Dr. George Flinn stood next to Fincher on Thursday as they spoke to supporters, local elected officials and candidates from other races about restoring conservative values in Washington, D.C. They talked about galvanizing the support for the Frog Jump farmer after a primary saw some candidates air contentious ads at their opponents. In last week’s election, Fincher held off Kirkland, Flinn and Smith to move ahead to the November election against state Sen. Herron of Dresden. The winner will take over the seat left vacant by retiring U.S. Rep. John Tanner, D-Union City. The stop in Jackson was the second of an all-day tour through four counties for Fincher on Thursday. He said the key to success and bringing jobs back to the area is moving forward as a team while at the Tennessee GOP Victory Office in Jackson. “I would be asked a lot, ‘You know, Stephen, after all this negative campaigning and all these attacks, are you guys going to be able to move forward as one as the country goes forward and unite the party,'” Fincher said. “And I said, ‘Absolutely—I don’t have a doubt in my mind.'” The Democratic Party doesn’t represent the conservative throwbacks it once did, said Fincher. Instead, it’s become the party of San Francisco and Chicago, he said. “We all sink together or we all swim together,” Fincher said. “If we don’t put policy back in Washington that rewards the job creators and stops punishing the job creators, we’re not going to move out of this recession.” Flinn, a Shelby County commissioner, talked about the friendship he developed with Fincher throughout the campaign. It’s time for focusing on getting a true conservative in Fincher in the U.S. Congress, he said. Kirkland, a Jackson physician, said he admires the values that Fincher stands for after a tough battle for the historically Democratic seat. “I didn’t win, but we fought hard and tried to differentiate ourselves from the other candidates, and the press and a lot of others took that negatively,” Kirkland said. “The (four candidates) knew that when this was over, we were going to join together behind the winner, and we’re doing that today. “The future is this fall … for the first time this November in 141 years, we will elect a Republican to our U.S. Congress,” Kirkland said. U.S. Sen. Bob Corker said although primaries can be tough at times, the winner of them becomes a better candidate for that position. In 1994, Corker was part of a six-candidate Republican primary for senator that saw Bill Frist emerge. “He won by a huge margin that year because everybody got behind him,” Corker said of Frist’s victory over incumbent Jim Sasser. |