Wed
Apr 20 2011
08:07 pm
Roddy considers bid for Woodson's Senate seat
By: R. Neal

Various reports are coming in that Knoxville mayoral candidate Marilyn Roddy is considering a bid for soon to be former Sen. Jamie Woodson's seat in the State Senate.

The first clue was a tweet by WATE's Gene Patterson earlier today that Roddy had mentioned to WATE News that she had discussed the idea with her family.

Georgiana Vines now reports that Roddy has been in discussions with Speaker Ramsey about the post.

It was apparently also mention on another local TV news station at 6PM.

Let the record reflect that KnoxViews called it first.

This injects an interesting new dynamic into the race for Knoxville mayor. Regardless of whether Roddy is eventually considered for Woodson's Senate seat, she has now signaled that she's open to shopping around for whatever might be considered the biggest prize.

(Which makes you wonder what she knew and when she knew it when she opted out of the U.T. mayoral debate last week.)

If she decides to continue on in the mayor's race instead of setting her sights on Nashville, will she be able to overcome new questions with regard to her priorities, commitment, motivations, and loyalties? With her latest revelations to local media, not to mention her gushing press release today re. Haslam's sketchy jobs plan, one has to wonder.

Disclosure: The author of this post endorses and has contributed to the campaign of Madeline Rogero for Mayor, which is a personal choice and unrelated to commentary on current events regarding the election, for whatever that's worth and in case any readers hadn't already figured that out.
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Rachel's picture

Umm, is it really smart to go

Submitted by Rachel on Wed, 2011/04/20 - 10:24pm.

Umm, is it really smart to go after another position while you're running for Mayor (unless you've got it sewn up, that is)?

Knoxville voters might take it as a sign that she's not really all that interested in them.

And BTW, anybody else got their doubts that County Commission will appoint a moderate Republican woman from inside the city limits?

sobi's picture

Har!

Submitted by sobi on Wed, 2011/04/20 - 10:32pm.

Knoxville voters might take it as a sign that she's not really all that interested in them.

Why is this man smiling?

Rachel's picture

P.S. And I like Marilyn a

Submitted by Rachel on Wed, 2011/04/20 - 10:36pm.

P.S. And I like Marilyn a lot personally and think she's been a good Council member. However, this move is just weird.

JHayes's picture

What?

Submitted by JHayes on Thu, 2011/04/21 - 8:32am.

I think this is strange as well.

However, now that this has broke I would advise her to go after the Senate post. I think that if she decides to stay in the mayors race that a lot of her support will goto other candidates because Knoxvillians will think she always has an eye on another office.

Either way, I dont think that this is necessarily very good PR for her.

rocketsquirrel's picture

I think it more likely that

Submitted by rocketsquirrel on Thu, 2011/04/21 - 8:59am.

I think it more likely that her polling of late hasn't been that swell, and she realizes it is easier to be appointed than elected. 11 votes is a lot easier to manage than 4000 or 5000*, right?

*typical council election. mayorals may be higher.

R. Neal's picture

That could very well be (the

Submitted by R. Neal on Thu, 2011/04/21 - 9:08am.

That could very well be (the polling). She'd still have to run in a special election, though, even if she got the temporary appointment. Not sure if that would be the city mayor election, but I believe it may be. Maybe she can hedge her bets and be on both tickets.

rocketsquirrel's picture

ah. a Lieberman.

Submitted by rocketsquirrel on Thu, 2011/04/21 - 9:19am.

ah. a Lieberman.

Mary the prez's picture

I say we let her go ahead to Nashville...

Submitted by Mary the prez on Thu, 2011/04/21 - 10:19am.

because she might have turned into another 'half-term' Mayor like, um, Palin.

We must elect candidates who want to do all they can to help us, the voters, by encouraging new businesses to come here and create jobs, provide common sense solutions to our problems without having to resort to 'advisors' or 'experts' but who actually know about any given issue facing this community.

Madeline Rogero has over 20 years experience working in local Government, part of that time spent working in a GOP Administration. At the UT Debate she was impressive in her concise, factual answers to ALL the questions posed to her. Mrs Roddy claimed she had a more important, previous commitment. So those voters in attendance did not get to hear her answers to any of the questions asked.

reform4's picture

Most candidates do have their eyes on something bigger...

Submitted by reform4 on Thu, 2011/04/21 - 5:00pm.

.. and I'll usually vote for the one that I think doesn't have their eyes on something else and wants to do the job THEY WERE ELECTED TO DO and do it well.

I don't see Rogero as a position-climber. I sure see that in Padgett. Not sure about Harmon.

GDrinnen2's picture

Look for Grieve to jump in if

Submitted by GDrinnen2 on Thu, 2011/04/21 - 10:23am.

Look for Grieve to jump in if Roddy indeed drops out.

JHayes's picture

Do you have knowledge that Grieve would do that?

Submitted by JHayes on Thu, 2011/04/21 - 11:06am.

Or are you just flipping a coin? I have a hard time believing that would happen.

To me, it would make more sense for Joe Bailey to run. Nonetheless, it would be hard anyone, unless they had serious money already, to jump in the race now, because of fundraising, unless they were just running to run. If Roddy drops out, then it realistically comes down to Rogero vs Padgett.

Whether you like him or not, Bill Dunn makes the most sense for the Senate seat based on his experience.

fischbobber's picture

Joe Bailey

Submitted by fischbobber on Thu, 2011/04/21 - 11:10pm.

Joe Bailey will be a two term mayor of Knoxville, right after Rogero is term limited out of office.

Bank on it.

Rachel's picture

Grieve

Submitted by Rachel on Thu, 2011/04/21 - 1:54pm.

I can believe it. With Victor Ashe as his campaign manager and Tom McAdams as his treasurer.

Bbeanster's picture

Roddy's announcing right

Submitted by Bbeanster on Thu, 2011/04/21 - 3:01pm.

Roddy's announcing right about now

That she's running for senate.

Rachel's picture

Holy cow. Is she pulling out

Submitted by Rachel on Thu, 2011/04/21 - 3:09pm.

Holy cow.

Is she pulling out of the Mayor's race then?

Bbeanster's picture

Is she pulling out of the

Submitted by Bbeanster on Thu, 2011/04/21 - 3:16pm.

Is she pulling out of the Mayor's race then?

Guess so.

Here's what the consistent, persistent word is:

Roddy spent a buttload of money conducting a poll a couple weeks ago. THe poll showed Rogero a prohibitive frontrunner with Ivan second. Roddy was a distant third and Padgett was a blip.
Now why any campaign would leak bad numbers is beyond me, but it sure looks like she wanted a way out, maybe like Kim McMillin in the governor's race. The big difference here is Roddy had raised so damn much money. It is my understanding that she probably cannot transfer her warchest to a state race.

It's pretty bizarre all the way around.

GDrinnen2's picture

I don't have any inside

Submitted by GDrinnen2 on Thu, 2011/04/21 - 3:58pm.

I don't have any inside knowledge of Grieve's intention. Just a best guess. If Madeline's lead is what it appears, it wouldn't surprise me to see nobody else jump in.

Rachel's picture

Remember the rumor about the

Submitted by Rachel on Thu, 2011/04/21 - 6:37pm.

Remember the rumor about the person who was supposed to jump in the race, "suck all the air out of the room" and immediatly become the prohibitive favorite? What happened to him or her?

And curious - where do you guys think Roddy's supporters go? They're Rs, but I don't see them as Harmon types. They're business types, but Padgett is a D. Do they find a new candidate? If so, who?

Local politics hasn't been this much fun in a long time.

SnM's picture

All I know is what I read in

Submitted by SnM on Thu, 2011/04/21 - 8:14pm.

All I know is what I read in the papers.

So I don't have any idea who the establishment candidate who'd be the immediate front runner would be. But if a deal were brokered with Roddy to retire the field to this anonymous figure, wouldn't he (probably he) wait a decent grace period before announcing he'd been convinced by numerous concerned citizens that he needed to leap into the race for the good of the community?

Edit: Oh, I see Metro Pulse already put this out there in slightly more subtle form: (link...)

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