by State Senator Mark Norris

“…and for any speech or debate…they shall not be questioned in any other place.”
-Article II, Sec. 13, Tennessee Constitution

With apologies to Peter Taylor, author of the novel by the same title, I have been summoned to Memphis to appear in federal court thanks to Ophelia Ford. Thus, I find myself in the midst of a legal battle of potentially historic, constitutional proportions. (more…)

Carl “Two Feathers” Whittaker is running for Governor as a Republican. I wish him the best in his campaign, but from what I see in the media and around the blogosphere, he’s being considered as a second-class candidate, along with a list of others.

Since Rep. Beth Harwell announced her decision not to run for Governor (and since even before that, really), there has been plenty of speculation, far and wide, about big names that might sign up, what the Tennessee GOP’s strategy might be, and how this all could play out for Democrats.

Meanwhile, there are four Republicans battling it out in the Senate primary. Ed Bryant, of course, has suggested two of his opponents for consideration. Judging from Jeff Ward’s take on Bryant’s campaign not having state-wide appeal, it’s difficult to say whether Van Hillary’s supporters might say the same thing about Bryant. Still, there is a clear push from all sides of the Senate primary that someone should step up to the plate and take on Phil Bredesen.

I thought I’d go ahead and add my two cents on that one, and what better way to do that than to consult a WHOIS engine, to see if any of the current Senate candidates have the governor’s race in mind.

But first, I’d like to point out that harwellforgovernor.com was registered on September 23, 2005, by Mike Kopp of Nashville, and the domain is reserved for one year from that date. According to a Google search,

Mike Kopp is Senior Vice President of MMA Creative, Inc. Mike was deputy Commissionsioner of The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development under Governor Phil Bredesen. He has been press secretary to Al Gore.

Interesting. But back to the Senate candidates:

Both bryantforgovernor.com and edbryantforgovernor.com are unclaimed.

Hillearyforgovernor.com and vanhillearyforgovernor.com are unclaimed.

Moderforgovernor.com and jeffmoderforgovernor.com are unclaimed.

But it turns out Bob Corker is, in fact, interested in the possibility of running for Governor of Tennessee. His people have reserved both corkerforgovernor.com and bobcorkerforgovernor.com. Both domains were registed by Michael Compton of Chattanooga, who was chief-of-staff while Corker was mayor. They were both registered on July 20, 2004, and are paid through the same date in 2007.

The two Corker for Governor domains were registered on the same day, and by the same person, as Corker’s Senate campaign website.

Bobcorkerforpresident.com is still available.

UPDATE: Jay Bush has picked up this post, and the importance of my research is being challenged by an anonymous reader in the comments: (more…)