It was about a half hour of the announcement made by the former senator and former “Law and Order” actor Fred Thompson that he would drop out of the race that the phone of Ron Ramsey, the state Senate speaker started to ring.
Ramsey who did heavy campaigning for Fred Thompson was courted by the campaigns of the other candidates. The first call was from Mike Huckabee’s campaign, followed by Mitt Romney’s campaign, then finally with a call from John McCain’s campaign. It would look as if Ramsey did not get a call from Rudy Giuliani’s campaign.
While Tennessee is not amongst the largest states that will hold primaries on Super Tuesday, the department of Fred Thompson has put the state into play where the Republican Party lacks a clear frontrunner.
To Ramsey, he is in unfamiliar territory.
“I was for Fred, I studied Fred, I knew about Fred,” Ramsey explained. He added: “The others I hadn’t paid that much attention to because I was for Fred.”
Along with other Republican officials, Ramsey is unsure on whom to endorse or to change their plans since Thompson’s name still remains on the ballot.
“I’m encouraging folks who believe in the principles Thompson espoused to vote for Fred and vote for his delegates,” said Mark Norris, the Senate Republican leader. He added: “I still think that’s the clearest choice.”
In Tennessee, if Thompson gets over 20 percent of the Republican vote, his delegates will be sent to the GOP convention where they could play a very instrumental role. However, most are not certain what to expect.
“One thing is certain, it won’t be a landslide for Thompson in Tennessee anymore,” Norris said with a laugh. Norris represents several of the westernmost counties in the states.
While trying to gain traction with Republican voters in other states, it would be expected that Thompson would win in his home state of Tennessee.
“Fred is very popular in our state and I think he certainly would have won the Tennessee Republican primary if he was at it full bored,” according to US Senator Bob Corker, R-Tennessee. He added: “What (his departure) does is throw our state open to other candidates.”
According to Michael Fitzgerald, a professor at the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee, McCain could gain support from voters that agree with his stances on the military and foreign affairs.
In the case of Mitt Romney, his stance on the economy and his economic platform would garner support from voters that agree with him.
However, Huckabee’s appeal amongst the Evangelical Christians would remain the same according to Fitzgerald.
“Huckabee’s piece of the action is with more fundamentalist Christians, the evangelicals,” Fitzgerald had explained. He added: “Fred’s being in or out wouldn’t make a difference with that group.”