Phil Bredesen

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Philip Norman "Phil" Bredesen (born November 21, 1943) is the 48th Governor of Tennessee, having served since 2003. He had previously served as the fourth mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County from 1991 to 1999.

Bredesen was born in Oceanport, New Jersey, but grew up in Shortsville, New York, a small agricultural community just south of Rochester. He earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Harvard University. He and his wife, Andrea Conte, have one son, Ben. Bredesen moved to Nashville in 1975. While doing research at the public library, he drafted a business plan in the couple's small apartment that led to the creation of HealthAmerica Corp., a healthcare management company that eventually grew to more than 6,000 employees and was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. He sold his controlling interest in HealthAmerica in 1986.

Early political career

Bredesen's political career seemingly got off to a slow start. His first political campaign was in 1987, when he ran for mayor of Nashville. He finished second to 5th District Congressman Bill Boner, but since Boner only won 42% of the vote, he and Bredesen faced each other in a runoff. Boner won the runoff, largely by emphasizing that he was a Nashville native while Bredesen was a Northerner.

In 1988, he ran in the Democratic primary for the congressional seat left open by Boner's victory--the real contest in a district that had been in Democratic hands since 1875. However, he finished a distant second behind Bob Clement, son of former governor Frank G. Clement. This obviously did not sour him on politics, as he ran for mayor again in 1991 and won by a comfortable majority. He was reelected almost as easily in 1995.

As mayor of Nashville, he prided himself on having added more than 440 new teachers, building 32 new schools and renovating 43 others. He also implemented a back-to-basics curriculum to teach students the fundamentals of learning. Also under the Bredesen Administration, the NFL's Houston Oilers (now Tennessee Titans) were brought to Nashville and were furnished with a new stadium (LP Field); the NHL's Nashville Predators were brought here; a new arena was built (Gaylord Entertainment Center); and a new downtown library was built as a cornerstone of major improvements to the entire library system. Bredesen's effort to lure the Minnesota Timberwolves NBA franchise to Nashville was not successful.

In 1994, Bredesen won the Democratic nomination for governor and faced Republican 7th District Congressman Don Sundquist in the November general election. The race was initially thought to be one of the hottest races of the cycle, but Sundquist won by an unexpectedly large margin (almost 10 points) in what may have been the biggest night for the Tennessee Republican Party in recent memory.

Bredesen did not run for a third term in 1999. The Metro Charter had been amended to limit city council members to two consecutive four-year terms. However, the amendment was worded in such a way that it appeared to apply to mayors as well. While mayors had been limited to three consecutive terms since the formation of Metro Nashville in 1963, Bredesen did not make an issue of it.

Governor of Tennessee

In 2002, after Sundquist was barred from a third term, Bredesen ran for governor again and easily won the Democratic nomination. He faced Republican 4th District Congressman Van Hilleary in November. Bredesen promised to manage state government better, improve Tennessee's schools and use his experience as a managed-care executive to fix TennCare. He initially promised to abide by a new state law limiting the amount of money one could contribute to one's own campaign. However, the state attorney general subsequently issued an opinion that the law was unconstitutional and hence unenforceable, as the United States Supreme Court had previously struck down a similar federal law with regard to federal campaigns. Bredesen also had a well-established reputation as a moderate Democrat (he is a member of the "good government" faction of the Nashville Democratic Party), so Hilleary's attempts to brand him as a liberal went nowhere. This allowed Bredesen to garner far more support in East Tennessee than was usual for a Democrat, especially a Democrat from Nashville. In November, Bredesen narrowly defeated Hilleary with 51 percent of the vote. He did surprisingly well in several East Tennessee counties where Democrats usually don't compete, let alone win. He actually won Knox County, home to Knoxville, by a few hundred votes.

Bredesen is a founding member of Nashville's Table, a non-profit group that collects overstocked and discarded food from local restaurants for the city's homeless population, and served on the board of the Frist Center, a major art gallery that was established to utilize the former downntown main Nashville post office. Bredesen also founded the Land Trust for Tennessee, a non-profit organization that works to preserve open areas and family farms. As Governor, he is member of the National Governors Association, the Southern Governors' Association, and the Democratic Governors Association. He does not accept his gubernatorial salary.

For much of 2005, Bredesen was considered a heavy favorite for reelection in 2006. However, several scandals placed his reelection in doubt. In particular, evidence of cronyism and influence-peddling in the State Highway Patrol and Bredesen's decision to terminate health insurance coverage for some 200,000 state citizens caused a shift away from Bredesen in some polls. However, as 2005 ended, most polls showed Bredesen had surged back to a substantial lead. He is not as popular as the only Democratic governor to serve two four-year terms, Ned McWherter, but no Republican with the name recognition and financing necessary to run statewide (especially in light of Bredesen's ability to self-finance his campaign) has shown interest in facing him. On June 28 2006 he oversaw the second execution in Tennessee since 1960. He supports the death penalty.

External links

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