Ramsey targets former GOP colleague while helping Democrat Kurita

While prominent Democrats are targeting one of their own, Republican state senators are going after a former GOP colleague with their checkbooks.

Republican state senators and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey’s political action committee have contributed nearly $13,000 to the campaign of Mike Faulk, who is a Church Hill, Tenn., attorney challenging Sen. Mike Williams (I-Maynardville).

Williams was a Republican senator until formally leaving the GOP in 2007 to become an Independent. He first enraged Republicans in 2005 when he crossed party lines and voted to re-elect John Wilder (D-Mason) for Senate speaker despite a GOP majority.

The GOP wants to turn the 4th Senatorial District, which covers a rural area north of Knoxville, back to red.

Republican senators and Ramsey’s PAC, called RAAMPAC, are chipping in, with about $12,000 of the nearly $13,000 in contributions going to Faulk during the second quarter of 2008.

Ramsey (R-Blountville), who personally contributed $2,000 to Faulk while RAAMPAC has maxed out for the primary election with $7,500 in donations, said he called other Republican senators to encourage them to donate to Williams’ opponent.

“I did make phone calls to other senators to encourage them to give to Mike Faulk because he would be a team player if he came in and I know that Sen. Mike is no longer a Republican and switched to Independent,” Ramsey said in an interview. “And so it makes it very easy for us to go after him.”

In addition, Senate Republican Leader Mark Norris of Collierville gave Faulk $2,000, Sen. Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro) contributed $1,000 and Sen. Bo Watson (R-Hixson) donated $200.

Williams said the Republican senators’ contributions were “all self-serving” to maintain power and that the donations don’t surprise him.

“I’m not offended by it,” Williams said. “We just do our jobs differently. I think my job is to represent the people up here in my district and do the things that they want me to do and they do their job in Nashville and they do the work of the party.”

Overall, Faulk has a commanding fund-raising lead versus Williams. For the second quarter ending June 30, Faulk raised about $58,000 and has more than $143,000 in cash on hand. He’s also loaned his campaign $50,000.

Meanwhile, Williams has just about $15,000 in his campaign account after raising a meager $1,910 for the second quarter.

Williams said he hasn’t tried to raise money until the last few weeks.

“I’m not worried about it,” he said.

On the other side of the aisle, prominent Democrats from former Gov. Ned McWherter to Wilder are contributing to Sen. Rosalind Kurita’s Democratic primary challenger.

Similar to Williams in 2005, Kurita sacrificed party loyalty in 2007 and voted for Ramsey to be elected Senate speaker.

Ramsey said he has helped raise money for Kurita through calling donors on her behalf as well as contributors calling him and asking if he minded if they gave to her.

“I want to do anything I can to help,” Ramsey said, adding that he feels “very confident” that Kurita will defeat Democratic challenger Tim Barnes in the Aug. 7 primary.

The Senate is evenly divided with 16 Democrats, 16 Republicans and one Independent.