On Politics: Laid-back U.S. Senate candidate Eaton lays the lumber to Tuke

Nashville real estate investor, used car salesman and U.S. Senate candidate Kenneth Eaton made a little splash with what would be a life investment for most folks. Eaton dropped $275,000 into his Senate campaign, making him instantly competitive from a fund-raising standpoint with competitors Bob Tuke, a Nashville lawyer and former Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman, and Mike Padgett, a career county politician from Knoxville.

Yet, it is the language Eaton was road testing last week against Tuke that might really have an impact if he can put that money to any use in a media buy.

Tuke’s claim to fame is his former party chair status, something he touts regularly. Eaton, in a visit to the City Paper offices last week, began the process of trying to turn that around on the former Marine, Tuke.

“Bob Tuke has already failed us once,” Eaton insisted. “We had a Democrat in Harold Ford Jr. that should have won this state in 2006 and didn’t. Who was party chair? Bob Tuke, and he has already let us down.”

Eaton late in the week rolled that tidbit out in a press release. Clad in sandals, shorts and a Hawaiian print shirt, Eaton did not cut a very senatorial profile sitting in our offices. But his riff on Tuke is the best shot of the otherwise sleepy Democratic Senate primary to date.

Governor Cooper?

Yes, it’s a little like throwing a hand grenade into a crowded hallway, but the subject of Congressman Jim Cooper running for governor in 2010 has been the subject of some conversation lately among Dems from D.C. to Nashville.

Becoming known in his second stint in Congress as the budget hawk’s budget hawk, Cooper is being discussed as a possible cabinet candidate for a Sen. Barack Obama White House.

Yet, Cooper may be the only Democrat who could really give former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist a run for his money, literally, in 2010’s gubernatorial contest.

Cooper has as deep a reach into Nashville pockets as Frist. Cooper too can self-fund. He has ties into rural Tennessee from his old 4th District days, and he is a Bredesen Democrat — meaning socially moderate and fiscally conservative.

Despite the chatter, Cooper is likely not interested, telling us last week he has no interest in higher office. Is governor higher than Congressman? It could be a matter of perspective.

Donut Doubting

There was some serious shifting in the management and funding of the ailing Music City Star project, the commuter rail line out of Wilson County to Nashville’s riverfront.

The state agreed to give the seldom-used rail line another $1 million injection of cash to continue to cover operating expenses since the line fails to break even or meet ridership numbers. In the Regional Transit Authority meetings — the quasi-governmental body that governs the rail line — Wilson County officials apparently in concert with Mayor Karl Dean’s office suggested moving management of the Music City Star to the MTA, Metro’s internal transit manager.

All of this is, of course, predicated somewhat on local governments in Wilson County coming up with some measure of matching funds to add to what the state has done and what Metro will not likely be forced to do.

Dean will have trouble making the case the city cannot afford all its bus routes but can afford a financial defibrillator for the Music City Star. Getting money out of notoriously tight Wilson County officials will be an even bigger feat.