Phil Bredesen
Encyclopedia
Philip Norman "Phil" Bredesen Jr. (born November 21, 1943) was the 48th Governor of Tennessee, serving from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected Governor in 2002, and was re-elected in 2006. He previously served as the fourth mayor of Nashville
and Davidson County
from 1991 to 1999.
. His parents were Norma Lucille (née Walborn) and Philip Norman Bredesen. His father, a captain in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, was stationed at Fort Monmouth
in New Jersey
at the time of Bredesen's birth. The family lived in various locations during Bredesen's early childhood, including Canandaigua, New York
and Arlington, Massachusetts
.
When his parents separated in 1951, Norma moved with her two sons, Phil and his younger brother Dean (1947–2006), to her family home in Shortsville, New York
, where they lived with Bredesen's maternal grandmother, a widow. Shortsville is the community Bredesen considers to be his hometown, and he lived there until he left for college. He attended the Red Jacket Central Elementary and Secondary School, located in the adjoining village of Manchester
.
In 1961, Bredesen entered Harvard College
, where he concentrated in physics
and lived in Quincy House
. He received his A.B. in 1967.
Bredesen married Susan Cleaves in 1968, but they divorced in 1974 and had no children. In 1974, Bredesen married Andrea Conte
in Wheatley, Oxfordshire
, England
, and the two have one son, Ben. In 1975, the family moved to Nashville, Tennessee
. There Bredesen founded HealthAmerica Corp., an insurance 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, and because of the wealth he earned from his work with the company, he did not accept his gubernatorial salary.
, 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
. Bredesen 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 added more than 440 new teachers, built 32 new schools and renovated 43 others. He also implemented a back-to-basics curriculum to teach students the fundamentals of learning. Additionally, under the Bredesen Administration, the NFL
's Houston Oilers (now Tennessee Titans
) were brought to Nashville and were furnished with a new stadium
; the NHL
awarded Nashville its first of four new expansion franchises as the Nashville Predators
; a new arena was built; and a new downtown library
was built as a cornerstone of major improvements to the entire library system. However, 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 a large margin (almost 10 points).
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, and was worded in such a way that it appeared to apply to mayors as well. Although mayors had been permitted to serve a maximum of three consecutive terms since the formation of Metro Nashville in 1963, Bredesen did not make an issue of that.
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
. Bredesen's reputation as a moderate Democrat was well established (he is a member of the "good government" faction of the Nashville Democratic Party), so Hilleary's attempts to brand him as a liberal did not work. 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 well in several East Tennessee counties where Democrats usually do not fare well except in landslides. He won Knox County
, home to Knoxville
, by a few hundred votes; by comparison, George W. Bush
had won Knox County by over 40,000 votes.
Bredesen opened the administrative budget meetings, and established new ethics rules for the executive branch.
He also managed Tennessee through a fiscal crisis without raising taxes or cutting funding for education. By Bredesen’s fourth year in office, Tennessee had passed four balanced budgets, received top rankings from national bond rating agencies and raised its Rainy Day Fund to a record high.
In his second and third years on the job, Bredesen pushed to improve education
. He did this by raising teacher pay above average salary in the Southeast
and expanding Tennessee’s pre-kindergarten initiative into a program for four-year-olds across Tennessee. He created the Governor’s Books from Birth Foundation, a statewide expansion of Dolly Parton
’s Imagination Library that offers children free books monthly in all 95 counties. In his fourth year, Bredesen worked with the General Assembly
to increase funding for education by $366.5 million.
He worked with the General Assembly to reform Tennessee’s worker compensation system and invest in programs to help laid-off employees develop new skills, in order to recruit new industry and jobs to Tennessee. Since he took office, 2,889 companies – including Nissan and International Paper- have expanded in or moved to Tennessee, bringing more than 104,000 jobs and $12.8 billion in new business investment to the state.
Bredesen launched Tennessee’s war on methamphetamine
abuse, focusing on treatment, prevention and public awareness with the Governor’s Meth-Free Tennessee initiative. In addition, the criminal penalties and resources for law enforcement were enhanced as part of this program and led to a 50 percent decline in illegal and toxic meth labs
.
Bredesen’s founding of the Heritage Conservation Trust fund increased the state’s land-buying power and has worked with public and private partners to preserve nearly 30,000 acres (120 km²) for future generations.
One of the biggest accomplishments of his first four years as governor was Bredesen taking control of TennCare
. The program made necessary reductions in adult enrollment while preserving full enrollment for children and disease management initiatives. He continues to build on this foundation with Cover Tennessee, a new initiative to provide access to affordable health care for severely ill Tennesseans who have been denied health insurance, for uninsured children and for uninsured working adults.
In August 2008, Phil Bredesen, in order to cut state budget for TennCare, placed restrictions to services of 10,800 TennCare patients who receive some type of home nursing care. The new limits will affect about 1,000 of those patients.
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. He 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 founded the Land Trust for Tennessee, a non-profit organization which 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
.
In late August 2006, Bredesen experienced a health scare. According to The Tennessean
, while hospitalized at Nashville's Centennial Medical Center, he was in intensive care with a fever of 104 degrees. Bredesen was hospitalized for a total of four nights with what was thought to be a tick
bite, but testing was inconclusive.
The following week he was tested for two more days as an outpatient at Minnesota
's Mayo Clinic
, but no definitive diagnosis emerged there either. The incident has brought to light that the Tennessee Constitution makes no provision for a disabled governor, although Bredesen was not incapacitated at any point during his illness to an extent that precluded him from fulfilling the duties of his office.
Bredesen is a supporter of capital punishment
, presiding over four executions. But he commuted the death sentence for one inmate to life without parole, citing "ineffective legal counsel at his sentencing and procedural limitations on his appeals".
in the Republican fold. Most potential top-tier challengers to Bredesen shied away from the race.
On November 7, 2006, Bredesen won re-election with 68.6% of the vote over State Senator Jim Bryson
—the most lopsided victory in a gubernatorial race in Tennessee history. He also garnered more votes than any statewide candidate in Tennessee history while sweeping all 95 counties.
. On June 4, 2008, Governor Bredesen endorsed Barack Obama
for president.
Following the withdrawal of former Senator Tom Daschle
as nominee for United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
in the Obama administration, The Atlantic correspondent Marc Ambinder
claimed that Bredesen was being vetted as a possible replacement. Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius
was eventually chosen for the post.
Recent polling suggests that Governor Bredesen would be competitive against Senator Bob Corker
in his 2012 re-election effort.
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Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
and Davidson County
Davidson County, Tennessee
Davidson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2010, the population was 626,681. Its county seat is Nashville.In 1963, the City of Nashville and the Davidson County government merged, so the county government is now known as the "Metropolitan Government of Nashville and...
from 1991 to 1999.
Background
Bredesen was born in Oceanport, New JerseyOceanport, New Jersey
Oceanport is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 5,832.Oceanport was formed as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 6, 1920, from portions of Eatontown Township , based on the results of a...
. His parents were Norma Lucille (née Walborn) and Philip Norman Bredesen. His father, a captain in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, was stationed at Fort Monmouth
Fort Monmouth
Fort Monmouth was an installation of the Department of the Army in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The post is surrounded by the communities of Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport, New Jersey, and is located about 5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. The post covers nearly of land, from the Shrewsbury...
in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
at the time of Bredesen's birth. The family lived in various locations during Bredesen's early childhood, including Canandaigua, New York
Canandaigua (city), New York
Canandaigua is a city in Ontario County, New York, USA, of which it is the county seat. The population was 11,264 at the 2000 census...
and Arlington, Massachusetts
Arlington, Massachusetts
Arlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, six miles northwest of Boston. The population was 42,844 at the 2010 census.-History:...
.
When his parents separated in 1951, Norma moved with her two sons, Phil and his younger brother Dean (1947–2006), to her family home in Shortsville, New York
Shortsville, New York
Shortsville is a village in Ontario County, New York, United States. The population was 1,320 at the 2000 census.The Village of Shortsville is in the southwest part of the Town of Manchester and is north of Canandaigua, NY.-History:...
, where they lived with Bredesen's maternal grandmother, a widow. Shortsville is the community Bredesen considers to be his hometown, and he lived there until he left for college. He attended the Red Jacket Central Elementary and Secondary School, located in the adjoining village of Manchester
Manchester, New York
Manchester, New York is both a town and a village located in Ontario County, New York.*Manchester , New York*Manchester , New York...
.
In 1961, Bredesen entered Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
, where he concentrated in physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
and lived in Quincy House
Quincy House
Quincy House may refer to:* Quincy House , a residential house at Harvard* Quincy House , graduate house in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, DC* Quincy House , the U.S. ambassador's residence in Riyadh...
. He received his A.B. in 1967.
Bredesen married Susan Cleaves in 1968, but they divorced in 1974 and had no children. In 1974, Bredesen married Andrea Conte
Andrea Conte
Andrea Conte is the former First Lady of Tennessee, the wife of Governor Phil Bredesen . She is a 1968 graduate of the University of Washington and a registered nurse...
in Wheatley, Oxfordshire
Wheatley, Oxfordshire
Wheatley is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about east of Oxford.-Archaeology:There was a Roman villa on Castle Hill, about southeast of the parish church. It was excavated in 1845, when Roman coins dating from AD 260 to 378 and fragments of Roman pottery and Roman tiles were...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and the two have one son, Ben. In 1975, the family moved to Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. There Bredesen founded HealthAmerica Corp., an insurance company that eventually grew to more than 6,000 employees and was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
. He sold his controlling interest in HealthAmerica in 1986, and because of the wealth he earned from his work with the company, he did not accept his gubernatorial salary.
Early political career
Bredesen ran his first political campaign in 1969 when he ran for the Massachusetts State Senate seat as a newcomer from Arlington. He was defeated by a popular incumbent Republican Ronald MacKenzie. In 1987 he ran for mayor of Nashville. He finished second to 5th District Congressman Bill BonerBill Boner
William Hill "Bill" Boner is a Tennessee educator and former Democratic politician. He was the third mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, serving from 1987 to 1991. He served in the U.S...
, 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
Northern United States
Northern United States, also sometimes the North, may refer to:* A particular grouping of states or regions of the United States of America. The United States Census Bureau divides some of the northernmost United States into the Midwest Region and the Northeast Region...
.
In 1988, he ran in the Democratic primary
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
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
Bob Clement
Robert Nelson "Bob" Clement is a Tennessee politician and a member of the Democratic Party.-Early life:Clement is the son of former Governor Frank G. Clement...
, son of former governor Frank G. Clement
Frank G. Clement
Frank Goad Clement served as Governor of Tennessee from 1953 to 1959, and again from 1963 to 1967.-Early life:...
. Bredesen 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 added more than 440 new teachers, built 32 new schools and renovated 43 others. He also implemented a back-to-basics curriculum to teach students the fundamentals of learning. Additionally, under the Bredesen Administration, the NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
's Houston Oilers (now Tennessee Titans
Tennessee Titans
The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 as a charter...
) were brought to Nashville and were furnished with a new stadium
LP Field
LP Field is a football stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, owned by the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County....
; the NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
awarded Nashville its first of four new expansion franchises as the Nashville Predators
Nashville Predators
The Nashville Predators are a professional ice hockey team based in Nashville, Tennessee. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League...
; a new arena was built; and a new downtown library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
was built as a cornerstone of major improvements to the entire library system. However, Bredesen's effort to lure the Minnesota Timberwolves
Minnesota Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . Founded in 1989, the team is currently owned by Glen Taylor...
NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
franchise to Nashville was not successful.
In 1994, Bredesen won the Democratic nomination for governor and faced Republican 7th District Congressman Don Sundquist
Don Sundquist
Donald Kenneth Sundquist is a former governor and congressman from Tennessee. A Republican, he served as the 47th Governor of Tennessee from 1995 to 2003...
in the November general election. The race was initially thought to be one of the hottest races of the cycle, but Sundquist won by a large margin (almost 10 points).
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, and was worded in such a way that it appeared to apply to mayors as well. Although mayors had been permitted to serve a maximum of three consecutive terms since the formation of Metro Nashville in 1963, Bredesen did not make an issue of that.
First term
Sundquist was barred by term limits from running for reelection in 2002. Bredesen entered the race and easily won the Democratic nomination. He faced Republican 4th District Congressman Van HillearyVan Hilleary
William Vanderpool Hilleary, usually known as Van Hilleary is a Republican politician from Tennessee.-Early life and career:...
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
TennCare
TennCare is the U.S. state of Tennessee’s health care insurance program. It is designed to expand health insurance to the uninsured through the state’s Medicaid program by utilizing managed care to reduce the costs of health care...
. Bredesen's reputation as a moderate Democrat was well established (he is a member of the "good government" faction of the Nashville Democratic Party), so Hilleary's attempts to brand him as a liberal did not work. This allowed Bredesen to garner far more support in East Tennessee
East Tennessee
East Tennessee is a name given to approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. East Tennessee consists of 33 counties, 30 located within the Eastern Time Zone and three counties in the Central Time Zone, namely...
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 well in several East Tennessee counties where Democrats usually do not fare well except in landslides. He won Knox County
Knox County, Tennessee
Knox County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Its 2007 population was estimated at 423,874 by the United States Census Bureau. Its county seat is Knoxville, as it has been since the creation of the county. The county is at the geographical center of the Great Valley of East Tennessee...
, home to Knoxville
Knoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
, by a few hundred votes; by comparison, George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
had won Knox County by over 40,000 votes.
Bredesen opened the administrative budget meetings, and established new ethics rules for the executive branch.
He also managed Tennessee through a fiscal crisis without raising taxes or cutting funding for education. By Bredesen’s fourth year in office, Tennessee had passed four balanced budgets, received top rankings from national bond rating agencies and raised its Rainy Day Fund to a record high.
In his second and third years on the job, Bredesen pushed to improve education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
. He did this by raising teacher pay above average salary in the Southeast
Southeastern United States
The Southeastern United States, colloquially referred to as the Southeast, is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. It is one of the most populous regions in the United States of America....
and expanding Tennessee’s pre-kindergarten initiative into a program for four-year-olds across Tennessee. He created the Governor’s Books from Birth Foundation, a statewide expansion of Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
’s Imagination Library that offers children free books monthly in all 95 counties. In his fourth year, Bredesen worked with the General Assembly
Tennessee General Assembly
The Tennessee General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.-Constitutional structure:According to the Tennessee State Constitution of 1870, the General Assembly is a bicameral legislature and consists of a Senate of thirty-three members and a House of Representatives of...
to increase funding for education by $366.5 million.
He worked with the General Assembly to reform Tennessee’s worker compensation system and invest in programs to help laid-off employees develop new skills, in order to recruit new industry and jobs to Tennessee. Since he took office, 2,889 companies – including Nissan and International Paper- have expanded in or moved to Tennessee, bringing more than 104,000 jobs and $12.8 billion in new business investment to the state.
Bredesen launched Tennessee’s war on methamphetamine
Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of psychoactive drugs...
abuse, focusing on treatment, prevention and public awareness with the Governor’s Meth-Free Tennessee initiative. In addition, the criminal penalties and resources for law enforcement were enhanced as part of this program and led to a 50 percent decline in illegal and toxic meth labs
Clandestine chemistry
Clandestine chemistry is chemistry carried out in secret, and particularly in illegal drug laboratories. Larger labs are usually run by gangs or organized crime intending to produce for distribution on the black market...
.
Bredesen’s founding of the Heritage Conservation Trust fund increased the state’s land-buying power and has worked with public and private partners to preserve nearly 30,000 acres (120 km²) for future generations.
One of the biggest accomplishments of his first four years as governor was Bredesen taking control of TennCare
TennCare
TennCare is the U.S. state of Tennessee’s health care insurance program. It is designed to expand health insurance to the uninsured through the state’s Medicaid program by utilizing managed care to reduce the costs of health care...
. The program made necessary reductions in adult enrollment while preserving full enrollment for children and disease management initiatives. He continues to build on this foundation with Cover Tennessee, a new initiative to provide access to affordable health care for severely ill Tennesseans who have been denied health insurance, for uninsured children and for uninsured working adults.
In August 2008, Phil Bredesen, in order to cut state budget for TennCare, placed restrictions to services of 10,800 TennCare patients who receive some type of home nursing care. The new limits will affect about 1,000 of those patients.
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
Homelessness
Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...
population. He served on the board of the Frist Center
Frist Center for the Visual Arts
-History:The museum is housed in what used to be the main post office designed by Marr & Holman Architects for the city of Nashville, which had been built in 1933-34 near Union Station, since most mail at that time was moved by train. As the city grew, the need for a more up-to-date main facility...
, a major art gallery that was established to utilize the former downntown main Nashville post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
.
Bredesen founded the Land Trust for Tennessee, a non-profit organization which works to preserve open areas and family farms. As Governor, he is member of the National Governors Association
National Governors Association
The National Governors Association , founded in 1908 as the National Governors' Conference, is funded primarily by state dues, federal grants and contracts and private contributions. NGA represents the governors of the fifty U.S. states and five U.S. territories The National Governors Association...
, the Southern Governors' Association and the Democratic Governors Association
Democratic Governors Association
The Democratic Governors Association is a Washington, D.C. based 527 organization founded in 1983, consisting of U.S. state and territorial governors affiliated with the Democratic Party. The mission of the organization is to provide party support to the election and re-election of Democratic...
.
In late August 2006, Bredesen experienced a health scare. According to The Tennessean
The Tennessean
The Tennessean is the principal daily newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Its circulation area covers 39 counties in Middle Tennessee and eight counties in southern Kentucky....
, while hospitalized at Nashville's Centennial Medical Center, he was in intensive care with a fever of 104 degrees. Bredesen was hospitalized for a total of four nights with what was thought to be a tick
Tick
Ticks are small arachnids in the order Ixodida, along with mites, constitute the subclass Acarina. Ticks are ectoparasites , living by hematophagy on the blood of mammals, birds, and sometimes reptiles and amphibians...
bite, but testing was inconclusive.
The following week he was tested for two more days as an outpatient at Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
's Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice and medical research group specializing in treating difficult patients . Patients are referred to Mayo Clinic from across the U.S. and the world, and it is known for innovative and effective treatments. Mayo Clinic is known for being at the top of...
, but no definitive diagnosis emerged there either. The incident has brought to light that the Tennessee Constitution makes no provision for a disabled governor, although Bredesen was not incapacitated at any point during his illness to an extent that precluded him from fulfilling the duties of his office.
Bredesen is a supporter of capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
, presiding over four executions. But he commuted the death sentence for one inmate to life without parole, citing "ineffective legal counsel at his sentencing and procedural limitations on his appeals".
Reelection
For much of 2005, Bredesen was considered a heavy favorite for reelection in 2006. While his poll numbers slipped for a time in mid-2005, they rebounded by early 2006. The state Republican Party concentrated its efforts on keeping the Senate seat of retiring Senate Majority Leader Bill FristBill Frist
William Harrison "Bill" Frist, Sr. is an American physician, businessman, and politician. He began his career as an heir and major stockholder to the for-profit hospital chain of Hospital Corporation of America. Frist later served two terms as a Republican United States Senator representing...
in the Republican fold. Most potential top-tier challengers to Bredesen shied away from the race.
On November 7, 2006, Bredesen won re-election with 68.6% of the vote over State Senator Jim Bryson
Jim Bryson (politician)
Jim Bryson is a Tennessee politician, a former Republican member of the State Senate representing the 23rd District, which encompasses Williamson County and part of Davidson County, and the 2006 Republican nominee for Governor of Tennessee...
—the most lopsided victory in a gubernatorial race in Tennessee history. He also garnered more votes than any statewide candidate in Tennessee history while sweeping all 95 counties.
Future plans
Viewed by many as a centrist Democrat based in the South, Bredesen was touted as a potential presidential candidate in 2008. Bredesen, however, stated no interest in joining the wide field of Democrats that sought the Democratic nomination. He did not comment on joining a Democratic ticket as Vice-PresidentVice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
. On June 4, 2008, Governor Bredesen endorsed Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
for president.
Following the withdrawal of former Senator Tom Daschle
Tom Daschle
Thomas Andrew "Tom" Daschle is a former U.S. Senator from South Dakota and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
as nominee for United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services is the head of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, concerned with health matters. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet...
in the Obama administration, The Atlantic correspondent Marc Ambinder
Marc Ambinder
Marc Ambinder is an American editor and journalist. He is a White House correspondent at National Journal and is a contributing editor at The Atlantic. He previously worked at ABC News and was chief political consultant to CBS News from 2008 to 2011. For years he was the author of an influential...
claimed that Bredesen was being vetted as a possible replacement. Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius
Kathleen Sebelius
Kathleen Sebelius is an American politician currently serving as the 21st Secretary of Health and Human Services. She was the second female Governor of Kansas from 2003 to 2009, the Democratic respondent to the 2008 State of the Union address, and chair-emerita of the Democratic Governors...
was eventually chosen for the post.
Recent polling suggests that Governor Bredesen would be competitive against Senator Bob Corker
Bob Corker
Robert Phillips "Bob" Corker, Jr. is the junior United States Senator from Tennessee. Before his election to the Senate in 2006, he served as mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee from 2001 to 2005. Corker was a businessman prior to holding public office.-Early life and family:Born in Orangeburg, South...
in his 2012 re-election effort.
Electoral history
Other activities
Bredesen is a licensed pilot as well as a hunter and outdoorsman. He also paints as a hobby, and the annual family Christmas card features his artwork.External links
- Phil Bredesen Governor, State of Tennessee official Tennessee government site
- Governor Philip N. Bredesen official campaign site
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