Knoxville News Sentinel endorses Boyd
Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd speaks to reporters in Belle Meade on July 25, 2018. (Erik Schelzig, Tennessee Journal)
Randy Boyd has been endorsed by his hometown newspaper, the Knoxville News Sentinel.
The newspaper praises the Knoxville businessman for his “full-blown, thoughtful platform addressing jobs, education, health care and rural development.”
“But he wasn’t about to be torpedoed by more-conservative-than-thou demagoguery,” the paper editorialized. “When U.S. Rep. Diane Black came out with an attack ad questioning his conservative credentials, he fired back.”
The Boyd endorsements comes after the conservative side of the Chattanooga Times Free Press’ opinion pages endorsed Bill Lee in the Republican gubernatorial primary.
Anti-Boyd website questions pollster’s links to Lee campaign
Businessman Bill Lee speaks at his campaign headquarters opening in Franklin on Feb. 12, 2018. (Erik Schelzig, Tennessee Journal)
A conservative website that has long targeted Randy Boyd’s gubernatorial bid is raising questions about ties between one of its favored Republican candidates, Bill Lee, and a poll that suggested he had surged to a 6-point lead over Boyd.
The Tennessee Star notes that Lee’s general consultants Blake Harris and Jordan Gehrke have links to JMC Analytics and Polling, the company that released what it billed as a “completely independent” poll in the Tennessee governor’s race this week. Harris and Gehrke are partners in Vertical Strategies and Victory Phones respectively, companies that share a Grand Rapids, Mich., address with another company called Advictory. Lee’s campaign has spent heavily on Advictory and Victory Phones — a company that has been listed as an auto-dialer for JMC polls in other states (the company did not disclose its auto-dialer for the Tennessee poll).
Boyd campaign CEO Chip Saltsman immediately dismissed the poll as “bogus” and said it looked like a “publicity stunt by the Lee campaign to try and artificially create some momentum.”
JMC founder John Couvillon told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that he has no clients in Tennessee and decided to poll the GOP primary as a “completely independent project” because there were few other public polls run in the state.
Boyd campaign slams poll showing Lee leading GOP gov’s race
The Randy Boyd campaign is unimpressed by a poll suggesting Bill Lee is leading the Republican primary contest for governor by 6 percentage points.
“No one should fall for a deeply-flawed poll cooked up at the 11th hour by some unknown pollster,” said Boyd campaign CEO Chip Saltsman.
It’s not the first time Saltsman has railed against the methodology of a poll promoting one of Boyd’s GOP rivals. In March he charged that a poll touted by the Diane Black campaign showing her with a 14-point lead over Boyd was “bogus.” Saltsman used that same term to describe the new JMC Analytics poll.
Was steak dinner Boyd’s reason for missing debate?
Randy Boyd got the dominoes falling when he declared that he would not attend a televised Republican gubernatorial debate in Knoxville on Sunday because of an unspecified scheduling conflict. Beth Harwell and Diane Black soon followed suit in deciding not to go. Reporter Cari Wade Gervin has scoured the Twitterverse to reveal that “a pricey steakhouse dinner” in Memphis may have been the reason for Boyd dropping out of the debate.
.@randyboyd’s “scheduling conflict” that led him to drop out of last night’s GOP debate, which was eventually cancelled? A pricey steakhouse dinner in Memphis. pic.twitter.com/3W5gQa6B4F
— Cari Wade Gervin (@carigervin) July 23, 2018
Boyd drops out of final televised gubernatorial debate
Knoxville businessman Randy Boyd won’t participate in the final Republican gubernatorial debate before the Aug. 2 primary.
Republican Randy Boyd addresses the audience during the Gubernatorial Forum on Education at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018. (George Walker IV /The Tennessean, Pool)
WATE-TV reports that the Boyd campaign is citing a “scheduling conflict” for sitting out the July 22 debate to be held at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville.
Most of the debates and candidate forums so far have been largely staid affairs, thought the atmosphere might have been different this time following the influx of negative TV ads, and because candidates desperate to gain traction might be more willing to take shots at each other.
The Pellissippi State debate is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. Eastern between Democrats Karl Dean and Craig Fitzugh, followed by the GOP debate between Beth Harwell, Bill Lee, and Diane Black at 9 p.m.
Boyd’s latest attack ad portrays Black in swamp
Knoxville businessman Randy Boyd’s latest attack ad portrays Republican gubernatorial rival Diane Black as being part of the “D.C. Swamp” and the narrator refers to her as “D.C. Diane” five times in 30 seconds.
Transcript: “A 20-year professional politician, D.C. Diane Black. In the D.C. Swamp, D.C. Diane’s net worth increased by more than $40 million. While enriching herself, D.C. Diane worked to raise our taxes by $160 million, while cutting her taxes by millions. And as budget chair, D.C. Diane let the debt soar to $21 trillion. D.C. Diane Black: Out for herself, no us.”
Diane Black goes ‘Double Irish’ on Randy Boyd
As some of our commenters have alluded to, U.S. Rep. Diane Black has a new ad out hitting fellow Republican gubernatorial hopeful Randy Boyd for his company’s decision to open offices in Ireland and the Cayman Islands, a scheme known as “Double Irish” that allows U.S. companies to avoid taxes domestically.
The story was first reported by The Tennessean. The conservative website Tennessee Star has video of the ad.
Poll says Boyd has pulled ahead of Black in GOP gubernatorial primary
While Diane Black led other Republican candidates in a Tennessee Star poll some months ago, the arch-conservative online website reports a new survey this week shows Randy Boyd is now the frontrunner.
Boyd’s first TV attack ad bashes ‘D.C. Diane’
The initial clip in the Randy Boyd campaign ad, entitled “D.C. Diane,” shows Black being interviewed along with other members of Congress by journalist Katie Couric during the 2016 campaign.
