Sen. Bob Corker: Democrat Phil Bredesen has 'real appeal' for some Republican voters

WASHINGTON – Sen. Bob Corker predicted Wednesday that Democrat Phil Bredesen could appeal to some Republican voters but said he doesn’t know if that will be enough for the former governor to win the race to succeed him in the U.S. Senate.

“I think he’s got real appeal – I don’t think it, I know it,” Corker told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast meeting in Washington. "The question is, in a state like ours that is still a red state, is it enough? I don’t know the answer to that.”

Corker said he intends to vote for Republican Marsha Blackburn in this year’s Senate race, but stressed again that he would not campaign against Bredesen. Corker said he has had a good working relationship with Bredesen, who served two terms as governor and two terms as Nashville mayor.

“He was a very good mayor, a very good governor, a very good business person,” said Corker, who himself is a former mayor of Chattanooga. “Look, I’m not going to campaign against someone who I’ve been friends with and worked with.”

Blackburn’s campaign responded by firing at Bredesen, not Corker.

“Phil Bredesen will be a solid vote for Chuck Schumer and Obama, Clinton-era liberal policies, and Tennesseans are not interested in that,” said Abbi Sigler, Blackburn’s campaign spokeswoman.

Bredesen and Blackburn are expected to face each other in November in the campaign to succeed Corker, a two-term Republican senator who decided not to seek re-election and will leave office at the end of the year.

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The race is getting national attention because Democrats see it as an opportunity to pick up a Republican-held seat as they try to win back the Senate majority.

Their hopes were bolstered earlier this month by a Middle Tennessee State University poll that showed Bredesen leading Blackburn by 10 points.

► MTSU poll:Phil Bredesen holds double-digit lead over Marsha Blackburn in US Senate race, new MTSU poll shows

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Corker questioned whether Blackburn is that far behind. He said he guesses she’s down about six points.

But when voters go to the polls in November, he said, the deciding factor for many will be that the majority of the Senate is at stake, and they will base their vote on that.

Whoever wins, he said, he hopes they will follow the model of past Tennessee senators, such as Republicans Howard Baker Jr., Bill Frist, Fred Thompson and Lamar Alexander and Democrats Al Gore and Jim Sasser.

“We’ve had senators that, generally speaking, have been statesmen that have been willing to burn political capital to solve our nation’s problems," Corker said.

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