
Stephen Shirley, Conservative DNJ Contributor
Stephen Shirley is known as a conservative contributor to the Daily News Journal through guest columns, DNJ forum posts, and blogs. Here’s what he had to say about Republican Lou Ann Zelenik’s decision to challenge Congressman Bart Gordon (D-Murfreesboro) in a DNJ guest column:
Zelenik certainly isn’t the perfect candidate. Never mind that she lost a Republican primary race for the Tennessee House 48th District. Zelenik comes across as a partisan blowhard interested more in hearing herself talk than in listening to local residents. She’s caustic, abrasive and quite simply annoying. Her schtick plays well with the “birthers” crowd. But independents simply plug their ears to her braying and search out a more reasoned voice.
Numerous political watchers openly wonder if the Zelenik campaign isn’t just an attempt to weaken Gordon for the 2012 election cycle. A campaign against Zelenik would force Gordon to spend from his campaign war chest. But what if weakening Gordon isn’t the only motivation for the Republican Party? What if there is a secondary motivation in encouraging a Zelenik campaign in 2010?
If Zelenik faces off against Gordon next November, spends significant amounts of her own money and still loses, she might conclude that elected office is not in her best interests. In one fell swoop, Republicans could hurt Gordon’s prospects of another re-election as well as clear the slate of a powerful, if not deeply flawed, candidate.
So call it the Zelenik gambit. It may be an attempt to weaken Bart Gordon. But by offering up Zelenik as campaign fodder in 2010, the gambit may also be an attempt to eliminate her from future discussions.
Even though they lost a district that has been in republican hands since the Civil War to a 

Last month, we reported on the
CLAIMS FORMER GOP MAJORITY LEADER FRIST AGAINST FREEDOM
Zelenik, who served as the Vice-Chairman of the Rutherford County Republican Party at the time, unsuccessfully ran for State House in 2008 against Joe Carr in the Republican primary. Hurtt notes, “Zelenik’s candidacy in 2008 caused great turmoil among the Rutherford County Republican Party. Rumors were spread that were detrimental to the successful candidate, Joe Carr.”





