Democrat Phil Bredesen has a money problem. It isn’t personal finances. The former two-term governor of Tennessee has a net worth north of a quarter-billion. It isn’t electoral funds either. The current Senate candidate has more than $3.7 million on hand.
It is a political money problem. Bredesen donated nearly half-a-million to liberal politicians.
Bredesen has branded himself as a sort of pro-Trump Democrat in his race against Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Bob Corker. He says that he isn’t “the toy of the national Democratic Party.” Campaign contributions filed with the Federal Election Commission and the Tennessee Campaign Finance database say he is a party favorite thanks to $460,691 in campaign contributions.
For the last three decades, Bredesen has given faithfully from his pharmaceutical fortune. He has contributed to congressional and Senate and presidential campaigns of dozens of major liberal candidates since 1983. Now that money could come back and haunt his current ambitions in a state President Trump won by 26 points.
Bredesen spokeswoman Alyssa Hansen didn’t dispute the money, but pointed instead to his “long track record of being an independent leader.” The political generosity won’t be a problem, she insisted, because Bredesen has been very clear that he believes the Democratic Party is “an organization, not a religion.”
Regardless of whether the Democratic Party is or isn’t a partisan cult, Bredesen has showered the party’s anointed with cash. He gave $4,000 to former President Bill Clinton’s campaign and leadership committees. He spent $9,000 supporting both of former Vice President Al Gore’s failed presidential campaigns. He dropped former President Barack Obama a $5,000 line and then gave another $30,000 to Obama’s affiliated victory fund. When Bredesen was “with her” though, he was especially generous. The Democrat gave ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton $2,700 then turned around and sent a whopping $33,400.00 to her victory fund.
That spending will make it especially difficult for Bredesen to continue comparing himself to Trump. And indeed, Blackburn and a handful of pro-Trump outside groups, like the Committee to Defend the President, plan on making that comparison impossible.
“Phil Bredesen can claim he’s a moderate Democrat all he wants to try and get elected, but his mega-donations paint an entirely different picture,” committee spokeswoman Amanda Head said in a statement. “Bredesen’s donations confirm that he is determined to advance the failed Obama policies of the past — the same policies that 1.5 million Tennesseans rejected when they elected President Trump.”
If Bredesen has been putting his money where his political heart is, it will be hard to argue with that assessment.
