The first hat has been thrown into the ring in the 2010 Tennessee governor’s race, and it belongs to former state Rep. and House Majority Leader Kim McMillan of Clarksville. A spokesman for McMillan said Saturday that McMillan had filed papers to form an exploratory committee for the race.
First elected to the Tennessee House in 1994, Democrat McMillan served twelve years there, the last four as majority leader. A lawyer, she was the first woman in state history to hold that office. She then took a position as senior adviser to Governor Phil Bredesen , resigning last year to become director of community and business relations for Austin Peay State University in her home town of Clarksville
Other names mentioned prominently as likely gubernatorial candidates are those of former U.S. Senator Bill Frist and state Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey on the Republican side, and, among Democrats, former 9th District congressman Harold Ford Jr., former Nashville mayor Bill Purcell, and 4th District congressman Lincoln Davis.
–Jackson Baker