Ten years ago, the nation was still recovering from having to wait until 13 December for George W. Bush to finally assume the title President-elect. In Tennessee, one would guess that the Democratic Party embarked on some collective soul-searching to determine how one of their favorite sons, Vice President Al Gore, Jr., could have missed picking up the state’s electoral votes.

Nine or so years ago, Governor Don Sundquist’s administration triggered a continental shift in state Republican politics by advocating for a state income tax. The protests that followed led to gains by more angular ideologues in the Legislature that by 2008 resulted in historic majorities in both houses. Of note here, too, is the 2002 GOP gubernatorial primary, in which moderate Jim Henry was bested by a more outspoken conservative named Van Hilleary. Hilleary went on to lose to a moderate and likeable Democrat named Phil Bredesen.

A bit of the state’s prominence in Washington was restored when former U.S. Senator Bill Frist, M.D. attained the leadership following former U.S. Senator Trent Lott’s rapid fall from the post. Meanwhile, former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson decided to return to acting. In the election for the open seat, former Governor and U.S. Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander won his primary against the more conservative U.S. Rep. Ed Bryant, and Alexander went on to take the general election from U.S. Rep. Bob Clement. We’ll have heard from Bryant and the aforementioned Hilleary again before the decade is out.

Redistricting led to some changes in the U.S. House delegation: mainly, the election of a conservative Democratic state lawmaker and gentleman farmer named Lincoln Davis in the sprawling Fourth District. U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, who had formerly represented the district, found himself a new seat in the Nashville metropolitan area.

2005 was quite a year in the General Assembly. To start it off, two GOP senators inflamed the rest of their party by voting to retain Lt. Gov. John S. Wilder as Speaker, even though the Republicans had won their first majority in the body since Reconstruction. Then, in May, came a shocking and debilitating blow which the Democrats still haven’t shaken: federal investigators arrested sitting lawmakers and lobbyists on charges of bribery and corruption, including the powerful Senate Majority Leader, Ward Crutchfield, whose family name hails back to Chattanooga’s earliest days. Several Memphis Democrats were also nabbed, including then-Sen. John Ford. (Note: yes, we will remember the lone Republican caught in the sting, former Rep. Chris Newton of Bradley County.) Truth be told, the scope of the “Operation Tennessee Waltz” arrests was limited to those against whom there was rock-solid evidence. If all the “players” had been netted, things would be quite different yet.

Speaking of Reconstruction, it finally arrived in the Volunteer State 140 years after the fact, when the Democratic Party (even) nominated the state’s first African-American candidate for statewide office. Former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford, Jr.—nephew to the infamous felon noted above—was a charismatic candidate who ran a spirited campaign against former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker in 2006. But for a combination of reasons, Ford was not able to ride the national Democratic wave and join Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate. Corker ended up being the lone GOP freshman elected to that body that year. Corker took advantage of having two GOP rivals to split the primary vote against him: Ed Bryant and Van Hilleary, each arguably unable to sacrifice his own ambitions for the hardline conservative cause.

A feisty state senator from Clarksville who had challenged Ford, Jr. in the 2006 U.S. Senate Democratic primary saw her surname become a verb in the next two years. Rosalind Kurita first made news by casting the winning vote for Sen. Ron Ramsey instead of her party caucus’ candidate, Lt. Gov. Wilder. In doing so, she ended Wilder’s record-breaking career and infuriated her fellow Democrats, who sent a challenger in the next primary. Kurita won that primary by a narrow margin, but the Democrats took matters into their own hands by declaring her opponent their nominee, citing “crossover voting” by Republicans as their reason.

The 2008 election cycle saw Tennessee Republican House members join their Senate colleagues in enjoying a majority; but, in a distorted echo of the upsets and betrayals earlier in the Senate, they were not able to elect former Rep. Jason Mumpower as Speaker of the House. Instead, longtime Speaker Jimmy Naifeh and his fellow Democrats cut a deal with Rep. Kent Williams, who became Speaker for one term after “Kurita-ing” Mumpower. (See?) Williams was subsequently banned (“Kurita’d”) by his party from running for office as a Republican. He fended off former rival Jerome Cochran and remains in the House as a rare independent. (Earlier, former Sen. Mike Williams voluntarily quit his party, and lost his reelection bid to Sen. Mike Faulk.)

This last year made for interesting theater against the backdrop of the national political scene, where the Tea Party movement vocally struck back at President Obama’s agenda and a variety of forces handed the Republican Party a major midterm victory in the U.S. House of Representatives. Those gains included Tennessee’s Fourth, Sixth, and Eighth Districts. The GOP also strengthened itself in the Tennessee General Assembly, paving the way for a presumed Speaker Beth Harwell. But a look under the surface belies the notion that Tennessee drank much of the “tea.” Whether a candidate was truly “Tea Party” or just a rather conservative or outspoken alternative, in race after race the relatively more moderate candidate won. Stephen Fincher beat George Flinn and Ron Kirkland (and Donn Janes) in West Tennessee; Diane Black beat Lou Ann Zelenik in Middle Tennesssee; and Chuck Fleischmann narrowly won over Christian conservative Robin Smith and hardcore Tea Partier Van Irion in the Third District.

And then there was the race for Governor of Tennessee. Outgoing U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp raised his voice a lot and talked of “meeting Obama at the state line,” while Lt. Gov. Ramsey was the Tea Party favorite. (They didn’t care as much for Wamp’s congressional voting record.) But Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, though he expectedly courted the Right in the primary, was widely seen as the moderate candidate; indeed, there was little distance to be found between him and his main general election rival.

The Democratic gubernatorial primary was beyond unimpressive, in that what started as a respectable field of five quickly dwindled to an unopposed Mike McWherter, son of popular former Gov. Ned Ray McWherter. The younger beer distributor’s clumsy campaign against the remarkably agile Haslam (check his record on gun rights over the past three years) did also suffer from bad timing, but it could have seized more of the Bredesen legacy for leverage.

It is most interesting to observe that many of the decade’s prominent Democratic names belong to scions of earlier prominent Tennessee Democrats. Clement, Cooper, Ford, Gore, McWherter; Sasser too. And, save Congressman Cooper, all have fared relatively poorly. Another trend that seems to have manifested itself is that of the power base largely shifting from Shelby County to elsewhere in the state, in both major parties. The Democrats are weakened overall. The Republicans, while they revel in victory, continue to sort out their collective stance on ideological purity. While it’s not likely, a schism is not impossible.

A development that will not go unheralded on this blog is the 2010 federal court ruling that declared Tennessee’s ballot access laws unconstitutionally restrictive. This should pave the way for future Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Party candidates (and others, as they organize) to be labeled as such on ballots. While the jury is still out on whether this will lead to actual electoral gains by these parties, at the very least voters will be more informed about those running for office.

And here we are, ready to begin the next decade with Republicans heading the administration and holding strong majorities in both houses of the Legislature. Clearly the Democratic Party has some rebuilding to do; but what’s not as clear is whether Tennessee has completely jumped onto the “red state” train. Our statewide elected officials are the first clue: Alexander, Corker, and now Haslam all have ties to the moderate GOP establishment, and each fought off more conservative firebrands for his respective nomination. Likewise, an endorsement by TEA Party groups has not generally been a winning accouterment. Our state’s long history with a fiercely prided independent streak, combined with our penchant for electing moderates to higher offices, may keep Tennessee in the “purple” category for some time, although it is surely a few shades toward mulberry for now.

A special note of acknowledgment and thanks to 10ec.com’s great timeline for helping to fill memory gaps.

Related reading: a look at the past year in metro Chattanooga, including a couple of pieces by yours truly.

I caught up with McMillan on Tuesday at a downtown Starbucks where she met with YPAC members. We talked about the endorsement she had received earlier in the day from former rival Ward Cammack. She said that his choice is an indication of the momentum her campaign is building. Cammack is also officially joining the campaign as an adviser on environmental policy. I asked her if he is also going to be continuing his focus on creating jobs. She likened him to “an energy policy czar,” though she recognized that economic and environmental concerns are entwined.

When asked to describe what would help voters choose her over her opponent, Mike McWherter, McMillan gave a well-rehearsed but heartfelt answer. She said that if one looks beyond the surface—things like her gender and McWherter’s paternity—for distinctions, she feels that she has the experience necessary to begin the job on day one. She is the only candidate, of either party, who has served in the legislative and executive branches of state government, she said. She also pointed out her stints in higher education and in the private sector. Given the current challenges facing the state, she said, this is no time for “learning on the job.”

I asked her if she thinks Senate Minority Leader Jim Kyle, who dropped out of the race last month, will endorse one of the candidates. Her response was that of an expert politician. Senator Kyle is very busy right now with shepherding Governor Bredesen’s legislative agenda in the General Assembly. In fact, he’s probably busier now than when he was running. He is not expected to do anything soon. I tried, though: I reminded her that the Legislature is hoping to wrap up by the end of April this year, and that the August primary is three months afterward. Surely Kyle will come out for either her or McWherter during that time, I hinted. He and McMillan were majority leaders of their respective houses, and they worked on a lot of bills together in those roles. She remained silent on the question (which, to be fair, is exactly what I expected).

This meeting wasn’t a formal interview, just a “drive-by” on my way home from the day job, so we didn’t get into any serious policy discussions. I wanted to check-in with McMillan, though, since the landscape has changed so dramatically in her race.*

What questions would you want me to ask at our next meeting? What would you need to know in order to decide on supporting this candidate (or to completely rule her out)? The choice doesn’t have to be made today, but it’s good to start thinking carefully about the options.

*Hopefully I’ll get a chance to do the same with McWherter, and likewise with the GOP candidates.