Home state may nix Gore

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Who says Republicans don't know how to throw a party? Perhaps more importantly, who says a state should promote its own senator to the presidency?\nTennessee Republicans certainly don't, and they want to make sure everyone else knows it.\nTuesday, thousands of anti-Gore Tennesseeans will head to the polls to cast a vote against the senator and vice president they feel has betrayed his home state's interests.\nSome plan to go from precinct to precinct, pounding Bush-Cheney signs into the ground. Others will work all day calling registered voters and asking them to support Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Many are expected to join country music superstars Brooks and Dunn at a local saloon just down the road from the Gore festivities to watch results come in and -- with luck -- celebrate a Bush victory.\nTake that, tradition.\nAt the outset of this nail-biting Presidential campaign it only seemed logical Bush should take his home state of Texas and Gore would take his home state of Tennessee. After all, Texas and Tennessee liked their respective homegrown boys enough to elect them to the two highest state offices.\nBush will win Texas. But analysts can only guess whether Gore will hang on in his state, as recent polls show the two are nearly even there. Only two presidents in history have lost their own states: Woodrow Wilson (New Jersey) in 1916 and James K. Polk (Tennesee) in 1844, according to CNN. \nMost analysts agree it isn't absolutely critical for Gore to win his home state. Still, they view it as an important battleground state, and should Gore lose, Tennessee would be an easy target as a missed opportunity. \nSo why is Gore having trouble at home?\nThe answer might lie in a growing Republican constituency -- growing in part because many voters say they're frustrated with the dishonesty they've seen from President Bill Clinton and Gore.\n"He's a jerk," said guitar salesman Andy Jellison. The short-haired, 30-something Jellison works at Gruhn Guitars in downtown Nashville. \n"The debates really decided it for me," Jellison said. "Gore just looked so..." he trailed off, haughtily huffing and shifting back and forth in imitation of Gore's much-criticized disgust with Bush's answers in the first debate.\nJon Schneck, the lone person working the cash registers in Boot Town western wear store Monday evening, shared a similar opinion of Gore.\n"Bush seems a lot more honest," Schneck said. "Gore contradicts himself."\nSchneck said Tennessee is more conservative than some would think. He mentioned a wave of anti-Gore feeling that has revealed itself in Web sites, such as \nwww.gorefreetennessee.com.\nPersonally, Schneck added, the main reason he supports Bush is because of Bush's abortion stance. But personality does have an impact on his decision, he said.\nJellison said Bush's resistance to new gun control measures helps him many area voters. \nAnd, those who support Bush around here aren't afraid to show it. Rachel Lavender, media relations staffer at Republican Party of Tennessee headquarters said Gore has brought out Republicans in the area, "They're just so adamant," Lavender said of local Republicans. "They're out there saying Gore is not from Tennessee, that he's from Washington. He grew up in a hotel room in Washington"