December 10, 2007

Byrd Hunting

There's word of a new possible Democratic challenger to U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., in the 2008 election - Nashville venture capitalist Andrew W. Byrd. Byrd, the story goes, may be willing to use a chunk of his personal wealth to try to buy a Senate seat.

As Kleinheider reports, Byrd has given heavily to Democrats at the national level in recent years.

I looked up Byrd's contributions to Tennessee legislative races in recent years. In 2006 he donated to the (failed) campaign to return income tax architect Bob Rochelle to the state senate. He also has given campaign contributions to House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, and to Naifeh's PAC, "The Speaker's Fund."

On the national level, according to campaign donation records linked over at Kleinheider's blog, Byrd is a financial supporter of liberal Democrat Senator Russ Feingold's Progressive Patriots Fund, a PAC which supports gay marriage and gun control, seeks abolition of the death penalty, and supports Congressional Democrats' efforts to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq before victory is secured.

Kleinheider also makes mention of the fact that Byrd's brother, fellow wealthy venture capitalist Barney Byrd, supports Republicans with his campaign contributions.