State House candidate Thomas O’Connell, 25, is a thoughtful Ivy League grad with an intellectual interest in government and technology—and a reading list that includes The Economist and Mother Jones. Strike one. He’s running as an independent for the District 56 seat, which covers the south and west parts of the county, against entrenched incumbent Beth Halteman Harwell, who doubles as the chairwoman of the Tennessee Republican Party. Strike two. Democratic nominee Shannon Wood will dilute O’Connell’s ability to generate anti-incumbent sentiment about Harwell’s more or less irrelevant role during the recent state budget battles. Strike three. O’Connell has about as much a chance of being elected as Meatloaf does of being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But his ideas are not out of step with younger, more media-savvy voters. Like many people too young to know, well, who the hell Meatloaf is, O’Connell struggles to identify with either party, and while his ideas veer more to the left than the right, he seems much more comfortable taking an issue-by-issue approach to government. “The biggest thing I’m pushing for is an audit of state government,” says O’Connell, who works for a local Web technology company. (Interestingly enough, though, he eschews technology when it comes to mailings, personally signing each of the thousands of mail pieces his campaign has sent.) “The audit would be a good supplement to what the state comptroller’s office is doing. If we look at the audit, and we’re still in trouble, well, I’m not going to sign a no-income tax pledge.” A Montgomery Bell Academy and Brown University graduate, O’Connell places a strong emphasis on education too. “Shooting for first in roads and 50th in schools is not where we want to be.”
—By Matt Pulle
