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After a competitive primary campaign for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in Tennessee, Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam easily defeated two other leading contenders yesterday and begins the general election race with an advantage over his Democratic opponent.

Haslam won the primary with 48%, followed by Rep. Zach Wamp with 29% and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey with 22%. Haslam will now face Democrat Mike McWherter, a businessman and son of former Gov. Ned McWherter.

The two are running to replace term-limited Democrat Phil Bredesen. A recent Mason-Dixon poll found Haslam leading McWherter by 18 points. Along with polling and the Republican tilt of the state, history is also on the side of Haslam -- not since 1966 has a candidate succeeded an outgoing governor from the same party.

There were a handful of notable congressional races as well. Memphis-area Rep. Steve Cohen overcame yet another challenge from an African American opponent in the Democratic primary after winning the majority-black 9th district in 2006. Cohen defeated former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton by a 79%-21% margin.

In Wamp's open, Chattanooga-based 3rd district, wealthy attorney Chuck Fleischmann defeated former state party chair Robin Smith by less than 2 points in the five-way race. The Mike Huckabee-endorsed Fleischmann finished with 29.7% to 28.1% for the Newt Gingrich-backed Smith.

The 3rd and 9th districts are not considered likely to switch party hands in November. Two districts that could are the open 6th and 8th districts, both currently represented by Democrats.

The 8th congressional district race is now set up to be one of the most competitive in the country. After a primary race that was the most expensive in the country, state Sen. Roy Herron easily won the Democratic nomination, while farmer Stephen Fincher won 50% against two leading opponents in a five-way GOP primary.

Fincher is a top-tier recruit of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which sees a pick-up opportunity in the northwestern Tennessee district that was vacated by the retirement of Democrat John Tanner. Fincher was already in the race and raising money at a frantic rate when Tanner announced his retirement in December. A day later, Herron left the governor's race to run for the seat, bringing half-a-million dollars with him.

Once the primary results were in last night, Herron, a former preacher, released a new TV ad in which he describes himself as a "truck-driving, gun-shooting, Bible-reading, gospel-preaching, tax-paying, crime-fighting, family-loving country boy."

In the 6th district, both primaries proved to be nail-biters between three leading candidates who all finished within one point of each other. In the Democratic primary, state Sen. Brett Carter edged two others with 30.0%, followed by Henry Clay Barry with 29.2% and Ben Leming with 28.8%. On the GOP side, state Sen. Diane Black won with 30.9%, followed by businesswoman Lou Ann Zelenik and state Sen. Jim Tracy with 29.8% apiece.

Carter and Black are vying to succeed retiring Democrat Bart Gordon in a district Democrats have held for decades.