NATIONAL ELECTION RETURNS : EDITION-TIME COMPILATIONS : State-by-State Election Reports of Key Races and Issues : Tennessee
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Democratic state House Speaker Ned Ray McWherter held the lead in early returns over former GOP Gov. Winfield C. Dunn for the governorship in a battle of millionaires that centered on money.
Dunn, 59, and McWherter, 56, agreed on most issues, but squabbled over federal income taxes and whether their business interests posed conflicts of interest.
Both promised to carry on for popular Republican Gov. Lamar Alexander, barred from seeking a third consecutive four-year term.
Dunn, whose term ended in 1975, reported that most of his $2.7 million net worth was acquired as a health company executive. McWherter, a sharecropper’s son who built a business fortune, promised to put his $6 million in holdings in trust.
In congressional races, four-term Democratic Rep. William H. Boner, under investigation by a House ethics commission, was losing in early returns to Republican Terry Holcomb in the 5th District.
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