Padgett came up with $90,040 in financial contributions from 185 contributors during the holidays, despite bad weather, and without holding a formal fund-raiser. He reported $16,618 in expenditures, leaving him with almost $74,000 in the bank as the race begins to heat up. At least $7,500 of the donations came from people named Padgett, including $2,000 from Padgett himself. But among the other donors are some well-known names.

Padgett received $1,100 from Democratic gubernatorial nominee Mike McWherter and $1,000 from former state Democratic Party Chairman Doug Horne. Speaking of the Democratic old guard—which includes Padgett’s father, longtime former Knox County Clerk Mike Padgett—there is also a nominal $200 contribution from former Congressman Bob Clement. There are other Nashville-based donors too, including $250 from now-former Tennessee Commissioner of Agriculture Ken Givens, and $150 from Ryan Gooch, the state’s Director of Energy Policy. (Gooch’s father, local lawyer Warren Gooch, has also donated $2,000.)

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