If I can beat an Austin Peay in Clarksville, I can beat a McWherter in Tennessee!

Kim McMillan, the former House Majority Leader from Clarksville, is running for governor, and, like all other candidates, is aware of the shadow cast over the Democratic primary by the name McWherter — as in Jackson businessman Mike McWherter, son of former governor Ned Ray McWherteer.

Especially after the withdrawal from the race of state Senator Roy Herron, who hails from McWherter's home town of Dresden, and of one other Democratic candidate, Ward Cammack of Nashville, the man from Jackson might seem to have an advantage in the narrowing gubernatorial field. There's all that inherited name recognition, right?

Wrong, according to McMillan. While doing a meet and greet Wednesday night in Midtown Memphis, McMillan offered this capsule of how in her first race she beat an even more famous name, at least locally.