KENNETH EATON [Order this photo]

Kenneth Eaton, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Lamar Alexander, said in a telephone interview last Thursday with the Times-Gazette that he feels good about his chances in Thursday's Democratic primary.

Eaton will face former Knox County Clerk Mike Padgett and former Tennessee Democratic Party chair Bob Tuke, along with lesser-known candidates Mark E. Clayton, Gary G. Davis and Leonard D. Ladner. Eaton referred to his "two opponents" during the interview.

Alexander is unopposed in the Republican primary; there are also six independent candidates who will appear on the November ballot.

"It's going very well," said Eaton. "Very well. We feel like we've got as good a chance as anyone. He said he's visited 80 of the state's 95 counties.

In most of those counties, said Eaton, there's some sort of vacant manufacturing facility. He said the economy, jobs and gas prices are among the key issues raised by voters.

Eaton said he favors tax breaks and loans for small manufacturers, those with fewer than 500 employees and with what he called "mom and pop" ownership, which he feels are less likely to ship jobs overseas. He also said he wants to promote American-made products.

Eaton and his wife, Toni, owned and operated Eaton Auto Village in Nashville for 22 years before it was taken by Metro Nashville government under eminent domain to build low-cost housing. Since then, according to his campaign web site, he has focused on his 92 investment properties.

Eaton said he would like to see already-drilled but capped wells in Texas and Alaska re-opened for oil production, saying the high price of oil would make it cost-effective to do so.

"For a temporary fix, let's start using what we have," he said. He's less enthusiastic about offshore drilling, saying it would be five years before new offshore wells could be put into production. He said that if environmental problems can be solved, he's not opposed to the idea, however.

Eaton said that early proponents of the Iraq war promised that Iraq's oil supply would pay for the cost of the operation.

"We haven't seen the first drop yet, or the first dollar yet," said Eaton. He said the war has cost $1.7 trillion so far and that it will take at least a year and a half before troops could be withdrawn, which would make the war's total cost $3 trillion.

Eaton said that if that $1.7 trillion had been spent domestically, "we would have the greatest education system, we would have the greatest health care system, we wouldn't have any homeless people."

Eaton favors some form of universal health care but said he does not have a specific plan in mind. He said the U.S. should study what works and what doesn't in other countries' systems.

Eaton has taken no contributions for his primary campaign and said he would take no corporate contributions in the general election campaign.

"We do not want to owe anyone any favors," he said.

"I'm a businessman with a clean record and I don't owe anything to anyone."

Eaton said his father was born in Bedford County, in the Beech Grove area, and that he has several aunts, uncles and cousins now living in Shelbyville.