TENNESSEE: Fleischmann Prepares for Fighting Off Another Primary Challenge.

Tennessee Republican Rep. Chuck Fleischmann knows a thing or two — or three — about tough primaries; and he’s stockpiling money for a fourth.

Fleischmann’s primaries have never really been about ideology. His district went for Mitt Romney by 28 points in 2012, and he’s dished out plenty of red meat rhetoric to them. Earlier this month at a GOP gathering in Chattanooga, he said of his guest, conservative South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, “Whether you are Hillary Clinton or any other lefty out there, you better beware because Trey Gowdy is out there and he is going to get you.”

But Fleischmann’s string of close calls in primaries begs the question why a three-term congressman in a solidly red district who has voted with his party 97 percent of the time, according to CQ Vote Watch, consistently faces competitive primaries.

Hmm.