Leaders of the Northeast Democratic Association met here on Saturday to encourage each other in their effort to win legislative seats in this year's elections.

A meeting of about 40 regional party leaders at the Comfort Inn heard Mike McWherter, the only Democrat running for governor of Tennessee, call for Democratic victories this year.

McWherter, a businessman who is the son of former Gov. Ned McWherter, said Democrats this year have "the strongest slate of legislative candidates I've seen in my lifetime."

He declared the Democratic Party now has "a real opportunity this year take back the legislature," which currently is controlled by narrow Republican majorities in both houses.

McWherter said that, if elected, "I'm going to be a Democrat from the very get-go .... I'm all about job creation. I'm not going to support any additional taxes.

"We're going to work day and night" to encourage businesses to invest in Tennessee," he pledged.

McWherter, a businessman who is making his first run for elective office, said, "I learned from my father that the most important thing about being governor is to put the interests of Tennessee's working families first."

When he concluded his brief talk, McWherter received standing applause from the party leaders, who were attending from the counties in this state's 1st Congressional District.

Speaking earlier, Mike Clark, Democratic candidate in the 1st Congressional District who is running against U.S. Rep. Phil Roe, R-1st, of Johnson City, charged that Roe "has done very little to help ease the nation's problems in education, health, economic reform and energy."

Clark said, "Rep. Roe will come with a shovel in his hand ready to take credit for projects that he voted against." He did not cite any such examples.

The Democratic challenger also criticized Roe for saying too little about the Wall Street financial scandals that he said had much to do with setting off this country's recession.

Clark acknowledged his campaign needs "all the help we can get."

Jack West, of Greene County, the Democratic candidate in the 1st Senatorial District that includes Greene, Cocke, Hamblen and Unicoi counties, said he decided to run for office because "the people don't feel we are getting effective representation" from the Republican incumbent, state Sen Southerland, R-1st, of Morristown.

West said, if elected, he will work during these difficult economic times to support the state's financially "struggling families," adding that his own family is in that group.

In welcoming those attending the mid-day event, Maryann Rush, chairman of the Greene County Democratic Party, declared, "Isn't it good to be in a room full of Democrats?"

However, Marion Light, chairman of the Northeast Demcoratic Association and the meeting's presiding officer, warned his fellow Democrats, "If we don't get out and fight (to win this year's elections), "the Republicans will run the Democratic Party out (of Northeast Tenneseee) for 10 or 20 years."

Earlier, Light told the group of Democratic loyalists that Republicans too long have assumed that 1st Congressional District offices are theirs for the taking, their Democratic opponents being seen as inconsequential.

He added, "It's a tough road to be a Democrat in this state."

Light said the Democratic National Committee should be helping fund Democratic candidates in Tennessee.