Raccoon man to challenge Haslam

Bill Haslam’s potential primary challenger has one message for the Tennessee governor: He wants his raccoon back.

The Internet sensation Mark “Coonrippy” Brown, who made news last year for showering with his pet raccoon Rebekah, is working on a petition to challenge Haslam in an August Republican primary.


The Tennessean reports that Brown was responding to the governor’s disregard for his letter, requesting a permit to regain custody of the raccoon, which was taken away by state wildlife officials.

“Gov. Haslam ignored the cries from the entire United States,” Brown said of his petition, which had 60,000 signatures but was returned to him unopened.

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Brown told the paper his run will “expose the people in office who are not for the people.”

“We’ve got to take this country back one state at a time,” he said in a bizarre YouTube announcement.

Brown picked up the petition for the governor’s race last Friday and has until April 3 to return it. Haslam currently has no Republican or Democratic challengers in the race.

Though Brown has made the race a referendum on Haslam for his failure to represent the people of Tennessee, he wants to be clear, “this is all about the raccoon.”

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