I left the early-voting location with trepidation. Surprisingly, lightening didn’t strike.

I thought immediately of my deceased mother, hopeful that she wasn’t watching from above.  My just-completed, totally unprecedented action would really disturb her:  I had just voted in a Republican primary!

As a life-long Democrat, I confess to voting on rare occasions for a Republican candidate  in a General Election, but to cross over and vote in the Republican primary?  No way.  At least until now.

The rationale that brought me to this monumental (and I suspect one-time), uncharacteristic behavior was thinking about Tennessee’s tradition of electing senators of whom we could be proud.  Whether a Democrat or Republican, I think most would agree that our U.S. senators over the past few decades have been smart, decent men who served with dignity while never embarrassing us and, for the most part, they took reasonable positions rather than being bound by totally partisan ideologies.

Certainly we could have disagreed with some of their votes and positions, but when surveying the complete body of work of Howard Baker, Al Gore, Jim Sasser, Fred Thompson, Lamar Alexander and Bill Frist, we can say that their leadership and national stature served Tennessee well.

It was that political history  that precipitated my bold step this election year.  Going against the political option of voting for the easiest candidate to beat in November, I voted for the man I thought would make us proud if elected.  That man was Bob Corker.

I have had the privilege of knowing Bob Corker for the past 20 years.  He is a decent, bright, no nonsense guy who has a track record of serious accomplishment.  If elected, I believe he will be a forceful, yet reasoning leader.

Having no heated rivalries in this year’s Democratic primary gave me a certain level of comfort in crossing  political boundaries  To assuage my guilt and as an act of forgiveness,  I did write in the names of Phil Bredesen for Governor and Douglas Henry for State Senator, two men I greatly admire. My late Mom, once voted the Yellowist of Yellow Dog Democrats in all of the Volunteer State, would probably be okay with this. With the brilliant and charismatic Harold Ford, Jr. in the race as the assured Democratic nominee, and, if successful next week, Bob Corker as the Republican nominee, I’m looking forward to a robust campaign with two outstanding candidates, who are also good men.  To my Democratic friends, I can safely say that if one is inclined to cross over, it wasn’t fatal this time, but I don’t want to make a habit of it.

Regardless of my vote and regardless of the outcome in November, Tennessee will be well represented in the U.S. Senate once again.

Bo Roberts is a Nashville marketing consultant and managing partner of Roberts Strategies.