Haslam, McWherter, Ramsey, and Wamp Square off in Gubernatorial Forum
MTSU Campus
For what may have been the first time in the history of Rutherford County, a political event started on time. At 7:00 PM sharp, moderator and MTSU Associate Professor Bob Pondillo (not the advertised John Siegenthaler) began introducing the candidates participating in the debate: U.S. House Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Chattanooga), Mike McWherter (D-Jackson), Tennessee Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey (R-Blountville), and Mayor Bill Haslam (R-Knoxville). Notably absent was GOP hopeful Joe Kirkpatrick, the candidate who is perhaps best in tune with the libertarian-leaning “tea party” movement, but whose personality problems have made essentially unelectable. Incidentally, the event was set up as a “forum,” not a “debate,” so candidates were not allowed to respond to each other directly.
With their opening remarks, each participant was allowed ninety seconds to wax political on the topic or topics of his choice. This really was the part that set the tone for the rest of the night, as each candidate essentially gave a condensed version of his stump speech and continued to refer to the same basic themes throughout the rest of the night. Zach Wamp stressed Tennessee’s need for political leadership and vision, touting his plan to bring to Tennessee a production economy, an improved pre-kindergarten reading program, and increased public health and security. “Businessman Mike McWherter,” as he introduced himself, spent his entire time discussing the state’s 10.7% unemployment rate, pelting the crowd with statistics to drive home the point that Tennessee’s jobs situation was getting desperate — oh, and McWherter says he’s going to be the one to bring them back, but he failed to mention how. The state’s sitting Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey also discussed creating jobs, pointing out that the government, which does not create jobs, needs to get “out of the way” of business, which does, and that the state budget needs to evidence the “Tennessee way” of doing things, not the “Washington way.” Bill Haslam also used his time to discuss Tennessee unemployment and the state budget, which he described as $1.5B “underwater,” and then called for a “substantive discussion of the issues.”
The first actual question of the evening went to all five candidates, who were asked to discuss how they would rank Tennessee’s top five budget priorities, which according to moderator Bob Pondillo currently are (1) health, (2) K-12 education, (3) higher education, (4) public safety, and (5) transportation. Wamp essentially dodged the question, stating that ranking these issues was unimportant. He then said that the economy should be top priority. Wamp also discussed the physical fitness (or lack thereof) of Tennessee’s school children and the cost and quality of life in Tennessee. Also according to Wamp, the state needs to “right-size” Tennessee government and reform how it does business. McWherter completely ignored the question discussing only jobs, pushing a small business tax exemption, and education. Ramsey, too, did not answer the question as-asked, rather he pushed for job creation by cultivating vocational training, and building up infrastructure around the state. Haslam went last, talking about how Tennessee’s position as the number-one, job creating state was held back only by the annual, 28,000 K-12 dropsout and the fact that Tennessee is 33% behind the national average in terms of graduating college students, which should be fixed with vocational training à la Ramsey.
The next several rounds of questions each had its own particular theme, but each candidate was asked a different question. Here’s a summary of their responses by candidate.
After blasting the Tennessee jobs Exodus (and while continuing to blast it throughout the remainder of the debate), Democrat Mike McWherter kept bringing up the “great” job done by Phil Bredesen, a pretty blatant attempt to ride the sitting governor’s coat tails, a mixed — no, scrambled — message at best. McWherter even took a shot at former governor Don Sundquist and the current, GOP-controlled General Assembly, for their failures in handling the state’s budget. In typical liberal fashion, however, he turned around and suggested massive state spending on expanding broadband internet access in rural areas where the cost of the project far outweighs the fiscal benefits of the investment. McWherter also called for pre-Kindergarten and elementary school children to enjoy learning and for an end to gang violence in schools (which he cited as a reason for sending his own children to private school) but gave no indication that he had a clue how to make these things happen. He did, however, detail his plan for attracting new businesses to the state: a tax credit for small businesses.
For his part, Ron Ramsey did acknowledge Governor Bredesen’s balanced budget, although he disagrees with some of the details. Still, he stressed that Tennessee needs to “live within [its] means.” On education, Ramsey said that “[m]oney’s not the answer . . .” and that Tennesseans need to “. . . think outside the box;” he even suggested making it easier for community college students with Associate’s degrees to transfer their credits to a four-year university. When asked about Tennessee’s place in the nation, Ramsey took credit for making Tennessee very attractive to businesses, extolling Tennessee’s zero income tax, Right To Work laws, and even recent worker’s compensation reform. He also noted that very soon, some states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, and California (“for goodness’ sakes”) would be places where nobody would want to live, and that he wanted Tennessee to be an “island of sanity” for those who were unwilling to live in those failing states. When asked about law enforcement and safety, Ramsey made clear that he was a strong supporter of the Tenth Amendment and that he wanted district attorneys to be more engaged in creating legislation to keep people safe. What he got completely wrong, however, was the role of government, which he said was to provide public safety; the Declaration of Independence begs to differ.
Bill Haslam, when asked about state economics, said that it was not incentives that would lure businesses into the state, but rather low taxes and Right To Work laws. In the Education arena, Haslam says that Tennessee needs to prepare for the loss of $168,000,000 in stimulus funding next year by addressing “educational governance,” but he was noticeably vague on how to do this. What he did say was that it would be necessary to go through an excruciating-sounding process where schools‘ “governance[s]” (it’s unclear whether he means administration or local school boards) would be interviewed to determine what they’re doing right and wrong, and then use that information to address the budget issue. When asked about Tennessee’s place in the nation, Haslam said that political labels are “dangerous,” then with the next breath called himself “a conservative.” He also said that Tennessee, which has problems, actually needs to solve them. On crime, Haslam insisted that Tennessee is not losing the War on Drugs, but that specific strategies are needed to win.
Zach Wamp, speaking to the economy, said that the current legislature had made a mistake by enacting too much business regulation, which needs to be eliminated, accompanied by a more efficient government with smaller agencies. In the education arena, Wamp stressed that he considered it unwise to fund anything fully in the short term, because of the current economy and impending loss of federal stimulus dollars. Sounding like a little kid with a five-dollar bill burning the proverbial hole in his pocket, Wamp said that the instant the money became available, it should be dumped into the education system, especially into teachers’ paycheques. On the subject of Tennessee’s place in the nation, he praised state sovereignty, deriding the states’ attorneys general, whom Wamp felt should have filed suit against DC for certain overreaching provisions of the bailout, for which he voted. On law enforcement and safety, Wamp pushed for stronger punishment for repeat D.U.I. offenders. Wamp also proposed a massive ad campaign, with a special focus on television ads, designed to keep people from letting small children and babies drink alcohol, which he seriously posited as a serious problem in the state of Tennessee.
The final question of the night, which also went to all five candidates, was for each to give his vision of what Tennessee would look like twenty-five years in the future. The candidates essentially used this opportunity to re-hash their stump speeches, with a few small additions, of course. McWherter went first, pointing out that his father, who once was Governor of the state, made his priorities “jobs and roads,” and that those would be the son’s priorities for the state as well. Ramsey said he wanted Tennessee to be an “island of sanity in a nation that’s gone crazy.” Haslam discussed how he wanted to leave Tennessee for his successor, namely as the Southeast’s most desirable jobs location. Wamp took the opportunity to push the nine-page, twenty-year plan for Tennessee to lead an “American revival,” which is published in full on his website.
Afterword, each candidate was given ninety seconds for closing remarks. Mike McWherter went first, sparking the one and only firestorm of the forum with his remark that he was the “only businessman” on the stage and that the three GOP hopefuls were “career politicians.” The Republicans, however, were not to be thrown under the bus so easily, as Haslam, Ramsey, and Wamp each came out swinging with their own personal history of decades of private business.
All in all, the forum was a decent opportunity to judge four of the five candidates for governor side-by-side. Also, since it wasn’t technically a “debate,” it’s difficult to pick a “winner,” although it’s pretty clear from the closing remarks that had the candidates been allowed to interact more, McWherter certainly would have wound up the sure loser, if only because he’d have been standing alone against a feisty Republican trio. Primary election day certainly will be an interesting thing to behold.
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Short URL: http://murfreesboronewspress.com/?p=1258
Posted by murfreesboronews
on May 13 2010. Filed under Murfreesboro Government, Murfreesboro News, Murfreesboro Politics.
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