Bill Haslam, touring the state for the first time as a candidate for governor, met the media at Noshville this morning. He opened with this remark: "We're going into this with eyes wide open. The process of running for office teaches you a lot about how to act in that office and how to lead."

Good thing the election is nearly two years away. That'll give Haslam plenty of time to figure out what to do if he's elected. This morning, he showed he's got a lot to learn.

On more than a few major state issues, the Knoxville mayor was fuzzy. Those included, surprisingly, whether to change the way we pick judges, and whether to amend the state constitution to strip away abortion rights. Both are big Republican issues, and not exactly insider secrets. The abortion amendment is probably the top priority of the new Republican majority. Yet on both counts, Haslam admitted he's basically clueless.

"I have always been pro-life since I knew it was an issue," Haslam said. "In terms of a constitutional amendment, I'd want to see what the plan is and how it's structured, etc."

Pressed on how he couldn't have formed an opinion on such a highly publicized matter, Haslam added, "The more I know about that, I think I'll probably be for it. But in terms of sitting here today and saying I'm going to sign on the dotted line, I'd want to know a little bit more."

On judges, Haslam said, "Judicial selection is a great question and quite frankly I need to do a little  bit more work. ... I need to do a little more background work, quite frankly, before I can give you a full position on that."

More from Noshville follows:

Q: How would you build on what Governor Bredesen has done?

Haslam: We think governor Bredesen has done a lot of great things. He's obviously worked his way through a tough budget situation. He's done a good job of economic development. But there are clearly things that I would do differently. ... I don't think the next governor is going to have an easy job, and I don't think the current governor has an easy job, either.

Q: What would you do differently than Bredesen?

Haslam: We're a sales tax-driven state. I think the income tax is off the table. I don't think that's just me saying that. I think every candidate will say that. So if we're a sales tax-driven state, our revenue is always going to be up and down. We're not going to have this kind of growth curve in terms of state revenue. Because of that, I think you have to work really hard at leveling your expenses. In good times, it's easy to spend the money that you have because the needs are real. ... But what you're going to have to do as governor is hold back in those good times. What we've learned is that big $750 million rainy day fund? It wasn't big enough. An example would be last year when we had the money in the budget for all the legislators to fund projects in their districts. If that was today, I don't think we'd be doing those projects. So you have to assume that hard day is coming even when times are good.

Q: Historically, every three or four years, the state raises the sales tax. What's your view on that?

Haslam: The state's revenue curve does not match the income growth, and there's a reason for that. We keep excluding things from the sales tax and the world's changed on us. Internet sales have changed the sales tax we receive as a state ... The economy has grown in areas that aren't taxed by the sales tax. We've always fixed the problem by saying, 'Well look we'll raise the sales tax again.' ... We can't keep raising our sales tax. We're going to get to the end of the road there. The answer is this ... the good [state governments] are going to look drastically different five years from now than they do now.

Q: Are you in favor of removing sales tax exemptions?

Haslam: I'm not proposing that at all. I'm just saying that's the reality.

Q: You won't promise not to raise taxes?

Haslam: The income tax is definitely off the table. ... I can tell you this, right now new taxes are not the answer for the state of Tennessee, and an income tax is definitely not the answer.

Q: If somebody comes to you with a no-tax pledge then, you won't sign it?

Haslam: I don't know the answer to your question. It depends on how it's written. Sometimes pledges like that are more of a gimmick. So I don't know if I would or not.

Q: You've said you won't rely on your own money to fund your campaign. What does that mean exactly?

Haslam: People have learned in campaigns that self-financing is not a smart political answer. Donors are supporters and voters as well. If you look at Governor Bredesen in '94, and I've heard him say, one of the mistakes he made was that he primarily self-financed that campaign and that was a big mistake and I don't intend to do that. We have a very aggressive fundraising plan set up. We have fundraisers set up already in Nashville, Knoxville and Memphis in the next two months.

Q: So you will spend some of your money?

Haslam: At this point, it's too early to say. The primary is 19 months away. I won't rule that out.

Q: Have you set a limit on how much of your own money you'd spend?

Haslam: I haven't even begun to think in terms of that, I really haven't.

Q: What are you thoughts about how to improve K-12 education?

Haslam: That's a fair question ... There is not as direct a correlation between money spent and results as you would think there would be. The correlation is between having great teachers in the classroom and high rigor and demand. ... There's some great programs happening. There are some people really interested in reform. The next governor' s job is going to be to take those kernels and say, 'All right here's a great idea. We don't have zillions of dollars to spend. How can we take that great idea and leverage it all across the state?'

Q: Did Bill Frist give you a heads up before anybody else that he was not going to be running?

Haslam: I've been in conversation with Senator Frist all along. And we've had a lot of good conversations. It began to seem to me that he was leaning toward not doing it, and so I was just real frank with him, I said, 'We want to hit the ground running here and here's the plans. Here's what we're going to do.' So I just told him that and I said, 'Obviously my commitment to you still stands. If you run we're not going to.' But we just wanted to be the first one out of the gate quite frankly.

Q: What did he say when you told him that he wanted to be the first one out of the gate when he hadn't decided yet?

Haslam: He said, 'That's fine. I understand. You're not causing me any heartburn.'