Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Politics / Woods Zach Wamp: Money Can't Buy Me Love
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 5:55 AM
"John Rich called me today from his bus in California where he's out singing about Detroit (Wamp pronounces it DEE-troit) and the auto bailout and how middle-class working families in this country need leadership. He's going to be working for me."
Sitting there in a booth listening to Wamp is Eric Crafton, who's shoveling down a plateful of food and blending right in with the group. He actually looks happy to return to anonymity now that English Only is dead.
Anyway, Wamp gives a little speech and answers questions comfortably, outlining the themes of his primary campaign--all of which happen to make nice lines of attack against Bill Haslam, the early Republican frontrunner.
"I'm not going to compromise on several things no matter what," Wamp says. "One of them is guns. Anybody who's got some kind of a lame excuse for whatever position they take on guns, there's no compromise. There's no exceptions. There's no excuses for my defense of the Second Amendment. The other is taxes. We don't need more taxes. We need less government. We need more efficiencies. We need to stand our ground. I've never raised taxes and I won't as your governor."
Haslam, in case you're wondering, is already taking heat for belonging to Michael Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns group and, as Knoxville's mayor, he's raised taxes.
Wamp also has been criticizing Haslam for his inherited wealth, painting his foe as a rich daddy's boy trying to buy the governor's office. So I ask Wamp what he thinks about Haslam's raising $1.4 million at his first fund-raiser last week. That shows some pretty strong support, doesn't it? Wamp says he'll raise more than a half-million dollars next week at his first fund-raiser. Here's the rest of his answer:
"I don't think money is going to be the determining factor in who Tennesseans elect as their next governor. I have a lot of faith in Tennesseans that they're not going to let that happen, number one. Number two, congratulations to him. That's obviously a lot of IOUs over the years. That's what happens when people with a whole lotta money give a whole lotta money and then they get a whole lotta money and there's a whole lot comes back around. That's not what American public service should be about. There are a lot of people that want to support me that can't write a check for their power bill. They can't make their mortgage payments, let alone give that much money to a political campaign. But I'm going to raise enough money to get the message out as to who I am and what I stand for."
More from the Wampster:
"Don't inherit anything. Go out there and work for it. Frankly I'm going to light up this state from the middle out for our party with middle-class working Tennesseans. This is not a top-down deal. This is from the middle out because that's where the future for our party is, y'all. I'm going to light that fire in this state, and I tell you a ton of people are going to join me.""I've got some magic in this campaign that money can't buy. It's relationships, values, your record, your heart, your friends, and the next thing you know you go to these counties and the people come out, and there's some magic there. Get excited about it because it's happening. People identify and connect with me because I'm one of them. I've got the middle-class in my heart."
Comments (4)
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This race has all the early signs of the Corker vs Hilleary (or was it Ed Bryant?) Senate primary in '06, with Haslem as Corker and Wamp as either of the other two. And we saw what happened. Now we just need Harold Ford Jr. to run in the general and we'll all be set.
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Wamp? Rich? CRAFTON? I'm picturing that scene in Blazing Saddles where they hold auditions to round up villains.
