Monday, March 2, 2009
Politics / Woods Ramsey Says He Announced His Candidacy to Slow Haslam's Momentum
Posted by Jeff Woods on Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 2:55 PM
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In his first interview since announcing his candidacy for governor, Ron Ramsey says he jump-started his campaign because Bill Haslam was gobbling up supporters too fast. To the Kingport Times-News' Hank Hayes, Ramsey says:
"I wanted to wait (to announce) until after I got out of (legislative) session. People were telling me I was losing five to 10 people a day with Haslam out there beating the bushes. I don't think Zach is catching on. I don't think Bill Gibbons is catching on, but Haslam is working harder plus he has the money...I just couldn't wait any longer."Ramsey claims the support of the Republican state senators, plus 40 state representatives, but he also fears Haslam will throw so much money into his campaign that he'll "carpet-bomb me like you've never seen." In a gossipy tidbit from the interview, he says Zach Wamp was annoyed by his entrance into the race.
"Zach was halfway aggravated. He said 'I can't believe you're doing this.' It almost aggravated me. I said 'Let me make sure I understand this Zach, I've been toiling in the state legislature for 17 years and took us three seats down to five seats up (Republicans went from the minority to the majority party in the state Senate)...and you're going to be upset?' "Via Kleinheider
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