Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Legislature / Politics / Woods Outrage of the Day: Committee Votes to Name Highway After Jerry Cooper
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 11:20 AM
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The Senate Transportation Committee voted unanimously this morning to name a stretch of highway in southeast Tennessee after former Sen. Jerry Cooper. He resigned in disgrace in 2007 after an unfortunate series of publicly embarrassing events. Let's see, he drove blind drunk, smashed up his car and almost killed himself. He stole $94,000 from his reelection campaign account. That came to light during his trial on federal bank fraud charges. He was acquitted in that trial but then fined $120,000 by the state for the theft. In other words, he's a perfect candidate to be honored by the legislature.
Cooper's successor, Sen. Eric Stewart, says he wants to name the highway after Cooper because the Warren County Commission in their home district voted unanimously to ask him to do it. We didn't get a chance to ask the senators on the transportation committee why they're going along with this outrage. But we imagine it's some kind of twisted circle-the-wagons reaction to media criticism.
"I do not agree with all the personal decisions that were made by Senator Cooper as y'all probably wouldn't agree with all the personal decisions that I've made," Stewart told reporters after the committee vote. "But the fact of the matter is that Warren County asked me to do this. I was happy to do it for them. If an overwhelming majority of the folks that I represent, who were also elected by the people of Warren County asked me to do something, then I feel obligated to bring that before the state General Assembly."
After the jump, our Q&A with Stewart:
Q: Is this considered an honor for a person to have a state road named after them?
Stewart: I would think it is. I don't want to see a road named after me particularly. But I think it's an honor that we bestow on lots of folks.
Q: Do you think Senator Cooper deserves the honor?
Stewart: I think, as I've said before, Warren County, which asked me to carry this resolution, deserves me doing my job and bringing this to the General Assembly.
Q: Do you personally think he deserves it?
Stewart: Personally, I'm not going to answer that question. Just to be personal about it, I'm not going to answer that question. My job here is not to do what I think personally should be done. It's to represent the folks of the 14th district.
Q: Can you envision an attack ad in your next campaign over this?
Stewart: There very well could be. But you know there were attack ads in the last one. That's just the nature of the beast.
Q: No matter how badly it might reflect on the Senate or the state, if the Warren County commission asks you to do something, goddammit, you're going to do it?
Stewart: If they ask me to do it by a unanimous vote, then yes I feel obligated to do it. I mean, honestly, I feel obligated to do it.
Comments (2)
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What ever happened with that 120k that Coop owed the state? Didn't he appeal and end up paying something like 10k on the 97k that he stole?
Or am I confused?
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Posted by
JL
on 03/03/2009 at 11:45 AM
Jerry represented that district for 24 years. He did a lot of good for the area. It's a freaking road. The people in that area still love him. Have they changed the names of the various things in Chattanooga named for Ward Crutchfield over the years? No. They probably still have things named for Tommy Burnett and Ray Blanton. Get over it.
Posted by
Greg
on 03/03/2009 at 3:52 PM
