Thursday, March 26, 2009
Politics / Woods Ramsey and Wamp Fighting to Become the Anti-Haslam
Posted by Jeff Woods on Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 9:06 AM
What's a political campaign without a little eye-gouging? But 19 months before the election? Ron Ramsey and Zach Wamp are fighting hard behind the scenes to persuade contributors that they are the best alternative to Bill Haslam in the race for the GOP nomination for governor.
To that end, Ramsey has been sniping at Wamp and vice versa. When Ramsey announced his candidacy, he said, "I don't think Zach is catching on." At the same time, he revealed Wamp was upset with him for running, as if Wamp knew he couldn't possibly compete with the mighty Ramsey. "Zach was halfway aggravated," Ramsey recalled. "He said 'I can't believe you're doing this.' " At the suggestion that his campaign isn't gaining traction, Wamp fired back: "That's wishful thinking."
The latest skirmishing surrounds the hiring of campaign staff. Major donors are watching which candidate can land the biggest names. Haslam snagged a whopper this week when Tom Ingram, the star GOP consultant of the past 30 years, agreed to work for the Knoxville mayor. Wamp followed up by announcing Bob Davis as his top hired gun. Ramsey snorted at this news. He said he talked with Davis about a job, but didn't want to make Davis his No. 1 guy.
"We had a discussion about this, and I understand he wanted the No. 1 position in any campaign. He wouldn't have had that in my race, because we're working in another direction that we'll be announcing soon."
To the winner of this preliminary Ramsey-Wamp bout goes only an outside shot to beat Haslam. At least that's the thinking of many insiders. Haslam already has raised roughly $2 million, and he'll pour whatever it takes into his campaign from his personal fortune. He's vulnerable from the right in a Republican primary on guns and taxes. But if both Ramsey and Wamp stay in the race, they could split up too much campaign money and too many voters and seal their own fates as losers.
Comments (2)
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To: Cutline Writer
From: Unpaid editor
Fowls lay eggs, humans lie awake.
Ron Ramsey is not a fowl.
Can you understand my point?
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Ron Ramsey is a crook and he has cold his influence in the State Senate and become a political Whore. His Action business experience must have come in handy as he auctioned off his influence with the coal industry.
I heard King Pharma is next on the feature list of Ramsey's deals. Can't wait to see it on TV.
