By Tom Yancey
Greeneville Sun
U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd, of Chattanooga, who is running for the Republicans’ 2010 nomination for governor, was here Monday to meet with local officials and campaign.
Wamp first visited Tusculum College to pay a courtesy call on Dr. Nancy Moody, president of Tusculum College.
Wamp said he developed a good relationship with Dr. Moody when she was president of Lincoln Memorial University, which is in his district.
While at the college, he talked to a political science class, taught by Troy Goodale.
From there, the congressman from Chattanooga went to the Greene County Courthouse annex, where he met with County Mayor Alan Broyles, County Clerk David Thompson, Assessor of Property Ralph Bowers, and Register of Deeds Joy Rader, and their staffs.
Wamp met supporters for lunch at the Bean Barn restaurant, where owners Jerry and Donna Hartsell asked to have their picture taken with him, to put with the picture they have of themselves with former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson.
Among the Greene Countians joining him for lunch was Mike Carlton, whose daughter, Cristy, is in Wamp’s Sunday school class at Red Bank Baptist Church.
After lunch, Wamp met with the directors of the Greene County Partnership to hear what problems they would like to see the state’s next governor address.
WHY HE IS RUNNING
When Wamp stopped by his office, Assessor of Property Ralph Bowers asked him why he wants to be governor.
Wamp said he is running because Tennessee needs a new agenda, and he believes his background has prepared him to set the agenda to address health care and education.
“I have known for some time that this is where preparation and opportunity meet,” Wamp said.
“We’re 47th out of 50 states in health,” Wamp said of Tennessee, and 42nd in education, according to national tests.
He said Tennessee has not really had a new agenda since Lamar Alexander was governor. “When Lamar ran for governor, it was, ‘roads and schools, roads and schools,’ but today, health care dominates the state budget.”
He cited growth of TennCare spending by $3 billion in the last five years, and the state’s number one-ranking in per-capita prescription drug use as indicators.
“The governor has to lead the state to a better place in health,” and in education, he said.
Wamp said “the first big step” he would take as governor is to push hard to improve teaching of reading in the first three elementary grades.
Improving education and health care can improve the state’s manufacturing base and its economy, he said, including agriculture.
Saying that Tennessee is third in manufacturing related to the automobile industry, Wamp said, “we could go from third to first in the next 10 years,” despite changes in that industry toward smaller vehicles and hybrids.
“The change will create opportunity,” he said. Tennessee remains a right-to-work state with a high quality of life and a low cost of living, the factors that helped Volkswagen and Toyota decide to locate here, he added.
“When the economy recovers, if we position ourselves right, we can really land a lot of the next-generation automotive” manufacturing jobs, he said.
On Monday, Zach appeared at the Knox County Commission meeting in support of 2nd Amendment rights as the commission voted 13-5 to allow guns in parks. Just a week earlier the Knoxville City Council had voted to uphold a ban on guns in city parks.
