Tom Humphrey
Knoxville News-Sentinel

With several legislators watching, Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp Tuesday declared himself “a heat-seeking missle” and who is ready to lay off state employees and “shrink the footprint of state government” if elected governor.

Wamp’s appearance three doors down from the governor’s state capitol office was part of a week-long, statewide tour to “formally” announce that he is running for governor.

“This is no time for a status quo governor; no time for a status quo agenda,” said Wamp, one of four major candidates for the GOP nomination. “This is the time for real leadership, a 20-20 vision on how to grow our state’s economy based on our assets, based on productivity.”

In fielding questions, Wamp said “everybody is going to have to get on a diet in state government” and there would be continuing layoffs in addition to those planned by Gov. Phil Bredesen.

He said six former state government commissioners are helping his campaign and they have told him “there are ways to shrink the footprint of state government and still provide the needed services – and we’ve got to do that.” It will probably be 2013 before the state budget picture improves, he said.

Wamp said he not concerned that Republican rival Bill Haslam has already launched a $1 million broadcast advertising campaign and has raised more than twice as much money.

Early in the campaign, he said, those in the Republican “financial base” thought “the guy with the most money was going to win.

“Now they know better and they are coming to us in a very powerful and meaningful way just at the right time,” Wamp said, recognizing that voters this year are “concerned about big government but they’re also concerned about big business and bis special interest and collusion and who’s going to benefit.”

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U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, left, of Chattanooga, is greeted by State Rep. Kevin Brooks this morning in Cleveland during a breakfast at Mountain View Inn. Wamp shared the ideas and proposals that make up his “20/20 Vision for an Even Better Tennessee,” developed after visiting all 95 counties of the state during the past year.

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By Brian Eason
The Clarksville Leaf Chronicle

In a meeting with The Leaf-Chronicle’s editorial board Tuesday, GOP gubernatorial hopeful Zach Wamp discussed issues central to his campaign and touted a plan to create a “defense corridor” anchored by Fort Campbell.

U.S. Rep. Wamp of Chattanooga, who represents Tennessee’s 3rd District, highlighted his ideas on job creation and education as what set him apart from the Republican primary field.

“I’m the vision guy for where we need to get as a state,” Wamp said, pointing to what he calls his “20/20 Vision,” a set of proposals he says contain specific goals for the future.

One such goal is the creation of a “corridor” that would aim to attract defense investment between Fort Campbell and Alabama’s Redstone Arsenal.

“State economies that are the most resilient rely on a combination of private-sector investment and defense and homeland security investment,” he said, adding that defense companies might find the area attractive because of the proximity to the two military posts.

He said the idea would attempt to mimic the Tennessee Valley Corridor, a nonprofit group he began in 1995 that holds periodic economic summits in an attempt to showcase the area’s strengths to potential scientific investors.

“This (area) is ripe for new technology development,” Wamp said. “They’re going to come to the South. Everybody is going to come to the South for investment because of low taxes, quality of life, right-to-work — all those things. The question is which southern state are they going to invest in, not whether they’re going to invest.”

Wamp said agriculture and the automobile industry were other areas in which the state could succeed.

Education

He focused on education as the state’s biggest shortcoming.
“The one thing Volkswagen said to us when were were negotiating with them was they wanted a well-educated, trained work force,” he said. “And we’re not there yet.”

His proposal for education would set up benchmarks to ensure children are learning to read as early as possible.

“Who’s going to intervene to catch them up?” he said, asserting that after third grade, children who can’t read fall further behind. “At that point, they move from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn.”

He said he didn’t expect the program to cost anything, adding “if it did, we need to find a way to pay for it.”

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The Jackson Sun

At a “kickoff” event in Jackson last week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Wamp promised he would spend much of his time outside of the capital in West Tennessee to help push the area’s economic development forward.

Often referencing the landing of a Volkswagen plant for an East Tennessee industrial megasite, the congressman said much of what attracted the German automaker to his end of the state could bring industry elsewhere.

“I’ll spend more time in West Tennessee than any part of the state than what you have to do” in Nashville, Wamp said at the kickoff event, relocated on a snowy Monday afternoon to Green Frog Coffee Co. in downtown Jackson.

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Zach Wamp ended his statewide kick off tour by becoming the first major Republican candidate for governor to officially file his qualifying petition with the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office, the state Coordinator of Elections and the Tennessee Republican Party.

Rep. Wamp also dropped off a copy of his petition today at the Hamilton County Election Commission.

“It has been a busy, but exciting week as my family and I have traveled all across our great state officially announcing my candidacy for governor,” said Rep. Wamp. “I’m honored and humbled by the level of support and enthusiasm we saw in all three divisions of the state. Our campaign is on the move and right on track. We are working hard every day to earn the support of more and more Tennesseans.”

Joined by his wife Kim, son Weston and daughter Coty, Rep. Wamp started his kickoff tour on Monday with stops in Memphis and Jackson – followed by a major event at the State Capitol in Nashville on Tuesday. He and his family then traveled to the Tri-Cities and to Knoxville on Wednesday before participating in candidates forum and multiple campaign stops in Williamson County on Thursday.

This morning, Rep. Wamp ended his statewide kickoff tour with a breakfast in Cleveland followed by his formal announcement before a crowd of supporters in his hometown of Chattanooga.

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Contrary to all appearances, country music star John Rich is not running for governor.

The singer/songwriter can be found at many events involving gubernatorial candidates, but he is there purely as a supporter, squarely in the camp of Republican Congressman Zach Wamp.

Whether hosting a fundraiser, attending a candidate forum such as last month’s event at Belmont University, or appearing at the very formal Old Supreme Court Chambers of the state Capitol, Rich stands out in a crowd in his cowboy hat and matching attire.

Wamp made note of “John Rich and his rowdy friends” in remarks to a largely supportive crowd at the Capitol when Wamp formally announced his candidacy last week in the Middle Tennessee portion of a statewide swing. It wasn’t the horn-honking kind of rowdiness the Capitol has seen in its day, but it’s fair to say the crowd in the room was a bit louder than most of the stately proceedings the room has seen historically.

While it might look like Wamp is dragging Rich around, using a celebrity to bolster the campaign, the fact is Rich put Wamp through a vigorous test to see if the congressman from Chattanooga was up to Rich’s expectations, not the other way around. Rich tested Wamp with what might be called his own political boot camp.

Wamp survived it.

Rich did some serious evaluating when he quizzed Wamp about his political beliefs.

The whole thing started from the friendship Rich had with another prominent Tennessee Republican, former Sen. Fred Thompson, and Thompson’s wife Jeri. Rich had performed at events for Thompson in the brief Thompson presidential campaign of 2008.

“The first person who ever told me about Zach was Jeri Thompson,” Rich said. “Jeri and Fred asked me what I knew about him. I said I knew his name but honestly I didn’t know a lot about him. In a little meeting with Zach, I asked him a bunch of really hard questions. He answered them all the way I wanted to hear them answered.”

He met with Wamp in Washington.

“One of the bigget issues for me was the Tenth Amendment.” Rich said. “I asked, ‘What are you going to do if the people in this White House try to pass unfunded mandates across Tennessee and across the country? Are you going to have enough backbone to tell them no thank you and take whatever lick it is they’re going to give you?’”

Rich said Wamp looked him dead in the eye and said, “Absolutely.”

“He said that was one of the biggest reasons he wanted to run for governor was to protect our states’ rights,” Rich said. “I was on board from that moment.”

Wamp is clearly the candidate who has embraced the music crowd in the current governor’s race.

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By Tom Yancey
Greeneville Sun

“You can learn more in a place like Tipton’s,” said U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd, of Chattanooga, than just about anywhere on the campaign trail.

Wamp, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, stopped Wednesday in Greeneville on a sweep through East Tennessee. He said he stopped at Tipton’s because he was invited.

“This is the center of Tennessee, right here,” he said. At a place like Tipton’s, Wamp said, people will speak their mind, and expect you to do the same.

At the end of his visit, when he asked Edna Cutshaw, Tipton’s co-owner, if he could perhaps film a commercial there later in the campaign. She replied, “Why, sure!”

Later Cutshaw said Wamp seemed like a “down to earth” person who handles himself and people well, and is smart and well-informed. “I like him,” she said.

With Wamp were his wife, Kim, and son, Weston, who graduated from the University of Tennessee last year.

Mrs. Wamp said their day started when they left Chattanooga at 4:30 a.m., headed for a breakfast in Johnson City, then a press conference at Tri-Cities Regional Airport.

Along the way they had picked up reporter Harlow Sumerfield and camera person Rebecca Williams of Knoxville’s Channel 6.

MOTORHOME TRIP

After lunch in Greeneville, the Wamp motorhome, with the family and several staff members aboard or following in cars, headed for Knoxville.

There, Mrs. Wamp hoped to see her daughter, Coty, a junior at UT.

The congressman was scheduled to hold another press conference, then the family was to go to the UT-Georgia basketball game.

At Tipton’s, Wamp chatted up and down the counter in the crowded diner while the rest of his party ate.

The noon hour was long gone before he could sit down and order a cheeseburger for himself. He finished the cheeseburger while talking to a reporter.

He spoke with Russell Ottinger, president of the senior class at Greeneville High School, and with Lauren Heffner, who, like Ottinger, had come to meet the congressman with GHS Principal Dr. Linda Stroud, as part of their political science class.

When one man sitting at the counter brought up a problem a friend was having doing business with the state, Wamp grew even more animated than usual.

“The Pew Center says Tennessee is a textbook case for procurement reform,” Wamp said. Georgia, on the other hand, is among the nation’s top 10 in terms of state procurement and purchasing, and “we want to follow that model.”

However, Wamp had several good things to say about the administration of Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat who cannot run for a third term by state law.

“Bredesen managed TennCare better than his predecessor,” Wamp said.

But much more needs to be done to improve the health of Tennesseans, he said. “Only West Virginia is less healthy,” he said. “We’ve got 13-year-olds on high blood pressure medicine all over the place.”

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