NASHVILLE – Zach Wamp, Republican candidate for Governor, announced Wednesday that he has posted on his campaign Web site his 20/20 Vision For an Even Better Tennessee, a new 12-page document that outlines Wamp’s priorities and plans as governor in six specific issue areas of critical importance to Tennessee’s future between now and the year 2020.

The document is now available for viewing here. The plan is also featured in Wamp’s current television advertisement running statewide.

Wamp’s 20/20 Vision outlines his plans as governor in the following areas: job creation; better schools; a healthier Tennessee; safer streets and communities; a limited, low-tax state government; and maintaining the state’s sovereignty.

“My 20/20 Vision will be my blueprint and action plan as governor in six areas absolutely critical to the future of Tennessee,” Wamp said. “Job one is getting Tennessee’s economy moving again and more Tennesseans back to work through a new “production agenda” and improving our schools and boosting student achievement with a renewed focus on early childhood reading.”

Wamp’s vision for job creation includes a bold new “production agenda” centered around manufacturing, agriculture and construction – an agenda that focuses on making, building and growing more products in Tennessee and leverages the state’s many advantages, including our right-to-work status, low cost-of-living, high quality of life and no state income tax to help attract more manufacturers.

Included in Wamp’s job creation plans for West Tennessee are proposals for a new Agriculture Corridor to boost investment and production and promotion of the new Memphis Research Consortium that links the area’s top universities and research institutions as well as employers in an effort to recruit more high-tech jobs to Shelby County.

In addition, Wamp has proposed a new Defense Corridor in middle Tennessee that will capitalize on Ft. Campbell near Clarksville, Arnold Center in Tullahoma and the state’s other defense industry assets to create a powerful new economic engine for job creation across the state; along with the continued development of the Tennessee Valley Technology Corridor in East Tennessee, which Zach helped create, now home to Volkswagen, Wacker Chemie, new and expanding missions in Oak Ridge and expanded opportunities in the Tri-Cities for growing high-tech industries and small businesses.

Wamp’s vision for better schools includes a “cradle to grave” approach with a strong new focus on boosting the early reading skills of more Tennessee children in an effort to increase both student achievement and school success.

Under Wamp’s plan, Tennessee children will be benchmarked when they enter Kindergarten, and those not reading to grade level by 3rd grade will receive direct instruction and phonics during the school day to help catch them up to their peers. Wamp’s objective is to have all Tennessee children ready to read for content by the end of 3rd grade to help them learn and succeed.

Wamp will also focus on helping more K-12 students prepare for and connect with post K-12 educational opportunities and new, high-tech jobs in the state’s expanding high-tech sector. For example, Wamp’s plan will replicate the state’s existing “Hemlock model,” a new workforce training partnership being used in Clarksville to better meet the needs of both students and regional employers through more dual enrollment options in high school, vocational schools and local community colleges and universities.

For more information about Zach’s 20/20 Vision for job creation and better schools, along with his plans for a healthier Tennessee, safer streets and communities, a limited, low-tax state government as well as his views on pushing back on Washington to protect our state sovereignty and Tennessee’s way of life, please visit the campaign online at www.ZachWamp.com.

By Jackson Baker
Memphis Flyer

Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Wamp came to Memphis on Monday for a round of activities beginning with a tour of the Criminal Justice Center at 201 Poplar in the company of District Attorney General Bill Gibbons and Sheriff Mark Luttrell.

Thereafter he stood on the 3rd St. side of the CJC with Gibbons, and, while he couldn’t at this point claim the endorsement of Gibbons, his former opponent for the GOP nomination, Wamp did what he did to lay the groundwork for such serendipity, including a virtual declaration of honorary home-boy status.

“Memphis matters,” Wamp declared. “It matters to the future of Tennessee. Just because I didn’t grow up in Memphis doesn’t mean I won’t be fully committed to Memphis.” The Chattanooga congressman expressed a wish for “a long overdue Memphis Renaissance” and pledged himself to that end.

He promised that, if nominated, the first place he would come would be Memphis. Ditto with his initial destination as soon as he got inaugurated as governor. And he vowed, too, that, once installed as governor, he would devote “most of my time” to the concerns of Shelby County.

“As Memphis goes, so goes Tennessee,” Wamp said.

Read more here.

By Ned B. Hunter
Jackson Sun

Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Wamp stopped his red and white campaign bus in Jackson on Sunday, just long enough to spread his 20-20 vision campaign ideas for a better Tennessee.

Wamp entered the back room of the Old Country Store at 12:30 p.m. to hugs, handshakes and approving head nods from nearly 30 supporters and the curious who came to hear the candidate’s Vision 20-20 plan about job growth, improving education, creating a healthier state and making cities safer.

“I am running because we need leadership to do better,” Wamp said. “We could have the most dynamic state in this country if it did.”

For job creation, Wamp said the state should focus on a three-tier plan of “make it, grow it, build it.”

If elected, Wamp said he would try to create a “military jobs corridor” that ran from East Tennessee to West Tennessee. The corridor would consist of federal government-contracted companies that manufacture various military products.

He also said he would like to see an increase in farming and the creation of an agriculture corridor that spreads from Tennessee to Arkansas. To help farmers do that, Wamp said he might ask the sate to create additional incentives for farmers or ask local communities to shift local incentives, perhaps something like tax abatements, from manufacturers to farmers.

“I’m hoping we can use the (state) economic and community incentives used for manufacturing,” he said, “and spread them around so there may be incentives for farmers.”

On education, Wamp said children’s reading skills should be tested before they enter the third grade. If a child is not reading at his or her grade level, the student could be sent to a teaching assistant for help.

“Those who cannot read at a third-grade level by the time they reach the third grade,” he said, “are more likely to drop out of school or enter the criminal justice system.”

Read the full article here.

By Bill Dries
Memphis Daily News

Republican candidate for governor Zach Wamp came into Memphis just ahead of the Easter weekend with kind words for the last Memphian to leave the governor’s race and a warning about the area’s politics.

“State government needs to commit to Memphis. I believe Memphis is starting to turn a corner,” Wamp told a group of 20 during the morning breakfast rush at the Bob Evans restaurant in Bartlett. “I believe the only drag on Memphis is politics. Everything else here has tremendous potential.”

Wamp campaigned in Shelby County the day of the filing deadline in the Aug. 5 primaries for governor and other state and federal offices.

It was also a week after Shelby County District Attorney General Bill Gibbons ended his bid for the GOP nomination. Wamp complimented Gibbons on his campaign.

“I just think there’s been a lot of concern and sometimes a lack of confidence in the political leadership,” Wamp told The Daily News later of his remarks about Memphis politics. “We’re going to have an opportunity with the next governor to pull the new elected leadership team in Memphis together.”

Wamp also acted to tone down some of the rhetoric surrounding the recently passed national health care reform act. Wamp voted against the bill. And he said the Tennessee attorney general should join other states legally challenging the spending obligations that it will mean for state governments.

But when someone asked him about the “states rights” issue, Wamp said it was the wrong way to frame the issue. Wamp used the term “state sovereignty.”

“States rights has a terrible connotation because people think race. This is the 10th amendment and a state sovereignty issue. This is not a states rights issue. When you say that people think civil rights,” he said. “That was an equality, fairness and justice issue that was right – so right. And don’t forget that civil rights legislation was led by Republicans.”

Read the full article here.