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By John Gullion, Citizen Tribune Managing Editor
July 5, 2009
Article Excerpts
After 14 years in Congress, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp is an old hand.
With a crowded schedule to keep, the candidate for Tennessee governor waits for patiently for the signal that the small talk has stopped and the interview has begun. Once he receives that prod – and a relatively slight indication as to which direction the interviewer wants to go – he’s off.
Each question yields a detailed, multi-layered answer with Wamp driving the interview through the talking points he wants to hit.
Leaning forward in his chair with his hands thrust out ahead, Wamp works through his plans for the state. He doesn’t come off as over-rehearsed, just confidant and assured in what he believes he can accomplish.
He is careful – even as he lays out his education or health care plans – to pay homage to the pillars of the national Republican Party. He barely slows down as he throws out his positions on abortion, gun control and gay marriage. For the record, he is anti-all three.
But that’s not how he’ll separate himself from what is already a growing field of Republican candidates, so he doesn’t linger there long. Without being prompted, he steers back to why he is the man to lead Tennessee’s still newly Republican legislative branch and why his 20/20 vision – planning for what Tennessee will be in the year 2020 – makes him the man to lead Tennessee.
“I’ve been in 53 counties since Jan. 3 and there are a lot of economic needs in this state but they’re different,” Wamp said. “The 20/20 vision is that we have a dynamic economic development agenda.”
Part of that economic development plan, Wamp said, will be for the rest of the state to regionalize its focus – even across state boundaries – to attract industries. He cited Volkswagen in Chattanooga as an example.
Another big part of his economic plan will be to refocus the state’s investment in infrastructure.
“It’s been since Lamar (Alexander) since we’ve had an infrastructure governor that said we’ve got to invest in infrastructure in order to grow economically,” Wamp said, adding that the funding formula for how to build roads – heavily reliant on a gas tax – needs an overhaul.
“That’s the wrong way to collect your revenues for infrastructure,” he said, “through a gas tax that’s in decline. That’s one area that we’re going to have to change.”
Another area that is going to have to change in Tennessee is education. Specifically, reading at an early age.
“We’re not reading proficiently early enough,” Wamp said. “The schools that are successful with reading, they start benchmarking in kindergarten to see if they are reading. If they’re not, they pull them out and give them an hour’s worth of direction instruction, phonics to teach kids how to read.
“Starting in third grade in Tennessee they start reading for content. If they don’t know how to read and everybody starts reading for content, they’re behind and they never catch up. There’s a straight line between third grade students that can’t read and the 28,000 that dropped out of school last year.”
