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By Heather Mullinix
The Crossville Chronicle
July 22, 2009
While politics can often divide a community, Zach Wamp, eight-term Congressman and candidate for governor in 2010, hopes it can help bring the community together.
“I was talking with Denver Cole (Cumberland County Election Commissioner) earlier and he told me about some of the conflicts in the community,” Wamp told the Chronicle Monday. “One of my goals is to try to pull Republicans together in Cumberland County. A campaign can pull the party together around a shared set of principles and goals, and maybe even a candidate.”
Wamp has been traveling the state since January of this year, visiting 53 of Tennessee’s 95 counties. He hopes to visit every county in the state before the election in November 2010. The primary will be held in August 2010.
“I’ve been at this six months already,” Wamp said. “The bad part of constant campaigning is the voters and donors get weary. The good part of a long campaign is the candidates are more knowledgeable and, if they are smart, they listen and learn what the major challenges are and try to find solutions.”
While Wamp said he was still in the process of listening, learning and leading, he had developed a platform for his campaign that focuses on a vision for the state in the year 2020.
“The next governor is going to be able to shape what our state looks like in 2020,” Wamp said.
His platform includes developing jobs and industry; improving education; and health care.
“While Tennessee’s unemployment rate continues to climb, we need dynamic leadership centered in the production agenda,” Wamp said. “I have this mantra that is someone doesn’t build it, make it or grow it, you can’t service it or sell it. Any economic development program needs to include production in agriculture, manufacturing and infrastructure.”
Wamp noted Tennessee is currently third in automotive industry in the country and third in green energy jobs. He pointed to his involvement with the Tennessee Valley Technology Corridor which has targeted transportation and energy for new industrial growth.
“The success in the past year speaks for itself, with Volkswagen and Wacker Chemical making $1 billion investments and bringing 15,000 jobs in the next three years,” Wamp said. “In both cases, it is making us more resilient. We need that same kind of leadership in Middle and West Tennessee.”
Wamp believes the state could become first in the country in automotive and green technologies.
He said agriculture holds tremendous promise with the development of biofuels and to expand in the commodities industry.
“Agriculture is key as we try to lead on some of these sectors like energy,” Wamp said. “And the commodities sector of soybean in the west and tobacco in the east are still staples of our economy and needs attention to bring about growth.”
In education, Wamp believes reading skills are the cornerstone of improved educational opportunities.
“It’s the one issue that is connected to every other,” Wamp said. “Step one is basic reading.”
