Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Wamp Commits Himself to "Memphis Renaissance" as Governor
Posted by Jackson Baker on Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 4:25 PM
- JB
- Wamp and Gibbons after CJC tour
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.
Asked if an endorsement by Gibbons might be in the cards, Wamp said, “There’s 96 days to go [until the gubernatorial primary], plenty of time for that. I hope that that’s the case later on. It’s for him to consider. I didn’t ask for that yet.”
Meanwhile, he praised Gibbons’ now folded campaign as something that had made him “a better candidate” himself and promised to support Gibbons’ goals. He said he considered Operation Safe Community to be a model. “I’ll continue to try to win General Gibbons’ support,” he said.
Wamp said he was still committed to full support for the Med, but hedged modestly when asked if he intended to sign a specific pledge sought of all gubernatorial candidates by the Shelby County Commission. The commission wants all candidates to commit themselves to rout all federal funds generated by indigent care at the Med back to the Med itself.
“I still haven’t seen it,” Wamp said of the pledge, but indicated he was still committed to sign it.
Wamp expressed support of the burgeoning state sovereignty movement but unequivocally distanced himself from the rhetoric of “states’ rights,” which, he said, smacked of “segregation and going backwards.” He said his recent vow to resist federal health-care legislation by meeting the federal government “at the state line” was metaphorical, not literal.
“I am a fighter. I’m a nice guy and a compassionate guy, but I also from time to time will stand up and fight,” said Wamp, who characterized the new federal health-care act as a “billion-dollar mandate that we can’t afford” and something that was worth fighting. “Fighting may be in a court of law, fighting may be at the ballot box,” he said.
Wamp is battling Knoxville mayor Bill Haslam and state Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey of Blouneville for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. The winner of that contest will oppose Jackson businessman Mike McWherter, a Democrat, in the fall.
Comments (18)
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i'd rather have Haley Barbour with all his attendant lobbying baggage/ profiting from Katrina than this C-Street weirdo.
Reminds me of the time some pol traveled up a muddy, cratered trail to some backwoods hilltop in East Tennessee while compaigning for governor and told a bunch of billies standing around his stump:
"Next time I come up here, it's going to be on a paved road!"
His aide said, "Why did you say that? You know you can't promise them a paved road!"
The candidate replied: "Ah, but I didn't promise them a paved road. I just told them the conditions under which I'd ever come back up here."
Still think Zach Wamp sounds like the name of a character in "Space Balls."
"I used to bull's-eye Zach Wamps in my T-16 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters."
Face it, Memphis is a blue speck in an otherwise red state. The best part about his statement will be following him around to see if repeats the same thing in each stop. It's long been known in Tennessee politics that railing against Memphis is the easiest way to get votes in the middle and eastern parts of the state.
yeah... requisite bullsh*tting is one thing, but "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"
come. on.
Merc is right, there are votes to be had with the Mencken hating rubes in bashing Memphis...and this guy will drop Shelby County like 5th period French once elected. If a Republican is elected the best one for us would be Haslam, he'll have that requisite upper class sense of noblesse oblige about Memphis...
You da man, Merc. But I'd respectfully disagree about Memphis being a blue dot in a red state. If there's a reliably Democratic enclave in Tennessee, it's still Nashville, where Democrats -- even white males, even the occasional liberal -- get elected mayor,congressman, state senator, etc. more often than not.
I'd go so far as to say that Nashville, Tennessee, is the last enclave anywhere on earth of the old "solid Democratic South." And since the city is virtually synonymous with Davidson County, it goes for the county as well.
How often does Shelby County go Republican? It does it here and there all the time, depending on the type of election, depending on the candidate(s).
I wrote about Mr. Wamp way back in '06: http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/gadfly…
I don't think he's any more connected to reality today than he was back then. In the floor speech I linked to in my article, in addition to re-asserting the non-existent connection between Saddam and Al Qaeda, he also asserted that "our [presumably Republican] economic policies are working..." Yuh, right.
wvfii- your first comment was hilarious and I'm not even that big of a Star Wars guy.
A long time ago in a campaign far away...well maybe not that long ago and annoyingly close to home. It was a period of civic turmoil when gubernatorial hopefuls roamed the universe spouting meaningless paragraphs…
Well Mr Baker, I will defer to you in all things political. I still stand by the rest of my statement though that the easiest way to score votes in a statewide election is bash Memphis to every county east of here.
Just a quick question though, weren't Memphis and one other county like Chester or some such the only two counties to go for Obabma in the presidential election?
Actually, Merc, besides Shelby, the Obama counties in 2008 were Hardeman, Haywood, and, yep, Davidson. There weren't many!
I thought Davidson went the other way. But yes there weren't very many! Thanks JB.
Well, it's definitely refreshing to hear. After living thru the Bredesen administration (who basically pretended Memphis didn't exist, only to grossly over-subsidize Nashville) anything will be a welcome change.
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