There is a lot of talk of late of  "job creation" from a good many of our elected officials or folks who want to get elected.  But most of our elected officials and candidates don't have a clue how to create jobs in the private sector, because they have never created any.  We need more people in Washington and Nashville who have actual experience creating jobs, providing health insurance, and retirement programs.
 
The voters of State Senate District 10 have a clear choice between Republican candidates Greg Vital and Todd Gardenhire when it comes to job creation.

  They are both Republicans, and both good Republicans, and if all that mattered in this election was “who the best Republican was” then you as a voter could toss a coin.  But that isn’t what this election is really about, this election is about getting this great state working again, it is about proven leadership, and a proven vision, and the voters have a clear choice between Greg Vital and Tim Gardenhire.

Greg Vital wasn't born to wealth; he has had to work.  He worked on the line at Little Debbie, paying his own way through college.   He worked for Life Care Centers of America, and traveled the nation with that company helping it grow to the corporation it is today. 

Greg Vital founded his own company, Independent Health Care Properties, after working for Life Care.  He has almost 1000 employees, and has some of the best Assisted Living Centers and Alzheimer's Care Centers in the Nation.  He developed Green Briar Cove Retirement Community here in Collegedale, and bought and restored buildings across downtown Chattanooga.  Greg and his wife own a buffalo farm in Georgetown and keep a crew working on it. 
 
Greg Vital is a job creator, from construction jobs, to folks running the facilities, to office workers, to the guys running the farm, Greg knows how to makes jobs. 
 
I know a good many of IHCP's employees and you know what, they are happy, well paid, and have great benefits.  Greg Vital and his business partner Franklin Farrow believe in treating their employees like they would want to be treated themselves.  
 
So it would stand to reason that if we sent him to Nashville Greg would know what companies needed to get Tennessean's working. 
 
I have known Greg Vital though the Tennessee Historic Trust, his tireless work on the Hamilton County and Chattanooga Green Way System, his 4 years on the Collegedale City Commission, and the fact that no one has a greater vision for this area and this State than Greg Vital does.
 
As for Tim Gardenhire, he is a nice and respectable gentleman, but Mr. Gardenhire is a Wall Street stockbroker.  I am sure that Wall Street is a great place and has done a lot of good over the years, but when I think about Wall Street and Tennessee I don’t think “job creation”.  I think of hundreds of thousands of jobs being shipped to Mexico.  I think about even more jobs being shipped off shore to China, slave labor, pollution, and cheap products that fall apart.  I don’t think of family farms and the local co-op, I think about giant agri-business, and genetically altered crops, and the little guys being crushed.  In fact when I think of Wall Street I think about what has gone wrong in America and Tennessee.
When I think about the future of this great State and its people I am not sure if I want someone who “knows Wall Street” helping guide it towards prosperity.  It is my opinion that Mr. Gardenhire’s kind of business experience, is not what this Senate District or this state needs. 

Greg Vital will go to Nashville with a proven track record of creating good jobs for the citizens of Tennessee, and he will know how to guide job growth in our state.  So let's send a senator to Nashville who knows how to get the job, of making jobs, done, let's elect Greg Vital.

David Barto
Collegedale