Roy Exum
Nick Wilkinson was one of my son’s closest pals when they were at McCallie and has been a huge family favorite ever since. You may know him as the guy who has done wonders on Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke’s director of Economic Development, where he has helped bring unemployment for from 7.8 percent to 4.1 percent.
You may also have seen where he is now taking on Chattanooga’s brown-fields and doing it by returning businesses – and jobs – to our neediest neighborhoods like Alton Park, Dodson Avenue and East Lake, for example. But what set me off was when Nick showed up as a Democrat candidate for the state legislature on the August ballot. You see, I have known him for years, and that Nick Wilkinson is hardly one of the crazies.
In my view the Democratic Party is a land full of lulus, and a big reason that the Tennessee legislature is a super majority can be laid squarely and candidly at the feet of Barrack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer and a host of other liberals that scare common-sense people to death. Say what you will about Hillary’s emails, and the fact Barack Obama is campaigning with her in North Carolina, but I’ve got a litany of good reasons why I wouldn’t vote for the foul-mouthed hate monger in a frog-jumping contest.
So where does that put us with Donald Trump, who is easily in my mind the worst Republican candidate ever pushed on the people of the United States. Face it, it is looking for all the world like he’s won the GOP nomination fair and square? My goodness, who is happy about that?
National columnist George Will just bolted the extremely disjoined GOP. The ‘Dump Trump’ effort is gaining popularity and the nation’s top Republican leaders no longer try to veil their disgust. And here in Tennessee? The party’s state chairman, Mark Winslow, just resigned, accusing the state GOP leaders have allowed “their soul to rot away.”
I am of the solid belief that Winslow is right. “My state political party is beyond salvage,” Winslow wrote in a disgusted way. “Oh, sure, we’re drifting along on inertia, collecting PAC checks and distributing the money to favored candidates or using the money to pay staffers to take out those who are not favored.”
“We pat ourselves on our collective super-majority and claim that legislative status absolves every wrong deed,” he continued, stating the obvious to a very disenchanted and disappointed base of followers. He even claimed the party on the state level was “really nothing more than a small corrupt core group who view our party as their private club and personal piggy bank.”
Listen to what else the departing Winslow said of the state’s fractured Republican leadership: “Money is passed around, doled out to friends, handed to favored consultants and staffers who ignore bylaws or common sense,” he ranted. “Rules are arrogantly and routinely broken by officers and staff with no consequence of accountability.”
So you darn right that was a big thing that Nick, a graduate of the University of Georgia in political science, and I talked about yesterday at lunch. He’s running against my former high school classmate (and friend) Todd Gardenhire, who is unopposed as a Republican nominee to return to the legislature’s Senate.
“In the first place I have never felt like I am running against Todd,” said Nick. “I am running for a lot of people, both Democrat and Republican, whose needs are getting overlooked and pushed away by the super-majority in Nashville. If you’ll look, Governor Bill Haslam (a Republican) can’t even get his issues through the logjam. That’s not right. That’s not what is best for this state.”
Nick says he’s “not about” changing bathrooms, same-sex marriage and the other silliness hat has caused our state government countless wasted hours. “We need to focus on jobs and education, things that will matter 10 or 20 years from now instead of defying federal government in yet another fruitless manner.
“Let me tell you something … the most influential person in any child’s life … outside of a family … is a teacher. We’ll all agree on that, but we have consistently treated our teachers badly in recent years … and you want to know why scores are down?” he asked. “We have forgotten our teachers when, let’s face it, they are the actual bedrock of every child’s dreams.”
I agree with Nick. “We have got to return to a common-sense style of government where we sit down and find solutions that will work instead of building one-sided roadblocks every day. You show me any committee, or any group of people, who unanimously agree and I’ll show you where progress is stagnant. Our legislature is not getting things done and there is no reason for it that makes common sense.”
So Nick, who was a tenacious competitor in high school and today a fast up-comer at 38-years-old, is asked how a Democrat is going to get in a room with a majority of Republicans and accomplish anything. “I’m a Phil Bredesen-type of Democrat. He knew how to get things done. So did Ned Ray McWherter. It is the person, not the party. I talked to Governor Bredesen for a long time and hope I can follow his vision. What a fabulous Tennessean he is, and he is never thought of as a Democrat.
“I have worked closely with the Hamilton County legislation in the last 2 ½ years and I feel we believe in each other. You get two of three groups who are mad, put them in a room, and nobody leaves until you work things out. The new Fed-Ex facility at Summit is going to be a classic example. The black community had been left out. We recognized that and they had fabulous input that made the project much, much better. Everybody left that room excited … I was there and saw it.”
So tell me about Pelosi and Harry Reid? “I’m not about to get bogged down by personalities or popularity. That does matter at all. What matters is that my wife Laura is an ICU nurse and we have two small boys who will be educated and who will hopefully settle in Tennessee. My goal, my dream, is to represent people just like them across the state by taking an active role in getting results in Nashville.
“So help me, I think the super-majority in Nashville is hindering Tennessee far more than helping it. Think about the pluses and minuses. It is crazy and we all know it. I can tell you there are a large number of voters in both parties who feel that way right now.
“Does it not make you wonder why a .50 caliber rifle is our “State Gun” while the Bible is not our ‘State Book?’” But the real point is the legislature spent needless time and effort in what 90 percent of our school parents feel is absolutely nuts when is big thing is 60 percent of our children in the third grade cannot read at grade level.”
In an aside, I asked Nick if he felt it would hinder him if the fact another Democrat with the same last name is also in the August 4 primary. “I don’t know Kristye Wilkinson,” he shook his head, “but all you need to remember is ‘Pick Nick!’” he laughed. “Say it … that’s not hard. ‘Pick Nick.’” Ty O’Grady is also running the in the primary for the 10th district.
“I remember something Mai Bell Hurley once told me about Chattanooga. She said the reason Chattanooga has far out-distanced almost every other mid-sized city in what we have accomplished in the last quarter century is the fact we haven’t let political parties alter our united desire ‘to be helpful and to hope.’”
“I want to be helpful. I think I really can be, and I hope I get the opportunity.”
royexum@aol.com