Mayoral candidate David Crockett, at a press conference at the Convention Center, said he may not be politically astute, but he said he knows how to get big projects done.
His financial disclosure statement, filed late on Wednesday, said he took in $12,960 in the last reporting period.
He received $1,500 from Greg Vital, David Crisp, Forest Forman and JoAnn Forman, $1,000 from Joe Decosimo, Garnet Chapin, Robert Caldwell and Brad Standefer, and $500 from Neil Thomas III and John Schaerer.
Mr.
Crockett, a former City Council member, said, "This is the perfect venue for what I want to talk about today. When I initiated the expansion of this beautiful convention center, many said it was unnecessary. That we hadn’t paid for the first one and we might not be able to fill it and didn’t know how we could pay for it. The same was said for the entire Southside plan. It was all big talk, pie in the sky.
You’re standing in one of the flavors of “Dave’s Pie Store.” We built it and paid for it and all the other major projects that you can see from here with the proceeds of merging the school system and passing the half cent sales tax. That raised the hundreds of millions of dollars to do all this development plus the acquisition of the Volunteer Site where VW now stands. All of those were said to be impossible. Dreams. I initiated all of those and helped engineer their passage. That was only a part of my record of city wide accomplishments.
While doing those things, I took care of my District 3 constituents by getting Greenway Farm for the public’s use, expanding greenways and the Riverwalk in my district, initiating sewers in the entire district in Hixson and Highway 58, building the Hixson Ballfield complex and replacing bridges and paving roads.
All of that was a great record of achievement, but that is only some of the tangible highlights.
The heavy lifts were meeting with every major organization in Chattanooga in the first 90 days I was in office to get their agreement to create and integrated, strategic plan focused on the emerging economic, educational, research and urban revitalizing opportunities driven by a call for changes in transportation, manufacturing, urban development, energy, water and practically every aspect of our lives. That effort was announced in the local media ninety days after I took office and was completed and adopted by every major organization and government one year after I took office. That was the first strategic plan for the entire city and region with a tight focus. That gave the city an identity nationwide and around the world that brought hundreds of delegations to Chattanooga and ultimately played a significant part in Billions of Dollars of investment, thousands of jobs and a lot of what we see today.
The point is that from the seat of a Councilman I had one of the best records of accomplishment of any local elected officials…. Council, Commissioners, Mayors in Hamilton County history and the the best record on taxes with three tax cuts of fifty cents each.
I did that as a Councilman, not a Mayor.
My fund raising for those three terms and running for Mayor was one of the lowest of any elected official ever. The total I have ever raised wouldn’t add up to ONE fundraiser for the current mayor. All my campaigns have been grass-roots. I’m great at raising millions and hundreds of millions for the city, but challenged at asking for money for a campaign. It’s much more personal.
My fundraising this time is more modest than I had hoped, but I never had an expectation that a mayor’s race should cost much more than a hundred thousand dollars. We came nowhere close to that with the pressure of the Mayor's war chest.
The summary of all that is that:
I am Vision and Performance Gifted and Politically Challenged.
That is the mirror image of the mayor.
He has raised over a million dollars in his bids for Mayor, but has a dubious performance resume.
I got the entire city to adopt a plan that I sponsored. The Mayor has been almost unavailable for the same group.
I passed two ballot initiatives that were said to be impossible for the merger of the schools and the half cent sales tax. He barely comments on major changes like the tax inequity of the city residents paying county taxes and not receiving the same benefits and the unincorporated areas.
Although important the mayor’s baby step programs aren’t transformational.
But, give him his due. He is a fundraising machine and politically savvy. He will always do what is best for him and his political career.
The Mayor is Politically Gifted and Performance Challenged.
While I have one of the best records of accomplishment ever. The mayor has set records for money raised for his personal campaigns and handling scandal in the mayor’s office.
I bring this up now because this a contest of performance and vision for the future not personal, political fund raising.
The voters will choose between
Vision and Performance versus Political Fund Raising.