By mid-summer four years ago, with my campaign building momentum against Congressman Fleischmann, I knew the attacks were coming. But I wondered what they would possibly be about?
I was only 27-years-old and didn’t have a political record, or a criminal record, for that matter. My work experience was not controversial. I didn’t have enough money at the time to have given to any political candidates, Democrat or Republican.
Nonetheless, after spending many spring and summer nights sleeping in Walmart parking lots in an RV similar to gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee’s, we pulled even with Fleischmann in polling and the attacks came in droves. Audio clips were spliced, mailers were photoshopped and a picture of me shaking President Obama’s hand was used against me like a mug shot.
Fast forward to this summer and after meeting Bill Lee and his cool wife Maria, I found myself wondering again: what will the attacks possibly be about? Weeks ago it was already clear that Bill Lee had taken the high road in a campaign that became a race to the bottom.
What do you say about a political outsider who grew up on the same rural farm he has returned to every night for decades while building one of Tennessee’s great companies?
How can you knock a man for a lack of political experience when he knows our state’s workforce issues so intimately that he started a trade school that has now trained more than 1,000 Tennesseans to be plumbers and pipe-fitters?
And I thought, who, even in this day in age, would go so low as to critique the character of a man whose life story is an inspiring tale of unshakable faith and redemption from tragedy?
If anyone might be spared from the cheap political attacks, wouldn’t it be the guy who has survived the loss of a stillborn child, the death of his wife and the mother of his four young kids, a daughter’s suicide attempt and just recently the death of a best friend in a tractor accident?
Wrong.
The hired political assassins came after Bill Lee’s reputation just as Tennesseans were getting to know this wonderful man. Not surprisingly, the attacks against Bill are among the most desperate and unfounded ever seen in a statewide race in Tennessee.
From the moment Bill declared he wouldn’t engage his opponents in the misleading attacks and innuendos that plague Tennessee politics because “it’s not what leader’s do,” his grassroots, underfunded campaign appears to have surged into the lead.
But the race for governor won’t be decided by perceived momentum — it all comes down to who gets the most votes Thursday. And all the money in the world has been spent in recent weeks trying to make the ultimate “good guy” Bill Lee, look like the opposite.
So if you’re like me and you want Bill Lee to be your next governor, take a few friends to the polls with you Thursday.
That the attacks were successful in bringing me down four years ago is just a footnote in Chattanooga politics. I’m only 31-years-old and will pursue public service again in the future — next time with at least three kids by my side.
However, if the underbelly of politics was to thwart Bill Lee’s campaign to be governor, it would be a terrible loss for an entire generation of Tennesseans who stand to benefit from his leadership.
I believe he will win on Thursday because Tennessee voters have begun to realize that the high road is the place we should be looking for all of our elected officials. Let’s do our part.
Weston Wamp