Weston, Integrity Begins With Truth

In 1992, when my old friend Zach Wamp first ran for Congress against nine-term Democrat Marilyn Lloyd, just ahead of the election, somebody associated with Lloyd's campaign produced a dirty hit-piece mailer targeting Wamp, and saturated district voter mailboxes with it.

The mailer had mug shots of Zach from an arrest years earlier. After dropping out of college, Zach had issues, and with a lot of humility and hard work, he overcame those problems. For that reason, the negative attack piece misrepresented (lied) about who Zach was in 1992, and he lost that election.

Lloyd retired in 1994 and Zach was swept into office in the "Republican Wave" after Bill Clinton's election. I was proud to support Zach in his first campaign -- and I supported and was involved in all of his subsequent campaigns. He represented the 3rd District well, and with integrity.

But I never forgot that dirty political hit-piece mailer. It was a deliberate and disgraceful lie.

This week, the mail and radio air waves are full of more dirty pre-election lies, this time targeting two County Mayoral candidates, Matt Hullander and Sabrena Smedley. The ad buys and mailers were paid for by a newly-formed special interest PAC calling itself, "Chattanoogans for Responsible Government," and contained information that was as slick as it was factually misleading.

The only candidate not targeted by the so-called "Chattanoogans for Responsible Government" was Weston Wamp. When asked if he was connected to the ads and mailers, Wamp replied: "My campaign has done nothing negative, and any statements that say so are false. Exactly the opposite is true. ... My campaign is not involved with any outside group."

As for the "Responsible Government" outfit, indeed, "Exactly the opposite is true." It is one of those "dark money" groups that Wamp and one of his benefactors, "Issue One," have ostensibly criticized and condemned. We may not know who funded the negative attack ads until after the election, but we do know who is behind it.

For context, recall that in his state campaign filing, Wamp lists among his personal income sources, "ZW Consulting" (which should more accurately be listed as Zach Wamp Consulting), "Millennial Debt Foundation" (which lists Weston's campaign treasurer Nick Macco as a founder), and "Issue One" (Zach being a principal). NPR listed Issue One as one of the most active "resistance network" organizations against Trump, helping to elect Joe Biden.

So, what is the connection with the so-called "Chattanoogans for Responsible Government"? That fictitious front was created by Nick Macco's partner, Adam Boeselager.

Thus, Wamp's claim that his "campaign has done nothing negative" and "is not involved with any outside group" may be factually true, but he knows that is completely, deliberately and disgracefully misleading. In other words, it is a lie. And, despite the fact that early on Wamp asked that other candidates pledge not to go negative, he has yet to condemn this sludge.

For the record, I contacted Weston before writing these words, telling him that this was clearly a hack job cooked up by his campaign manager and his partner, that it was inconceivable that he and his campaign manager did not know about it, that his denial was tantamount to a lie, and encouraged him to correct the record -- just tell the truth. Integrity begins with the truth.

Optimistically I thought he might correct the record, but he responded with the same disingenuous denial, leaving me as I told him, disappointed. I have not backed any County Mayor candidate, but I now know which one I will not back.

For his part in this charade, Boeselager, who back in 2014 condemned similar dirty political mailers against Weston during his failed and long-premature congressional bid, claims now, "We wanted to bring transparency" to the campaign. But obfuscation of the truth, lies about who is responsible for dirty political charades, does not constitute "transparency."

There is an old adage: When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. There is still an opportunity for Weston to tell the truth. Anything less is a disservice to all who have supported him. I would much rather he had chosen to do that on his own.

Mark Caldwell