Rachel Campbell, chair of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, said Saturday that Weston Wamp "is not qualified to be mayor of Hamilton County for many reasons, and
correspondence between executives from Hardball Capital, the Lookouts organization,
and Lamp Post Group bear that out."
Arch Trimble IV, GOP chairman in the county, said, "The Republican Party of Hamilton County strongly supports our candidates and our platform of better government, an education system that prepares students for success, and strong public safety.
These are the issues voters care about.
"The Hamilton County Democratic Party knows voters are rejecting their far-left progressive agenda, so they resort to smearing candidates and trying to confuse voters.
"We are focused on the future, and what’s best for the future of Hamilton County is electing Republicans up and down the ballot on August 4th."
Ms. Campbell said, "According to the recently released emails, he made racist and sexist comments, and uses his personal grievances as weapons. Weston would not represent Hamilton County in the way that our citizens deserve.
"On Friday, years of correspondence between executives from the Lookouts, Hardball Capital, and the Lamp Post Group (where Weston Wamp was employed for a time,) were released to the public. These emails not only show a history of Weston’s father, former Congressman Zach Wamp, lobbying the Lookouts for a job for Weston after Weston’s pair of losing Congressional runs, but it also shows his hypocrisy in rejecting the plans for the new Lookouts stadium, and his racism and sexism which was the cause of him losing his bid for a VP position with the Lookouts.
"Once he lost his opportunity for that position, he changed his stance, due to his personal, petty grievance against the team itself, jeopardizing what he himself acknowledged was an excellent opportunity for Chattanooga and Hamilton County."
Ms. Campbell said Weston Wamp "was aggressively working on plans to help put together a public private partnership to build the new stadium and reiterated this to John Woods (owner of the Lookouts at the time). 'I can’t stress enough how we believe the pitch here is that the new stadium will lead to massive development, recurring tax revenue and could replace one of the blights of Chattanooga with a jewel. Secondarily, moving the stadium will also lead to a massive development (and tax rev) opportunity on the land it currently sits. It’s a two for one for public officials.'
"The Lookouts organization declined to give Weston the job for which he and his father were
lobbying, due to racist and misogynistic comments Weston made to the team’s African-
American assistant general manager and female VP of marketing. Jason Freier of Hardball
Capital explained that within the first hour of a 'brainstorming' session with Weston, intended to generate ideas to help the Lookouts 'hit the ground running' at AT&T Field in 2015, Weston
“made a comment directed at our African-American Assistant General Manager and also 'made a comment directed at our female VP of Marketing that made her (and everyone else in the room) uncomfortable.' The organization made the decision that they 'couldn’t have someone going around town representing the team who would behave in this fashion.'
“If the Lookouts, a beloved part of our county and community, couldn’t have Mr. Wamp representing them due to his racist and misogynistic outbursts, surely Hamilton County can’t either. We are one of the fastest growing counties in America, and we deserve leadership that will represent all of the citizens of Hamilton County in a forward thinking way. Our community will not be served by a mayor who would punish his own people to satisfy a petty, personal grievance. It is very clear that Mr. Wamp was FOR the stadium when it benefited him personally, demanding a job as Vice President at $3,000 per month plus hefty commissions.
"However, when Weston and his father Zach realized Weston’s immature and offensive behavior cost him the job opportunity, they both threatened and actively worked against the project. This type of self-dealing hypocrisy has no place in our government or any place else.
"Hamilton County needs, and deserves, principled leadership. Matt Adams, a true public servant, is the only candidate for Hamilton County Mayor who brings ethical leadership, free from personal self-interest, to the table, Matt has run a positive campaign based on his personal abilities (rather than trading on his family name.) He is the clear choice in this election. I urge everyone to vote for Matt Adams for county mayor on Aug. 4.”