From one end of the state to another came Knoxville mayor
Bill Haslam this week. Republican Haslam, who is one of the suddenly mushrooming
number of declared gubernatorial candidates to come forward in the wake of
former U.S. Senator Bill Frist’s weekend statement of non-candidacy, arrived in
Memphis Wednesday afternoon, wasting no time in widening his range of exposure.
A late switch in Haslam’s Memphis venue somehow didn’t get
fully communicated to all members of the local media, but by the time the mayor,
who traveled with a sizeable entourage, had rounded out his get-acquainted tour
at the Little Tea Shop downtown, he had made enough of a first impression to
suggest that he’ll be a serious factor in what is going to be a hotly contested
race.
Like all serious Republican campaigners these days, Haslam
described himself as a “conservative,” but his rhetoric, demeanor, buttoned-down
appearance, and political resume all smacked of the kind of mainstream GOP
candidate that once upon a time would have been called “moderate.” He has been
involved in several centrist Republican campaigns, beginning with the campaign
of former governor and current U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander in 1978, when Haslam
was a college student at Emory University in Atlanta, and continuing through the
successful 2006 Senate campaign of Bob Corker.
And, like Memphis’ only declared GOP candidate to date,
District Attorney Bill Gibbons, the two-term Knoxville mayor has had some
success in attracting crossover voters.
One fact uppermost in many another contender’s mind – and
one that was voiced by Gibbons in his own initial sit-down with the media this
week – is the extent to which the independently wealthy Haslam, whose family
owns the far-flung Pilot Oil enterprise, will be able to use his own resources
and out-spend his opponents – a la Bill Frist in the Republican “six-pack”
primary in 1994 and Bob Corker in 2006.
In that regard, Haslam is taking his cue from current
Democratic governor Phil Bredesen, who, as a wealthy health-care entrepreneur,
largely depended on his own fortune in a losing gubernatorial effort in 1994 but
took pains to broaden his circle of financial supporters during his first
successful run in 2002.
“Donors mean supporters,” said Haslam, who is beginning a
series of fund-raisers statewide, starting with one in Knoxville at the end of
this month and continuing with another in Memphis next month.
Haslam’s experience with the family business and his
administrative service as mayor of Knoxville are credentials he’ll put forward
as a background for dealing with Tennessee’s current funding crisis – one that
Bredesen reckons currently has the state in a hole to the tune of almost $1
billion. Haslam says he also is concerned with the state’s growing unemployment
problem and with funding K-through-12 public education.
“It’s going to take a 19-month campaign to get acquainted
with the voters of Tennessee,” said Haslam by way of accounting for his running
start on the campaign trail. He knows that West Tennessee is an area where he is
a virtual unknown but points out that he has local connections – notably his
wife Chrissy, daughter of a local physician. The Haslams were married in
Memphis, in fact – at Christ Methodist Church (coincidentally, the mayor later
discovered, at the time, locally notorious, when an intruder was living with
his female kidnap victim in the church’s attic space).
Haslam knows he has competition from Gibbons locally and,
for that matter, from several prospects, including already announced Chattanooga
congressman Zach Wamp, in his native East Tennessee. But the Knoxville mayor is
already running, and running hard, and is clearly going to be a contender in the
2010 gubernatorial race.
