Some 150 persons attended the Republican Gubernatorial Candidates’ forum Tuesday night, July 27, in the Cookeville Performing Arts Center.
While the crowd was expecting to see Mayor Bill Haslam, Congressman Zach Wamp, and Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey, it was somewhat of a surprise that only Ramsey was present. Wamp reportedly had to return to Washington D.C. and was unable to attend. There is no word on why Haslam was not present as expected.
Notably, almost the entire crowd of 150 persons remained, and at the end of the event at 8:30, an hour and a half after it began, there were still approximately 125 of the original 150 still in the audience.
Ramsey spoke for 20 minutes and then opened the floor for questions for the remaining hour and ten minutes.
The underlying, recurring theme of Ramsey’s contentions was: "The government doesn’t have a dime unless it first comes through your own back pocket."
Opening comments by Ramsey included the following:
People have gone from being upset, about what’s going on Washington D.C. to concerned to truly being frightened.
Obama-care will take up to 1/6 of our economy. It’s a blatantly un-constitutional healthcare plan.
For the first time our Federal Government is saying that either we will buy the the product from a private company, or they will fine you.
The people in Washington D.C. just flat out don’t get it… Democrats and Republicans alike.
37 of 50 governorships are up this year. Virginia and New Jersey already have Republicans in. Out of 37 , 12 are held by people who can’t run again. In 11 out of the 12 races, Republicans are favored to take the seat.
We’re in tough shape. $1 billion in budget is going to disappear next year. Stimulus funds will run out in January of 2011..
It’s a rough start for whoever is the new governor.
Question 1:
Please address the Islamic religion and its activities– Some Islams come over here, assimilate into our society, and become freedom loving Americans.
There is a radical faction that promotes violence. I appreciate the first amendment, but I also appreciate the 2nd Amendment, and the 10th Amendment. And anyone that comes into this country should also agree with our laws and the Constitution.
Question 2:
Prisons are full of illegal immigrants. Do you have any ideas about getting people back to their own countries?
The key word is illegal. If a person is not in this country legally, they need to be deported. I’m proud of what Jan Brewer is doing in the State of Arizona, and when I become governor, I’m going to pass a law just like that in the State of Tennessee.
Question 3:
Should you be elected is there anybody that can replace your job as Lt. Governor?
We don’t popularly elect the Lt. Governor in Tennessee. Tennessee and West Virginia are the only two states who do not popularly elect the Lt. Gov.
Should I become Governor, the Senate will elect a new Speaker of the Senate, who is the Lt. Governor. Mark Morris would be the obvious one to move up. There are several more that would be more than capable to move up.
I have some real plans of cutting state government that I’d need to be in the executive branch to accomplish.
Question 4:
As Governor of Tennessee, what would you do to protect our rights to educate our children in a way we see as appropriate?
I actually carried the bill in the house that allowed parents without a college diploma to homeschool their kids. Parents who take the time to homeschool their children do a fantastic job.
We have a state board of education with 11 people serving on it. It’s time that the homeschooling people have a representative on that board.
Question 5:
Do you have a general overall plan for the education plan?
We have some very good things going on in education in the State of Tennessee. In northeast Tennessee, they have some real good things going on, and test scores are improving.
There are 16 schools in this state that have been on the failure list for five years or more. 13 of the 16 are located in Memphis.
The state could actually take over these schools, and take the schools away from those failing school systems, and try different approaches to see what works. Other states have done this—it’s not exactly reinventing the wheel.
Also I’m a big proponent of competition. If my company were the only auction company in East Tennessee, I could do a low quality job and charge whatever I want. But it’s competition that keeps my prices reasonable and my quality high.
That’s whats going on in some of these inner cities; they have a monopoly, and they don’t have to worry about because they don’t have any competition.
And with some of those parents who’s kids are trapped in some of these schools, I’m for a limited voucher system where they can take their kids any place they want.
Question 6:
What do you think about pre-k and how it relates to the k through 12 system?
When I’m governor in Tennessee, we’re not going to have universal pre-k in the state of Tennessee; it’s a colossal waste of money. Every dollar spent in pre-k is a dollar taken away from K through 12.
While pre-k helps some children, it doesn’t help a lot of children.
And…The number 1 job of K through 12 education is preparation to get a job.
And we assume that every student that graduates needs to get a 4 year degree. We have some of the best 2 years schools and technology schools in the country, and when I’m governor, I’m going to push for students to get a two year degree in our state schools and technology schools.
Comment 7:
Lt. General Dave Evans commented on the Islamic Centers coming in to multiple cities in Tennessee. Islam is not about ‘freedom of religion.’
It’s a doctrine, an ideology of jihad, an implementation of sharia law. They’re not coming here to assimilate and to serve under U.S. law.
I’ve heard that it’s being looked at in Tennessee to pass a law that would ban suryea law.
The only way we can ban sharia law is to ban Islamic Centers here.
I’m all in favor of religion having their churches. But a mosque, an Islamic center, is designed for much more. And it should be a concern for all of us.
I’m not a racist or right wing bigot, but I am concerned about protecting American people.”
Lt. Gov. Ramsey responded, “I will never, never, know as much about the Islamic law or sharia law as someone who’s served overseas in our military.
I do know that the constitution of the United States is still the law and will always be the law, and Tennessee will never be under sharia law.
[About Sharia law from Wikipedia:
Sharia judicial proceedings have significant differences with other legal traditions, including those in both common law and civil law. Sharia courts do not generally employ lawyers; plaintiffs and defendants represent themselves. Trials are conducted solely by the judge, and there is no jury system. There is no pre-trial discovery process, no cross-examination of witnesses, and no penalty of perjury[97] (on the assumption that no witness would thus endanger his soul)[98]
Unlike common law, judges' verdicts do not set binding precedents[99][100][101] under the principle of stare decisis[102] and unlike civil law, Sharia does not utilize formally codified statutes[103] (these were first introduced only in the late 19th century during the decline of the Ottoman Empire, cf. mecelle).
Instead of precedents and codes, Sharia relies on medieval jurist's manuals and collections of non-binding legal opinions, or fatwas, issued by religious scholars (ulama, particularly a mufti); these can be made binding for a particular case at the discretion of a judge.]
Question 8:
Separation of church and state is not in our government and is not in our constitution; what are your thoughts on that?
The first amendment says “…freedom of religion,” not “…freedom from religion.”
George W Bush did two things right, in my opinion, and their called “Alito (Samuel) and Roberts (John G.)
[With cases about the amendments going on all over the country where the judges are making unconstitutional rulings...] I think it will be interesting to see some of these cases go back to the Supreme Court and see some reversals … and freedom of religion goes back into our schools the way the founding fathers wanted it to be.”
Question 9:
How do you feel, as governor of Tennessee that you can compete for jobs and bring jobs to the State of Tennessee?
“It’s about creating an atmosphere here in the state of Tennessee. And if you start stacking up where we are against other states, as you can see, we’re pretty much winners.
With Hemlock, VW, Eastman Chemical Company—these are each over a billion dollar industries. I’m convinced that there are places where nobody will want to live pretty soon. And those businesses will be looking for a place to go. It’s so important that we remain a low-tax state. No income tax—low corporate tax.
There’s two taxes we could cut and actually increase the revenue coming into the state of Tennessee. Tennessee is a great place to live, but a terrible place to die. The inheritance tax is one of the worst in the nation. It’s unreliable income for the state, and a lot of people move out of the state to avoid it. The second thing is we have an income tax called “Hall Income Tax.”
We encourage people to save money for their retirement; don’t depend on Social Security. But then we tax the interest earned on the principle for people who have retired. We need to do away with that so that our residents aren’t tempted to leave.
The one place that we’re really lacking that we could compete with any state in the union is job training. While it’s not a magic bullet, again, it’s about creating an environment that people will want to move into Tennessee.
Question 10:
What is your policy on state employment and state contracts?
We had passed legislation that had to do with procurement. We’ve put it under the comptroller’s office to make sure we’re getting the best bang for the buck (by buying in bulk). I’m trying to make sure that Tennessee businesses and Tennessee people get priority preferences on jobs and job bids.
Question 11:
What are your feelings on the importance of “term limits?”
I’m not a huge advocate for term limits. Every 2 years, 4 years, or 6 years, people have the right to vote people out if they don’t like it. Please do: if you don’t like what I’m doing, vote me out.
I’m a strict constitutionalist. And I have a real problem amending our constitution for every little whim that comes down the road to change it.
I’m convinced that there was divine intervention in Philadelphia when our Declaration was written and when our constitution; and I’m very reluctant to change it.
Question 12:
If you become governor, would you be willing to do away with tax on food?
No, probably not. We have one of the best tax systems in the country. Sales tax is one of the best tax systems there is. Because, if you buy a bicycle or you buy a car, you have a stake in our government. And everybody needs to have a stake in our government.
Even illegal immigrants have a stake in our government. Right now, the federal government is close to having more people in the wagon than for the wagon. But it’s not like that in Tennessee. Everyone has a stake in the government, here.
You have to have a reliable source of income to run any government. We don’t have a statewide property tax, most states do.
We don’t have a statewide personal property most states do.
We don’t have an income most states do. Yet the tax on food is the only thing we have that is halfway reliable.
Question 13:
Concern that our young men in the National Guard might, at some point, find themselves fighting brother against brother like in the Civil War.
All governors are commander in chief of their National Gaurds. I’ve heard rumors, out there, but I haven’t seen anything substantiating them yet.
Question14:
History is not being taught in schools; are you going to be able to influence the curriculum?
The second thing, we need to get back to teaching history in school—the beliefs of our founding fathers which made this country great.
We don’t need to be teaching this revisionist history.
When our president goes overseas and apologizes for our country, I get mad. I get very mad, because we are the greatest country in the world, and we don’t need to be apologizing for that.
Question 15:
Regarding the primaries in Cumberland County, an issue arose where a person who’d been a democrat all their life, wanted to switch over and vote Republican. What’s your view on that?
I’ve gone back and forth on this in my own mind. A primary isn’t truly an election. A primary is a nominating process that the parties control.
When I win the primary on August 5th, I haven’t won any election; I’m simply nominated to run in November. Mark Goines and I have been researching other states that have closed primaries. I’ve been struggling with this and talking to people about this… but you don’t really want people who are not in your party helping you to choose your nominee.
It taints the process. Where I’m leaning right now, are having people register for a party here in the state.
I want to make sure that the party chooses the person that they want to be nominated in the State of Tennessee.
I’ve not come to a conclusion on this—I want to study it more with all the facts in front of me.
Question 16:
Where, on your website, do you talk about what you’re going to do when you become governor—specifically on education and on increasing jobs?
First of all, I’m in the real estate and auction business. I sell myself everyday, and I sell property. I am a “super-salesman.” I’m ready to take my skills and apply them to be that “super-salesman” for the State of Tennessee…to take the great assets that we have that no other state has—and sell them across the U.S.
As far as the education issue goes, enact laws that allow competition in public school systems, allow more charter schools, for home-schools to be an option for all parents without infringing on that, allow for a limited voucher system for parents in places like Memphis.
And do you know what the best part about this? It won’t cost the state a single dime.
We’re not the Federal Government so we can’t print money. Some of the other candidates have plans that would cost the state millions of dollars.
(Changing the subject to healthcare). We have three medical schools in this state—one in each grand division.
We have 95 health departments—one in each county. We require Tenn-care recipients to go the health care departments first—not to the emergency room which will cost them $2000 just to set foot in the door.
My idea is to make the health care departments the first line of defense, and whereas the emergency room might give a patient with a headache at CAT scan, the health care worker might give them a bottle of aspirin and send them home.
This will save millions and millions of dollars.
Question 17:
There’s a lot of corruption in a lot of governments; if corruption should rear its ugly head in Tennessee, what would you do?
In 2005, I was chairman of the senate ethics committee. And we found out that John Ford was not doing things ethically.
In fact he was doing things illegally.
As chairman of the ethics committee, I got the Attorney General to help us do research on this, and we found out that John Ford was taking kick-backs from several companies on contract with the State of Tennessee.
We were getting ready to have a meeting on June 7 to oust him from the senate.
The next morning, on May 27, 2005, the Tennessee Waltz thing came down. And now there are 3 state senators in prison.
The next fall, his sister, Ophelia Ford, ran for his seat in September 15, 2005.
She won by 13 votes. I started checking into that because I had heard some rumors.
We found out that dead people had voted in that election. People who lived out of that district voted in that election. And we found out that 47 people illegally voted in that election.
I carried a resolution on the Senate floor to void that election to send her back home because it was illegal.
It went along party lines, with Republicans for and Democrats against. She actually ran again, and won the election, but she had the right to do that.
Question 18:
Could you be more specific about your education plans around "Race to the Top?"
I’m from a family of educators; my concern is, I personally do agree with Zach Wamp's position, but Tennessee recently has gained the “Race to the Top” funding.
First, I’ve got two sisters that are teachers, my mom’s a teacher, my grandmother was a teacher, so I understand the hard work teachers do—the plight they’re under, and the fantastic job they do.
In January, I was very apprehensive about applying this federal intervention and money from the federal government for “Race to the Top.”
We had a special session the first week of January about Tennessee education. We did some policy changes for evaluating teachers that both parties voted for—both good policy and getting some money from the federal government.
Concerns:
1. The federal government is notorious for giving out a little money, like a carrot, but then attaching strings to it and if you don’t comply with them, jerking the rug out from under you, while the programs have to continue. My governorship will not sign up for a recurring program without recurring funding.
2. I will assure our federal government does not get involved more in our education.
Conclusion: I think the primary will determine this election. I will walk into the office ready to start the job from Day 1.
