NASHVILLE — U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said he continues to think term limits are a good thing and that he never felt “whole” after he broke a 1994 campaign pledge to serve no more than 12 years in Congress.

“I would just say that I believe in term limits,” said the Chattanooga congressman, now running for the Republicans’ 2010 gubernatorial nomination. “I voted for it every single time. I fought for it ... But, as you know, that didn’t pass and it hasn’t been changed.”

His comments came Monday during a question-and-answer session with Davidson County Republican activists.

One Republican asked Rep. Wamp whether he thought his decision to run for a seventh two-year term in 2006 and an eighth term in 2008 might make him vulnerable to GOP rivals’ attacks.

“One of the reasons I took this step (gubernatorial bid) earlier this year was because I never felt whole about that, either,” Rep. Wamp answered. “That’s just an honest assessment of who I am and where I am.

“I did stay two terms longer than I originally said that I would. But I also didn’t want to be a career politician — I wanted to either be good enough to move up or step aside for someone else.”

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga political science professor Robert Swansbrough said Rep. Wamp and many GOP members who invoked term limits saw their power grow in tandem with their seniority.

Rep. Wamp was a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, and Republican and Democratic members of Tennessee’s congressional delegation urged Rep. Wamp to run again, Dr. Swansbrough said.

“The question is, when you move then to a different constituency statewide where they have not been the beneficiary .. will they look at that in the abstract or in terms of a switch in what he promised?” he asked.

U.S. Term Limits President Philip Blumel, whose Fairfax, Va., group advocates limiting officeholders’ terms, said that, as far as he knows, “no one who has ever broken the pledge has ever successfully run for higher office. I think it’s a trust issue.”

In an interview after Monday’s Q&A session, Rep. Wamp noted that when he ran for re-election to a seventh term in 2006, he was attacked and “was re-elected overwhelmingly and re-elected again (2008) overwhelmingly.”

He said he can’t say what attacks he may face in his 2010 gubernatorial bid, but he said “in a sense it doesn’t matter.”

“If you lay out a clear vision for the future of our state, which I am, if you raise enough money to get your message across and defend yourself when you’re attacked, and I will, and your heart is in the right place and you are energetic and persistent 24/7, then you’re going to have a real good chance of winning.”

Efforts to contact representatives for Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, and Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, who also are running for the GOP nomination, were unsuccessful. Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons also is running.