NASHVILLE - Republican gubernatorial hopeful Ron Ramsey went on the offense Wednesday with a new TV ad attacking votes or stances taken by both of his GOP rivals.
It is Lt. Gov. Ramsey's first television ad criticizing his opponents - U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., and Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam - in the Aug. 5 primary. Rep. Wamp, a Chattanoogan, began airing ads last week attacking Mr. Haslam.
"Three candidates for governor," the 30-second Ramsey spot says. "Congressman Wamp, he's from Washington. Voted for the Wall Street bailout. Voted to raise the national debt. Backed earmark after earmark including the 'Bridge to Nowhere.'"
Of Mr. Haslam, the spot says "as mayor he raised taxes. Haslam once backed Al Gore for president. Al Gore! And he helped run a radical anti-gun group."
Wamp spokesman Sam Edelen charged that the Ramsey ad is "full of falsehoods and distortions about Zach."
"Sen. Ramsey twists a vote that Zach made with every other member of the Tennessee delegation, including Republicans Bill Jenkins, Jimmy Duncan, Marsha Blackburn, Bill Frist and Lamar Alexander," he said.
"Some D.C. staffer stuck the 'Bridge to Nowhere' funding in that bill without any members knowing about it," Mr. Edelen said. "As soon as Zach found out, he voted three separate times to strip the 'Bridge to Nowhere' project from the appropriations bill to help kill it for good."
The "bridge to nowhere" was the name given to a $223 million bridge project in Alaska for which Congress approved funding in 2005 as part of a major transportation spending measure. It sought to connect the tiny town of Ketchikan, population 8,900, with an airport on the island of Gravina.
The project, as well as another proposed Alaskan bridge, quickly became symbol of "pork barrel" spending, and Congress later stripped the language directing the money to be spent on the two bridges.
Accusing Lt. Gov. Ramsey of "trying to distract attention from his own tax-and-spend record in Nashville," Mr. Edelen charged the Senate speaker with having "voted for the largest tax increase in Tennessee history while he watched state government triple in size."
That was a reference to a 1 cent sales tax increase passed by the Tennessee General Assembly in 2002. Lt. Gov. Ramsey, who is the state Senate speaker, has said he voted for the measure in order to gut efforts to enact a state income tax.
Haslam spokesman David Smith said the Ramsey ad shows that "desperate times call for desperate measures, and the state senator (Ramsey) has taken a page from the Washington congressman in purposefully misleading voters."
Knoxville, he said, "has the lowest property tax rates in more than 50 years while Ramsey backed the largest tax increase in state history. Bill Haslam never led an anti-gun group, and he never supported an Al Gore run."
Mr. Haslam formerly belonged to the group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, but several months after launching his gubernatorial bid, he quit the group, saying its direction had changed substantially since he joined it.
The Ramsey ad is running in the Nashville, Memphis, Jackson and the Tri-Cities markets but not in Chattanooga or Knoxville. It touts Lt. Gov. Ramsey, saying "he stood up to both parties to stop higher taxes. Ron Ramsey. He's the conservative for governor."
Ramsey spokeswoman Rachel Taylor called Rep. Wamp the "the poster child for why Americans are angry with Washington."
She said Mr. Haslam "is a mayor who raises taxes as his solution to budget woes and who supports liberals like Al Gore and liberal causes like New York Mayor Bloomberg's gun restrictions."
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