Weston Wamp, right, talks with Kevin Beirne following his address to the Hamilton Place Rotary Club Wednesday.
Weston Wamp talks to the Hamilton Place Rotary Club on Wednesday.Congressional candidate Weston Wamp said he will announce a more detailed platform "by the first of the year," about a month after his campaign faces its first financial test.
The campaign has been planning a major fundraiser for early December. Privately, aides have said it will need to be a blockbuster event, given that U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, the 3rd Congressional District incumbent, raised $200,000 at a recent fundraiser featuring House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Many of Wamp's preliminary positions align with Fleischmann's, according to campaign websites for both men.
The 24-year-old Republican son of former Congressman Zach Wamp pledged to announce a more "prescriptive" philosophy after Wednesday's 25-minute address to the Hamilton Place Rotary Club that was mostly devoid of politics. Instead Wamp plugged the Lamp Post Group, the Chattanooga-based venture capital incubator, in rather political ways.
Hyping conservative leaders who fostered what he called Chattanooga's "entrepreneurial spirit," Wamp dropped a few names -- former Chattanooga mayor and U.S. Sen. Bob Corker among them -- and shied away from others.
"We had, for a period of time, a pretty good guy representing us in Congress," Wamp said as a few people chuckled.
"I know that guy pretty well," he smiled without mentioning his father by name.
Wamp's campaign coordinator, Hunter Arnold, attended the speech, monitoring the candidate as he spoke. David Elliott, president of the Hamilton Place Rotary Club, invited Wamp and asked him to steer clear of campaigning, citing the organization's rules.
Elliott kept a tight lid on interaction between the audience and Wamp, wrapping up the session after three brief questions.
Tom Snow, a Rotary Club member and CEO of a welding company that bears the family name, said Wamp "favorably impressed" him.
"He's certainly been around politics all of his life," Snow said.