Getting the vote out this fall for Tennessee's tried and true Democratic gubernatorial contender Karl Dean is far more important for our state than just putting in office another candidate with a D beside his name.
Even if you're a Republican, especially now is the time to understand that Dean - 63, a former public defender and a two-term Nashville mayor - is the best choice for Tennessee leadership.
It's not that Bill Lee, the 59-year-old Republican contender, isn't a good guy. Like Dean, Lee won his party's nomination by showing his good side, not by demonstrating that he could hire a how-low-can-you-go negative campaign staff.
Karl Dean thanks supporters at a victory party after winning the Democratic nomination for Tennessee governor Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)But Dean knows there's much more to conservatism than church and community mission trips. He also knows that arming teachers is not a solution to school safety challenges.
Both men want Tennessee to prosper, but they see the paths to our state's ultimate success differently.
» Dean will make public education a funding priority with better teacher pay, high-quality early-childhood education, expanded after school programs and resources for all school districts. Lee's stock answer is school vouchers - in short good schools only for some.
» Dean will prioritize Medicaid expansion to stop the state's hemorrhage of $3 million a day - federal money we already paid for left on the table rather than helping Tennessee's uninsured and under-insured obtain affordable, quality health care. Lee says no to that because it may become to expensive. What? A successful businessman who doesn't know all futures involve ongoing tweaking and renegotiation? By the way, 67 percent of Tennesseans favor Medicaid expansion.
» Dean understands that jobs are paramount to a successful state, and that bringing more jobs is more complicated than Lee's notion of a one-man job training project - his successful businessman claim to fame. Bringing jobs means putting all of the pieces together: better education, better jobs training, successful schools, along with the adequate health care, viable hospitals, and top-notch broadband - all of which create the people infrastructure necessary to attract and maintain growing business communities everywhere in the state.
Dean has done this work: During his eight-year tenure as Nashville mayor - through the Great Recession and the devastating Nashville floods and the city's later boom - he oversaw the creation of more than 70,000 new jobs and more than 350 expanding or relocating companies in the Davidson County area.
FILE - Former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean thanks supporters at a victory party August after winning the Democratic nomination for Tennessee governor in Nashville. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)He kept taxes low while making significant investments in public infrastructure, paving the way for new economic development. He made business recruitment and retention a priority. He increased funding for public schools and teacher pay, invested in after school programs and brought more public school choices to Nashville.
What about the D vs. R part of this question?
Close your eyes and imagine red Tennessee going redder. Imagine another untested, untried, vote-for-me-because-I'm-a-successful-businessman-outsider-candidate becoming our governor and putting us at the mercy of who he will surround himself with. We could have the Donald Trump effect, and our already too-many bathroom bills and no-gun-regulation-at-all legislature will become still more extreme as long-time House Speaker Beth Harwell retires and someone such as Glen Casada seizes her crown. Will Tennessee soon be vying to lose billion-dollar sponsorships like North Carolina's big basketball moneymakers?
If recent years have taught us nothing else, they've shown that super majority rule does a state and nation no favors.
Civil debate with each political party represented is democracy's friend. And right now we sorely need a friend or two in our state and our national governments.
Not only will Dean make the best Tennessee governor for Democrats, he's also the best, most experienced, most successful and most ready choice for Republicans and all Tennesseans.
Vote Dean for governor.