NASHVILLE — Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam’s efforts to tout his credentials on Second Amendment gun issues in the Republican gubernatorial primary drew fire Saturday from his GOP rivals, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey.
With early voting in the Aug. 5 GOP primary starting Friday, the Chattanooga congressman and Lt. Gov. Ramsey charged that a recent Haslam campaign direct-mail piece is an attempt to mislead voters about the mayor’s past positions on gun issues.
“I’m trying to be nice, but I mean that’s got to be the most phony thing we’ve seen in Tennessee politics in many years,” Rep. Wamp told reporters before speaking at a Davidson County Republican Party event.
He said Mr. Haslam joined the National Rifle Association in March 2009 and recently acknowledged in a Chattanooga Times Free Press interview that he doesn’t own a gun.
Mr. Haslam later said there is nothing misleading about the mailer.
“I can assure you, I support Second Amendment rights for Tennesseans. Period,” he said.
In the mailer, Mr. Haslam calls Knoxville “the most gun-friendly big city in Tennessee.” He says he is a “life member” in the National Rifle Association and notes he believes “recent attempts by out-of-state groups interests to attack Tennessee guns shows were wrong.”
Lt. Gov. Ramsey, the state Senate speaker who was endorsed last week by the Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund, called the Halsam mailer “one of the most disingenuous mail pieces I’ve ever seen on Second Amendment rights.”
He noted NRA “life memberships” cost $1,000 and pointed out Mr. Haslam purchased his last year, about the time he resigned on March 19, 2009, from the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
“He says he’s going to fight against outside groups shutting down gun shows in Tennessee — he was a member of that group for five years,” Mr. Ramsey said.
Mr. Haslam said, “Knoxville is the only city where it is not a criminal penalty to carry a gun in a park. And that’s a fact among the four largest cities.”
Gun shows
With regard to the Mayors Against Illegal Guns group, Mr. Haslam said he joined with 700 other mayors “concerned about criminals with guns in our streets. And over time, that group went in a different direction.”
He said he never attended any of the meetings of the group, led by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Last October, months after he resigned, the mayors’ organization charged that gun-show loopholes in Tennessee and several other states were allowing dangerous criminals to purchase guns.
Tennessee Firearms Association Executive Director John Harris, whose group advocates for gun issues, last week questioned the circumstances of Mr. Haslam’s decision to quit the Bloomberg-led group.
Mr. Harris noted it came several months after Mr. Haslam’s January announcement he was running for governor. He asked whether the action was inspired by a “philosophical change or a political decision to try and improve his political electability in a state that rejected Al Gore for his stance on guns?”
Election dates* Primary: July 20* Primary runoff: Aug. 10* General election registration deadline: Oct. 4* General election: Nov. 2
Mr. Haslam said, “It was just a real realization over a period of time since I’d joined (it) had gone in a very different direction from what the group had started out to be.”
During Saturday’s event, Rep. Wamp and Lt. Gov. Ramsey acknowledged Mr. Haslam’s front-runner status because of his fundraising dominance and ability to buy television ads. But they said a large number of undecided voters means they can win.
Rep. Wamp said he can “feel the momentum” and believes there is a “remarkably large” number of undecided voters, according to polling.
“At some point somebody is going to actually tell the truth about Bill Haslam,” the congressman said, indicating he soon may hit the mayor in his own television ads. That’s just the way it is.”
Lt. Gov. Ramsey said the mayor “has all the money he wants, so we’re fighting a machine gun with a Derringer. So we’re going to have two shots. They’d better be up close, and I think we’re up close right now.”
He indicated he may hit Rep. Wamp with critical ads as well, saying the congressman “picked the wrong year to run and say, ‘I’m here from Washington and I’m here to help.'”