By Erik Schelzig
BELLS, Tenn. – On the campaign trail and in television ads, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Haslam boasts of his role in creating 11,000 jobs as an executive with family-owned Pilot Corp.
Yet a count by The Associated Press shows that nearly half that many jobs were added to the Knoxville-based company’s payroll through mergers and acquisitions of other truck stop chains.
“The point is, you have a Tennessee company that started at this size and grew to that size, and that’s a good thing,” Haslam said in an interview. “And however Tennessee companies grow, we want to be helpful in doing that.
“So I don’t think it’s misleading at all.”