NASHVILLE – Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey said Wednesday that the Tennessee Valley Corridor and the organization’s summits, promoted by his Republican gubernatorial rival U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp as a campaign centerpiece, never have passed the “smell test” in his opinion.
“I’ll just say I’ve always thought it didn’t pass the smell test in the fact that there was an awful lot of money coming from Washington, D.C., that ended up getting to (public relations firm) Akins-Crisp,” Lt. Gov. Ramsey told reporters. “We’ve known that for years. What work product have they actually produced?”
He questioned whether the Corridor is “just a dog and pony show that makes people feel good or does it actually do something?”
Rep. Wamp, of Chattanooga, has touted the Corridor, which he founded in 1995, and its “summits” involving businesses, government agencies and economic development, as having played important roles in sparking economic development in East Tennessee, including the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga.
But it all came under scrutiny this week as Nashville’s City Paper revealed the Tennessee Valley Corridor, which raises funds through its conferences and by selling sponsorships, paid Akins-Crisp Public Strategies $2 million over a 10-year period to promote and run the meetings.