On the final day of early voting across Tennessee, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike McWherter repeated claims that his Republican rival, Bill Haslam, showed “serious mistakes in his judgment and character.”
The “mistakes” stem from Haslam saying he would sign legislation to remove concealed weapon permit requirements for those who carry guns, McWherter said.
During a campaign swing through Chattanooga, McWherter said Haslam “caved in” to gun interests by agreeing to gun laws that could increase violent crime in Tennessee.
Haslam, a millionaire businessman and mayor of Knoxville, told the Tennessee Firearms Association last week that he would sign into law a potential measure to do away with a state requirement to obtain a permit to carry a handgun in public.
Haslam said he personally opposes changing the requirements governing the state’s 300,000 handgun carry permit holders, but that he’d defer to the will of the Legislature.
McWherter, a Jackson beer distributor and businessman whose father Ned Ray McWherter was governor in the 1980s, said he thinks Haslam made “a serious mistake” that is changing the momentum of the campaign.
For complete details, see tomorrow’s Times Free Press.