Ron BhallaIf Chattanooga real estate investor Ron Bhalla wins his bid for Congress, he’ll ask his constituents to email him their opinions before every vote, he told a local Republican group Monday.
Bhalla promised the Hamilton County Pachyderm Club that he’ll vote in Congress according to those emails. If more online respondents support a given bill, he’ll pull the “yea” lever, but if the majority opposes it, he’ll be a “nay.”
He said he’ll ignore “party influence, lobbyist influence, Washington politics and self-interest.”
“Change is [President Barack] Obama’s word,” said Bhalla, 63. “I want to bring reform in the system.”
Bhalla is one of U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann’s four Republican challengers in Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional District. At $12,000 in estimated expenses, his campaign is a far cry from Fleischmann’s. Records show the first-term Republican reported a re-election war chest in excess of $600,000 at the end of last year.