Tennessee milk and ice cream titan Scottie Mayfield’s “run” to succeed fellow Republican Chuck Fleischmann as the 3rd District’s representative to Congress thus far barely qualifies as a walk, and now it seems he’s leaving the racetrack entirely to take a seat in the bleachers.
Mayfield, who in late April declined an invitation to take part in a June 23 candidates’ debate hosted by the Chattanooga Tea Party, now has turned down an invitation to a May 21 debate sponsored by the Times Free Press and WRCB-TV 3.
Through Joe Hendrix, his communications director, Mayfield’s emailed response to the invitation:
“Scottie believes the majority of those who attend debates have already made up their mind who they are going to vote for. The issues are not where the candidates differ, it’s experience. Scottie has public appearances nearly every day for the next month, and he intends to continue to talk about his proven record of job creation and connect with undecided voters, one on one.”
The extent of Mayfield’s “proven record” of creating jobs appears to involve managing as many as 1,700 Mayfield Dairy employees and, beginning in 2007, letting about 250 of them go as milk prices fell. Well, lots of business owners have had to deal with similar challenges.