Khristy Wilkinson NASHVILLE – Democrat Khristy Wilkinson says she’s puzzled about the real message of a political mailer sent to state Senate District 10 voters by incumbent Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, in which he contrasts his “Tennessee values” with what he calls her “Detroit values.”
The Hamilton County Black Caucus has blasted the mailer as using “racially coded messages,” a charge Gardenhire rejected this week.
Gardenhire said he based the mailer on endorsements made by the liberal Times editorial page of the Times Free Press, which also has a conservative editorial page.
In its October endorsement, the editorial notes, among other things, that Wilkinson “describes herself as a Bernie [Sanders] Democrat who supports Hillary Clinton, and she doesn’t understand why Chattanooga and Highland Park don’t feel as inclusive as the Detroit neighborhood where she grew up and where 17 languages were spoken.”
“I guess I can see how it could be interpreted that way,” Wilkinson said of the issues raised by the local Black Caucus, which was recently created by Kevin Muhammad and other members of the black community.