Over the years, state Rep. Mike Carter’s conversations with this page usually took place from his car (hands free, we’re sure), somewhere on Interstate 24 between Nashville and Chattanooga.
He would patiently answer question after question or carefully explain the genesis or nuances of a bill he was trying to pass. And he could talk – liked to talk, it seemed. He wanted other people to understand why he was doing what he was doing.
Carter, an Ooltewah Republican who represented District 29 in the Tennessee House since 2012, died Saturday after a bout with pancreatic cancer. He was 67. It was a particular blow because his diagnosis last fall came just after he’d survived a harrowing case of COVID-19.
In the legislature, while some of his party members were introducing bill after bill on guns, abortion or transgender issues, he was bringing forth bills – usually with the Senate sponsorship of either Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, or Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson – that would affect a wider range of people.
One of those was a measure that restricted cities and town from annexing areas without the consent of those who lived there. Although the bill grew out of what he said was Chattanooga’s effort to “cherry-pick” small areas of land in their urban growth boundary, it became a hit throughout the state with rural residents who didn’t want their property gobbled into a city, where their taxes would increase.