State Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, R-Signal Mountain, is one of a handful of conservative state legislators across the state being challenged by candidates on the fringe of their parties this summer. Indeed, she is one of three members of the Hamilton County legislative delegation with challenges in the upcoming Aug. 1 primary: State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, takes on former Red Bank City Commissioner Ed LeCompte, and state Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, D-Chattanooga, faces Chattanooga City Councilwoman Demetrus Coonrod.
In Hazlewood’s race, she is easily the better candidate, and we endorse her. Her opponent, Michele Reneau, by using specific votes out of context and incomplete information, has attempted to paint Hazlewood as out of touch with her party.
But someone who has voted to cut state taxes 45 times, who sponsored the Chris Wright Act to upgrade penalties on lawbreakers with numerous convictions, who voted to arm teachers where needed, who recently was awarded the Guardian of Small Business award by the Tennessee office of the National Federation of Independent Business, who is and always has been pro-life, and who, as chair of the House Finance, Ways and Means Committee, has shepherded the state through several robust years, is in line with what a majority of Tennesseans, and 27th District voters, want.
“I’m proud of what I’ve done,” the five-term House member says. However, she says it’s been an “interesting summer” defending complicated votes that are “not something you can explain in 10-second sound bites.”
Just one example is Reneau’s claim that Hazlewood voted against updating the state’s E-verify law, about the employment status of illegal immigrants. In fact, Hazlewood voted in committee to update the law when it applied to businesses with 35 or more employees, but she did not vote for the final version of the bill that reduced the number of employees to 25 because she believed it puts too much of a burden on businesses that already are small and have too few employees to be tasked with all the work of verification.