Ramsey is Sticking With His Boots

As we draw closer to the primary election in August, candidates are stepping up their messaging and outreach, looking to draw the attention of voters and hopefully gain some interest, and by extension, votes.

Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Ron Ramsey is no different. Even though he’s lagging in the polls, and largely being ignored by Republican front-runner Bill Haslam, and second placer Zach Wamp, Ramsey sees no reason to diverge from his anti-DC diatribe. The Kingsport Times-News has the coverage:

“Wherever I go people are concerned about what’s going on in Washington, D.C.,” Ramsey said before the event began. “That is the issue in this election cycle, and that’s the reason we’ve been hitting that. Yesterday I was driving through Jackson, Tennessee, stopped at a little convenience store, and there’s about 10 people sitting there. … They call me over there and said, ‘Ron, you’re the one who wants to give Washington, D.C., the boot. We’re with you, we’re for you.’ So that’s the message in this election cycle … but we’ll be expanding on that message between now and then. But again people are concerned and upset, and they want somebody who’s going to push back on what they feel is an out-of-control federal government.”

…

When asked how he would take federal money yet tell the federal government to “bug off,” Ramsey responded: “It’s not like you’re going to turn the spigot off tomorrow, but somewhere along the line you have to draw the line in the sand and say ‘We’re going to start pushing back.’ … Obamacare (federal health care reform) would eat up every penny of growth money in the budget.”

Concerning his competitors, Ramsey said Wamp “picked the wrong election cycle to say ‘I’m here from Washington and I’m here to help.’ ” Haslam, said Ramsey, has a “huge learning curve” to be governor.

“Only one out of every 10 people in the state of Tennessee will vote in the Republican primary,” said Ramsey. “That’s the way it is. … So you have to go after your targeted audience, put coalitions together, the Second Amendment people who think like I do and on and on. … I put those together and I can win this thing … (but) I have to do very well in Northeast Tennessee for our model to work.”

Obviously, I’m not voting in any Republican primary, and don’t give much of a hoot about Ron Ramsey’s candidacy or campaign, except that I think that he is the political equivalent of a swarm of locusts for the state.

I guess in the interest of fairness I need to come up with some kind of catastrophic biblical reference for the other two also, but I’m sure they’ll inadvertently write that for me in the coming weeks.

Ramsey can rail against Washington all he wants, but the reality is that state revenues are around $11b, the rest of the state’s money which is over half of the budget, comes from the Feds, so giving Washington the boot may sound good, but would actually end up putting us so far in the hole that Ramsey would have to start using his auctioneer skills to sell off state assets to make up the difference.

Maybe that’s the plan.

Truth is, when you get over half the money you spend from someone else, you have to take the good with the bad, something Ramsey seems loathe to acknowledge. So chances are he’ll continue to seek comfort in his anti-DC dreams this fall from the cozy confines of his home.

Tags: Republican Gubernatiorial Primary, Ron Ramsey, The boot