The new Haslam TV ad and the West Tennessee megasite

NASHVILLE - Two of my colleagues in the Legislative Plaza press room are giving me grief for the lame approach I took in today's print article on Republican Bill Haslam's new TV ad, which leaves the distinct impression that Haslam saved the West Tennessee megasite.

I'll acknowledge that the conventions of daily mainstream journalism forbid me from saying outright that the Haslam ad is a gross exaggeration of his role. So let me lay out the facts as they were related to me and as I know them and you Dear Readers and Voters - as always - decide for yourselves whether it is or it isn't.

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The new Haslam for Governor ad features colorful Haywood County Mayor Franklin Smith in his cluttered office and on a bulldozer talking about how Haslam, the mayor of Knoxville, helped him advance the megasite - a large-scale industrial site that local and state leaders hope will lure a major manufacturing plant and jobs to Haywood County, not far east of the Shelby County line.

Smith says in the ad:
"I'm a hundred percent Democrat. Never voted for a Republican governor.... 'til now.
"Tried for five years to develop this megasite. We needed the rural jobs. No luck.
"So I got a little help from some Democrats and one great Republican mayor. A guy named Haslam. Soon these dozers will be rolling.
"I'm voting for the man: Bill Haslam. I don't care if he's a Whig -- or a mugwump."

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Mayor Smith is an honorable man. He's been mayor of Haywood County 19 years and has worked hard to bring jobs there. He doesn't take credit for the megasite idea but there's no doubt he's worked harder than anyone else for several years to create it.

Near the end of the 2009 state legislature, Republicans in the Senate unveiled a plan to delete from the state budget most of the $30 million that Gov. Phil Bredesen had requested to buy the land for the project. Republicans have a 19-14 majority in the Senate and at that time, a 50-49 margin in the House of Representatives. The threat was real and immediate. Mayor Smith told me Monday that at that point, in May or June 2009, he called Haslam and asked him to talk with Senate Republicans from the Knoxville area in support of restoring the megasite funding. Smith called because Haslam, who had been running for governor for four or five months, had been through West Tennessee, learned about the megasite and expressed support for it. Smith said Haslam had met with West Tennessee officials in Jackson just before the budget action in Nashville, talking about the region's economy and the megasite.

"I had just gotten a letter from Mayor Haslam about the meeting we had in Jackson. Got it the day before the money was pulled (from the budget) as a matter of fact," Smith told me. "His letter made the statement that the West Tennessee Megasite had great potential and he was looking forward to supporting it when he got to be governor. This was in May or June 2009, when the Senate Republicans pulled the thing. I picked up the phone and I called Mayor Haslam and asked him to talk to the senators in the Knoxville area to see if we could get the money back in. It was in the House version. And low and behold, a day later the Senate puts the money back."

Haslam campaign spokesman David Smith said Monday that "Mayor Smith called up Mayor Haslam, who understood and appreciated what Mayor Smith was doing and the potential impact the megasite could have in West Tennessee. He wanted to help out any way he could, so he made some calls to help raise awareness of the importance of the project." Spokesman Smith (no known relation to Mayor Smith that we know of) would not say specifically who Haslam called. "He called appropriate state leaders and encouraged them on the potential economic and jobs impact of the megasite," he said.

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From Mayor Smith's perspective in Brownsville, of course, Haslam played a role - and no doubt he did. But there is more to it than that.

When the Republican plan - which also proposed to cut pre-kindergarten, a solar farm adjoining the megasite and other things - came out, Democrats went on the offensive to restore the funding. Bredesen publicly called the GOP plan "stupid" and said it wasn't a budget plan at all but "a political document." The Senate Republicans released their plan just before Bredesen was to depart on a job-recruiting trip to Europe, where he planned to pitch the megasite to industrialists looking to build in the U.S.

"The Haywood County thing is a huge potential development in one of the poorest counties in our state," Bredesen said on June 11, 2009. "I'm within 72 hours of getting on a plane to try to go sell it to people who are actually interested in it. I can't even imagine why you'd pull that out of the budget. It doesn't do anything for the budget. And I think that was stupid, if you want a specific example."

I reported on June 12, 2009, that "given the unexpected level of the criticism by the governor and Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, R-Collierville, said lawmakers will likely restore the megasite and solar farm. He said the Republicans never planned to fully slash the money for those projects." There was no mention at the time of Haslam.

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Senate Minority Leader Jim Kyle, D-Memphis, who handled the state budget legislation in the Senate, said Monday that in his public and private meetings with the Republicans during the 2009 budget battle, "they never mentioned that they had communications with (Haslam). As the sponsor of the bill, I'm unfamiliar of any Haslam influence. I never had any communication with Bill Haslam or anyone connected with Bill Haslam. I never had any senator tell me that Bill Haslam thought this (megasite) was a good idea." Kyle said the new Haslam ad is "beyond an overstatement. The governor put that megasite in the budget, maintained and tried to keep it in the budget. Republican senators took it out of the budget and the governor had some words for them and they put it back in." Kyle also credited Sen. Lowe Finney, D-Jackson, and Reps. Johnny Shaw, D-Bolivar, and Jimmy Naifeh, D-Covington, with fighting for the megasite's funding.

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So I called two Knoxville area Republican senators Monday and asked whether Haslam had called them last year during the budget battle to urge them to restore the megasite funding. Sen. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He told me: "I know that we had some contacts with him (Haslam) and he had indicated he thought it was important for economic development for the state. We had a whole lot going on about the budget and the best I recall, he and I did have a conversation about economic development and the importance to the state being out front - that now was not a time to be cutting back on economic development. I don't know if it specifically related to that particular site or not. We got all sorts of calls about a number of issues. I do recall having a conversation with him about the importance of economic development. We also had reduced some of the funding for economic and community development because they had a lot in their reserves, but I can't recall specifically whether he said 'megasite' or whether it was just a general conversation about economic development and making sure it stayed whole."

Sen. Jamie Woodson, R-Knoxville, said: "I know that Mayor Haslam has been a constant advocate on behalf of economic development activities of the state and I was well aware at the time that he was in favor of the project." I asked her if Haslam's position played a role in the megasite funding being restored. She replied: "I think it was an all-hands-on-deck effort and Mayor Haslam was an important part of a Republican chorus of idividuals who advocated on behalf of that economic development project. Mayor Haslam's advocacy on behalf of the project in West Tennessee was very strong at the time and it was an important part of that project."

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There is a postscript. When Haslam called Smith about a month ago and asked him to do the TV ad, Smith, a Democrat, agreed to do it. But when the video production crew hired by the Haslam camp showed up in Brownsville, Mayor Smith said he wasn't entirely pleased with the script presented to him.

"They didn't want me to give credit to Democrats," Smith said. "That got to be an issue the day of filming. I just told the director, 'I'm going to be perfectly honest with you: Mayor Haslam is not the reason that the megasite's here but he certainly helped me - but so did a lot of Democrats,' and I named off several. 'I'm not going to say something that's not true, number one, and if I've got to take that out, then I'm not going to do the ad'," Smith said.

Smith wanted to add the words "So I got a little help from some Democrats..." in front of "one great Republican mayor." The director balked. "I couldn't get the campaign staff on the phone," Smith told me. "So I got the mayor (Haslam) himself on the phone and he approved the wording on the ad, which shows me the kind of fellow he is and the kind of governor I think he will be. This crap about Democrats can't work with Republicans and Republicans can't work with Democrats - this country is going to go to hell if that's the attitude we're going to continue with."

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That, campaign spokesman David Smith said today, was the message the ad was intended to convey. "The message is that Mayor Haslam will work with everybody."