Our friend and fellow Ford supporter, Alex, the blogger at Forward with Ford has written a very good letter in response to a recent Nashville City Paper editorial regarding Bob Corker's record:Alex's post is below:
I have written a letter responding to the Nashville City Paper's recent editorial, "Corker Record Should be Studied in Context." The original article is below followed by my response. Hopefully it will be published tommorrow or next week.
Corker record should be studied in context
May 25, 2006
Former Chattanooga mayor and U.S. Senate hopeful Bob Corker is catching heat from all sides in his bid to replace outgoing Senator Bill Frist.
Corker’s Republican primary opponents as well as national Democrats are beating up on the East Tennessee businessman for what they maintain are the vast differences between his campaign advertising and his record as mayor.
Corker inherited a $17.8 million municipal deficit when he took office in 2001 as Chattanooga’s mayor. His answer was to both cut spending and raise city property taxes by 48 cents. This, Corker’s detractors say, conflicts with his anti-tax message and the fiscal conservative image he paints in his advertising.
While the consistency and veracity of most political campaign advertising in any race can be debated, Tennesseans should recognize that in local government hard and often unpopular decisions are in many cases all office holders have to choose from.
Corker did what many mayors in this state have had to do over the decades – raise taxes to pay off the transgressions of previous administrations. Yes, the attacks on Corker are correct – he did raise taxes. But it would be unfair to judge this candidate or any seeking higher office in our state without putting such decisions in the correct historical context.
My letter which I hope will be published:
I totally agree with the Nashville City paper that Bob Corker’s record must be studied in historical context. In this editorial, however, the City Paper misses the mark when it justifies the “hard decisions” that Corker made as Mayor of Chattanooga while opting to ignore the truth about Corker’s record.
While his most recent TV ad claims that Bob Corker lowered property taxes to their lowest rate since the 1950’s, the facts paint a different picture. The facts are this; Bob Corker raised property taxes in Chattanooga by 25%. Corker even publicly stated on several occasions that he had no intention to roll the tax increase back and the facts show he never did.
So, how can Bob Corker claim to have lowered property taxes to their lowest rate since the 1950’s? The city’s taxes were lowered not because of anything Corker did, but because of a county wide property reappraisal that took place three months after Corker left office! 3 months!
The facts are that Bob Corker takes a similar approach to taxes as Don Sundquist and no creative 30 second TV ad can hide that.
Great job Alex! The more we expose Bob Corker's lies and half truths, the better off we all are.
Tennessee deserves a U.S. Senator who will be truthful and clearly Bob Corker is not that man.
