Nathan Moore's Thoughts
On Meeting Bill Gibbons
I had the opportunity to meet Bill Gibbons last night in small group gathering, and I came away impressed.
Since 1996, Gibbons has been the elected district attorney for Shelby County, which is the largest single-county jurisdiction in the state. He is also one of three Republicans who has declared his intention to run for governor in 2010 (the other two are Congressman Zach Wamp of Chattanooga and Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam). It is rumored that Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey intends to run, but he has not yet declared.
We discussed topics ranging from crime and taxes and education to the Second Amendment. As one can imagine, Gibbons is tough on crime, and wants to further enhance sentences for felons in possession of firearms to more closely resemble federal law (under federal law, a felon possessing a firearm serves a minimum 5 year sentence – as of now in Tennessee, felons possessing a weapon are subject to a 1 to 6 year sentence).
When it came to taxes, he declared he would not support any tax increases whatsoever, but did consider the possibility of tolls for new road construction. On education, he expressed his support for more charter schools and wants to make the process for approving them easier, and student choice among them more fluid. As for the Second Amendment, he parts ways with Mayor Haslam, comparing the idea of suing gun manufacturers for crime (which Haslam has gone on record supporting) akin to suing automobile manufactures for DUIs. He did make it known that he did not support the “guns in bars” legislation that has been pending in the General Assembly, an issue I can see both sides of (of course, we could more narrowly tailor it to “carrying while intoxicated”, but I digress..). Without a doubt, he is more pro-Second Amendment than Haslam, and probably about the same as Wamp.
In all, if you are a conservative Republican, you ought not have any problems with Bill Gibbons. I have not yet decided who I am going to support (not that anyone is holding their breath – if you are, you probably shouldn’t be running for governor…), but I would certainly feel comfortable with Gibbons being our nominee.
January 28th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
[...] a an anti-gun group called Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which keeps having members exit. One of his gubernatorial opponents says: As for the Second Amendment, he parts ways with Mayor Haslam, comparing the idea of suing gun [...]
January 28th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
But what experience does he have running anything other than an office full of 60 or so lawyers who have way too much authority and power in doling out punishment (rather than rehabilitation or education) to mostly poor people? How is his judgment? Has he been reasonable when faced with tough choices? What does he offer that is unique? How does he handle budgets? Does he work well with others? Will CCA be backing him? What did he do prior to District Attorney job? Ed Bryant was a terrible candidate for state wide office.How is Gibbons different?
January 28th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Ed Bryant was just a tad boring. He was qualified for the Senate, however.
I think Bill is qualified, and he appeared to be a good communicator, at least in a small group setting. He handled some tough questions well.
Though not a huge staff, being a DA is an executive position, and certainly a challenging one in Shelby County with the caseload they maintain. I’ve not heard of any budget overruns or shenanigans in the Shelby DA’s office. As far as I can tell, the only who has more executive experience on both sides in the campaign is Haslam, and his membership in Mayors Against Guns bothers me a good bit.
One thing I didn’t mention (which I should have) is that Gibbons spoke highly of Norman’s drug court, and wants to increase funding for drug courts based on Norman’s throughout the state. We discussed criminal justice quite a bit, actually. I didn’t get the vibe he was an overzealous prosecutor-type. Before he became DA he was in private practice, mainly doing civil work.
CCA is going to give money to whoever the GOP candidate is – I don’t know how involved they will be in the primary. Everyone has some unsavory supporters at times, but I can think of much worse (a la, ProEnglish, and, well, The Teamsters to name a couple).
As far as many of your other questions, we’ll see. Like I said, I’m not on board, but I certainly wasn’t turned off by what I saw.
January 28th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Please tell me that the Lynda Jones that posted above isn’t the bankruptcy lawyer who wants to be a general sessions judge. Jesus, talk about somebody who’s unqualified for the office they seek. Pot. Kettle. Black.