So Who Is Ward Cammack?

Apparently he's running for Governor as a Democrat, along with Andy Berke and Kim McMillan (with whom Vibinc met yesterday). I was not aware of this, or who he is for that matter (a Nashville businessman in the financial services industry), until I got my afternoon email from the Nashville Post today. But the article gave quite a few reasons why we should keep an eye on him.

The powerhouse political firm of Murphy Putnam Media has joined up with Cammack's campaign, according to the Cammack team. Haven't heard of them? They did a few other political campaigns you may remember like Gov. Phil Bredesen, Mayor Karl Dean, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and a fellow named Barack Obama media.

In other words, this news shouldn't be taken lightly by any Democratic gubernatorial aspirants.

Speaking about his campaign staff, Cammack told NashvillePost.com, "We have been working hard to assemble the best team we can, looking beyond the March and June disclosure periods and winning the Democratic primary."

They also already have a full campaign team assembled.

I'm well aware of who Murphy Putnam is. Do you remember turning on your TV in the summer of 2007 only to hear at every commercial break, "I'm Karl Dean and it's all connected"? That was Murphy Putnam's doing. You probably had no idea who Karl Dean was in January of 2007, but you knew him as "Mayor" nine months later. These people will get your name out into the public conversation, whether the public likes it or not.

So, I would consider this a positive development. If you're a Democratic candidate and are ready and able to bring in the big guns against Haslam and Wamp, you have my full attention. I know a mayor's race is quite different from a gubernatorial race, but moves like this are an indicator of a serious challenger, with the means to pull off the challenge.

And he certainly does seem ready to play hardball. From his press release:

As you may have read this past week, four Republican state legislators, including the House GOP Caucus Chairman, signed up in a lawsuit challenging whether President Obama was constitutionally eligible to be President. The four Republican lawmakers want President Obama to prove that he is a United States citizen by producing his birth certificate.

As one Nashville political columnist wrote, "This is dumber than a box of rocks."

At a time when hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans are worried about losing their jobs and/or their health care, it is unconscionable that these lawmakers would engage in this type of partisan activity. It is an embarrassment to the Tennessee Legislature and to the Tennessee Republican Party.

So, we see an early campaign operation and a willingness to take on the dumb-as-rocks Republicans (a statement I personally view as an insult to rocks). But what about the issues?

From what I can gather, Mr. Cammack's pet issue appears to be the synergy between business and environment, demonstrating how businesses can (and need to) undertake better environmental practices:

Here are the facts. There is no more "away" in throwing away. For example, TVA's ash slide begs these questions: How can we trust our institutions, and we do no better than piling up waste to slide into homes? Where does the cleaned-up ash go? What about ash from the next 50 years? And if 68 percent of Tennessee's electricity comes from coal sourced from West Virginia mountaintop removal to the detriment of clean water and forests, then whose mountains, forests and streams are next to go?

Wal-Mart and GE went green for purely economic reasons. Both companies and hundreds of others are reaching into tens of thousands of supply-chain providers, resetting the competitive landscape. Wal-Mart has initiated product changes like General Mills' redesign of Hamburger Helper, eliminating almost 1 million pounds of cardboard and fuel requirements toward more competitive pricing and enhanced capital allocation.

Local farming will emerge as health and environmental forces address lower-quality food associated with greenhouse gas emission, water depletion and preventable disease.

He wants to apply this rationale to governing the TVA as well.

From a purely political perspective, I like what I hear. The environmental issues are of course red meat for the Democratic base, but the focus on how it's connected with sound economic policy could appeal to moderates and more business-minded conservatives. At any rate, it's a strong, substantive issue that's relevant to everyone in Tennessee and has nothing to do with God, guns, or gays.

I'm ready to see such specific proposals from all of our gubernatorial candidates. A focused campaign based on substantive issues can beat whatever hot-button wedge issues the GOP will try to throw at us in 2010.