Many thanks to Bryan Baskin for his kind words. Bryan wrote us recently to make "The Case for Ron Ramsey":

I like to refer to this race as a "3-way race for governor."  By that, I do not mean there are only 3 serious candidates.  Instead, there are 3 Republican visions represented by the 4 main candidates: Yesterday's GOP, Washington's GOP, and Grassroots GOP.

A.  Yesterday's GOP:  politically, I grew up with this one.  In those days, I knew that being a Republican made me a minority in TN.  As a Reagan Republican, I was a minority within a minority.  The mantra of these Republicans is “go along to get along”.  Their philosophy is that our party should be moderate and grateful for whatever crumbs the Democrats graciously allow to fall from their table.  We should also support candidates that can only raise a lot of money (regardless of their appeal to average voters) and only expect victory when the Democrats fight and split.

B.  Washington's GOP:  with these Republicans, the idea is to talk like a conservative to gain power but govern like a liberal to maintain it. These Republicans believe that conservative principles are useful to win votes but are not realistic in governing a nation. The results of this approach have been obvious:  a prescription drug bill with skyrocketing costs; bail-outs; broken term limits pledges ( I guess if you are overseeing businesses too big to fail, it stands to reason that by Washington logic, you would be too important to leave); so-called "conservatives" supporting moderate-to-liberal Republicans because "they can win." We all saw how well this approach worked nationally in 2006 and 2008

C.  The Grassroots Approach:  this approach says that conservative values can not only win elections but can (and must) be the basis for governing. This is why, after hearing all the candidates for several months, Ron Ramsey stands head and shoulders above the rest.  These 3 reasons “sealed the deal” for me:

1) Education:  as one who grew up in public schools; attended private colleges; and is currently a home school dad, I have seen first-hand that there is more than one way to educate a child. Governor Ramsey stands out as one who rightly understands that education is not defined solely by one method of education.

2) Federalism:  alone among the candidates, Governor Ramsey has not been silent when Washington has sought to increase its power beyond its constitutional limits. Subsequently, he has taken the lead in the fight against the constitutionality of the government take-over  of health care.

3) Leadership and Results:  When Ron Ramsey came to the State Senate, he did not "go along to get along".  He worked tirelessly to recruit candidates and courageously opposed fellow senators from the opposition party (even though it was against the status quo and "senatorial courtesy"). The results speak for themselves:  a GOP State Senate majority.

Join me in rejecting the status quo party of yesterday and the failed party of Washington. I stand with the grassroots; I stand with the future; I stand with Ron Ramsey!