Former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean would like to be the next Governor of Tennessee.
Dean spoke at a DeKalb County Democratic Party potluck dinner Thursday night at the high school.
During an interview with WJLE prior to his speech, Dean said he has three areas he is focusing on in his campaign: public education, health care and economic development.
“Its my sense that the voters of Tennessee want somebody who is pragmatic, has common sense, and has executive experience. Someone who is going to talk about the issues that really matter to the voters which I think are public education, economic opportunity, and healthcare. I think those are the things that matter. I believe Tennessee is really a unique state. I think it has a great future and if we keep our eyes on the things that are important and that we can really affect we can move the state forward,” he said.
Dean said his first priority as governor would be improving education. “For me I think the most important thing for Tennessee moving forward is to continue to work hard on improving education. We have made a lot of progress. There are things that maybe we need to review such as testing. We need to make sure we’re paying our teachers adequately. I think we’ve got to have teacher pay in a position where we’re able to compete with surrounding states and other parts of the country. Education to me is sort of the game changer. That is what excites me the most. But I also want to work hard to help small towns and rural areas in the state to prosper. There are lots of cities like Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville that are doing well but we’ve got to make sure that prosperity goes everywhere. That would be a major focus of mine too,” he continued.
Asked what his biggest accomplishments were as mayor of Nashville, Dean said business recruitment and managing the city through the great recession and the 2010 flood “We did a lot of recruitment of business and we built some things, convention center, ball park, and amphitheater, but probably the most difficult thing I had to do was to manage the city through the great recession and to work through the challenges that came with the flood of 2010. Those were hard things but the city was remarkably unified, we got through it, and Nashville took off,” he said.
As governor, Dean said he would work to be a unifier. “I think one of the things that is important to do is restore the balance and get politics back to a point where its not all knocking heads and argument. To have the balance where what people are working on in government is how to move forward, how to improve the lives of the people and that is what I want to do. If the state government focuses and does the right thing in terms of education, jobs, and healthcare we can get something done and that is going to make the whole state better,” he said.
Dean has already visited 51 of the state’s 95 counties and is pleased with his campaign. “We have had a lot of success in our fundraising. We have been greeted very positively. I feel good. We’re right on target where we expected to be,” Dean said.
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