Tag: Drive to 55

During a campaign trip to Kingsport, tucked up on the northeast corner of the state, the local newspaper spent some time with gubernatorial hopeful Randy Boyd and came away with two clear messages: the Knoxville businessman and former Haslam appointee is in-it-to-win-it, and is about to ‘turn the volume way up.’ “It’s early and in some of the early polls, when they ask about me, it’s about name ID,” Mr. Boyd told the Kingsport Times News. “[Black] usually leads with name ID, but being known and being favored to be the next governor are two different things. Most people really haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about it yet, but over the next six months, the volume is going to be turned way up. People are going to learn more and more about the candidates. I still believe they are going to vote for a nonprofessional politician and business person and outsider over some politician in D.C.” (emphasis added) Boyd’s claim to be a ‘nonprofessional politician’ is accurate. However, recall that Randy Boyd was tapped by the Haslam Administration in 2013 to serve as a special adviser on higher education, where he helped to develop the ‘Drive to 55’ initiative. It was during his…