A group of former staffers for former Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Corker has reportedly launched a lobbying firm that has already signed clients who advocate for big government and more taxpayer money.
This, according to an article in The Nashville Post.
Corker’s former chief of staff Todd Womack and Corker’s former communications director Micah Johnson reportedly started the firm, known as Bridge Public Affairs.
Former Corker aides Brent Wiles and John Goetz are also reportedly on board.
“The young firm — with offices in Nashville, Chattanooga and Washington, D.C. — has already signed on a number of high-profile clients,” The Nashville Post reported.
“Womack is registered to represent the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Chattanooga’s River City Company and Memphis’ Riverfront Development Corp. in Nashville, plus EPB, Volkswagen and others in Washington.”
As The Tennessee Star reported, Tennessee officials have given Volkswagen hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate welfare.
Meanwhile, the public utility EPB — also known as Chattanooga’s Electric Power Board — took $100 million in federal taxpayer money several years ago to offer ultra-high speed Internet — to compete against companies already in the private market.
In 2012, the Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee, a right-of-center think tank, gave EPB its annual Lump of Coal Award for going against “the principles of liberty and big government.”
Limited government advocates in Tennessee have long viewed Corker with suspicion. Corker also seems to hold a certain animus toward U.S. Republican President Donald Trump.
As The Star reported, Corker reportedly said America will benefit if another Republican runs for president against Donald Trump next year.
As The Tennessee Star reported earlier this year, Corker, an avowed NeverTrump-er, “has long gone cuckoo over Trump and used his previous platform as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to criticize him. Twice last year he compared the Republican president to a banana republic for removing former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance and other former officials’ clearances.”
The retired Senator said he would be good as president but it is “not necessarily even on the front burner; it’s a possibility.”
The Star reported last December on how Corker longed for the way the Republican Party was before the Tea Party and before Trump. Corker also refused to say if he prefers Trump to a Democrat in the White House in 2020.
Last year, Corker said Trump was controlled by the opinions of talk-radio hosts, The Huffington Post said. He also likened Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter to tyrants, making reference to their opinions on the border wall situation.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo Todd Womack” by Todd Womack.
Who freakin cares? Good for them. They are working for themselves. Why is it ok to attack entrepreneurs who have done nothing wrong?
I find this consistent Corker’s behavior in the Senate. Voters beware. Haslam would just be a continuation of Corker’s policies. An Alexander lookalike.
Corker and his staff, still smoldering over losing their shot at the brass ring when Trump killed the TPP. Now it looks like they are going after Big Government Lobby Money