Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Hamilton County mayoral candidate Matt Hullander to the newsmaker line to discuss his background and why he is the best choice for the county.
Leahy: We are joined on the newsmaker line now by Matt Hullander, a candidate for Hamilton County mayor. He was the CEO of Hullco Exteriors for about 14 years.
Recently sold it. Has been involved in and a lot of real estate development activities down in Hamilton County and Chattanooga, that area. Welcome to The Tennessee Star Report, Matt.
Hullander: Good morning, and thanks for having me on today.
Leahy: Matt, tell us a little bit about why you decided to run for mayor of Hamilton County.
Hullander: I’ve had this mentioned to me several times over the years. And then one of our local online papers wanted to include my name, and I did well in the first couple of polls.
So a lot of friends and family started encouraging me to run. I reached out to local business leaders and folks I’ve been in peer groups with, and everyone had the same thoughts as that.
I’m just a better version of myself when I’m busy and giving back. And my father had been in politics for a number of years. He was a three-term county commissioner and then currently is our county trustee.
So I grew up around it. I felt like it was a calling. I feel glad to do it because we need a businessman in office that’s not a career politician.
Leahy: Tell us a little bit about your background. Holko Exteriors. I guess you bought it from your dad in 2007 and ran it for 14 years and just recently sold it. What did Hullco Exteriors do? What does it currently do and how many employees did it have?
Hullander: My father started that business back in the 70s. We were a remodeling company, mostly exterior remodeling. We were in one location in Chattanooga. I grew up in the business.
When I was 12 years old, I started working and had my own lawn care business and went through jobs as a teenager. I went to Etowah High School. I went to Chattanooga State Technical College here in Hamilton County.
And then I went straight to work for my father and we built our own replacement windows. I worked in our factory for a number of years. Then I installed, I sold.
I started managing back in the early 2000s, and then in 2007, I took out a loan and bought the business from my father. And I got really involved in peer groups.
I started reading trading magazines and books and learning all I could. Started using marketing as a tool to help promote the business. And over 14 years, we grew to three locations and covered all of East Tennessee.
And we’re the largest home improvement company in East Tennessee. And then I had the opportunity to sell the business to one of my peers from Pennsylvania back in April.
We were around 60 employees with another 100 subcontractors or 1099 employees in between here and Knoxville on up toward the Bristol area. And then we went up to the Kentucky line.
Leahy: What are the big issues facing Hamilton County and what would you do about them as mayor?
Hullander: The mayor wears a lot of hats, so I’m not going to just talk about one priority. I think there are several. But the top one I hear the most when I’m out visiting with folks is public safety and crime. And I would work alongside our new sheriff.
We’ll have a new sheriff at the same time we get a new mayor here. I want to work closely with the sheriff’s department to make sure they have the tools they need to do their job.
And I think the sheriff’s office can also be a platform to promote respect for law enforcement. Economic development comes up quite a bit. I know we have a lot of assets here.
We’ve got the fastest Internet. And it’s beautiful with mountains and the river. And we’ve got land now that the county acquired to bring in new businesses.
But I also want to make sure we don’t lose focus on the already great businesses that we have here in Hamilton County that are continuing to grow.
Leahy: You have some competition. I think maybe two other people are running. One of them is well known. The family name is well known, Weston Wamp. His dad, Zach Wamp was in Congress from that district, I think from like 1993 or so to 2010.
Ran for governor, lost. His dad is a very much an anti-Trump guy. Weston Wamp, we’ve documented a number of tweets where he’s an anti-Trump guy as well.
How do you contrast yourself with your competition? Why should people vote for you over Weston Wamp or the other person who’s running for mayor of Hamilton County?
Hullander: Sure. And I’m going to focus on me and the future of Hamilton County and what I need to do to get elected and make a difference. I’m trying to not focus on either of my candidates.
But to answer your question, I feel like I definitely have the most business experience. I’ve been involved in a number of companies and ventures and building teams and describing to the employees the mission and the vision and the values.
Rallying everyone together and using my marketing background to help promote the county and help promote solutions to the problems that we have. I feel like I’ll be the toughest on crime.
I think infrastructure is something that’s not often talked about on the campaign trail. It’s not bright and shiny to talk about a broken sewer system, which we have.
To bring in new business or to promote already great businesses that are here. We need workforce housing. So from a development side, I’ve been on the receiving end.
Leahy: I think we just lost Matt Hullander, mayoral candidate for Hamilton County. I think we got a good sense of what he’s about and what he’s hoping to do.
To learn more about Matt Hullander visit him on the web at matt4mayor.com.
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Matt Hullander” by Matt Hullander.
