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 Independent Maury County mayoral candidate David Baker in-studio to discuss his experience and how to maintain the liberty and freedom established by Andy Ogles.
Leahy: In-studio, David Baker, who is one of three Independent candidates for Mayor of Maury County because of filing deadlines and things of that nature.
And it looks like Andy Ogles is withdrawing from the race as the GOP nominee. It looks like you only have three Independent candidates, and they’re all Republican-affiliated. And you are one of those three.
Sheila Butt, who is a former state rep will be here, and former county Mayor Charles Norman will be here as well. We’ll invite them. I’m sure they’ll come in and we’ll talk about it. What is it that you’re going to do?
Why would you do a better job as mayor of Maury County, which I think under Andy Ogles’ leadership everybody would agree has really shined out there as a leading example of liberty and economic growth over the past four years. What will you do better than Sheila Butt and Charles Norman as county mayor?
Baker: You’re exactly right. Andy Ogles has done a great job. When Andy Ogles ran, I thought, how in the world did we get this guy in our county to be the mayor?
Usually we get nice guys, good guys, but old retired guys that are nice but really don’t know how to run the county. And when Andy came in, there were so many departments that were just a mess legally, things being shut down. He fixed all that.
Leahy: How many employees in the county?
Baker: I’m not sure. And then when COVID came, he protected us. I mean, he stood against the mandates, he stood for the jobs, he stood for the people to keep the county open.
And so honestly, the most important thing I can do is continue the things that Andy did to be able to stand for those things. Of course, Maury County, they say, is the fastest-growing county in the state. And so there’s growth. So you have to deal with that.
And so manage growth, organize growth instead of sprawl, to not let our beautiful county be destroyed by people that just want to come in and make money.
And so those are things you have to work with. Being able to fund and finance that, we are going to have to work on that, because of the impact fees we don’t have for our county.
And so we have to be able to pay for all the new schools, all the infrastructure that has to be done. So there are things you can work with the builders, where they’re doing voluntary impact fees in order to build so they can help pay for the new schools that are coming.
Leahy: So they’re doing voluntary impact fees.
Baker: They are.
Leahy: How long have they been doing that?
Baker: That’s something Andy is just working on with the builders to come in where, all right, if you come in and build, we’re going to have to put new schools here, and we need money for that. And so they’re willing to do that. And so there are other ways to do it without raising property tax, especially for those seniors. My parents have lived in their home and farm for 55 years. Their kids are already done and gone. They don’t have kids in the school. Their property taxes shouldn’t have to be raised to put the next generation and all the new people in school.
Leahy: The farm that you grew up in for the first 12 years in Santa Fe, they still live on that farm?
Baker: They do. They rented it out while they were gone. Dad retired and moved back. He told us, “Kids, don’t date anybody up here because when I retire, I’m moving all of you back.” Two came and two are still in Iowa.
Leahy: (Chuckles)Â How many acres, by the way, do they have? How many acres?
Baker: Two-hundred and fifty.
Leahy: And do they rent it out?
Baker: They sold the cattle, but the cattle are still on there. They rent the fields and the hay fields. Dad’s 84, Mom’s 82. So they don’t have to add all that.
Leahy: Smart. Let somebody else handle the cattle.
Baker: Enjoy the beauty of the country and the quietness and the peace of all that. I love it – very pretty up there.
Leahy: The hills and things are great.
Baker: And you see those family farms. You don’t want those destroyed. You don’t want them to come in and put stack by stack houses by each other. That’s not what we want. So are there places where you can put houses and allow growth? It’s a great place to be. Absolutely. To be able to get new businesses in, so our people from our county don’t have to drive to Franklin and Nashville. It’s amazing how many people come out of Maury County to get jobs up here. They shouldn’t have to do that. You should be able to live and work in the same county. So to bring those good businesses in and to provide housing for them without having to destroy those beautiful family farms, that’s one of the first things.
Leahy: What level of growth do you anticipate for Maury County having over the next four years of the term? The term would begin with September 1st of this year.
Baker: Yes. I’m not seeing those projections.
Leahy: But it will be a lot, right?
Baker: It will be a lot.
Leahy: Because why, if you’re living in California and you look at, ah, I could sell my house in California. I could buy a beautiful place in Maury County, which is a great place, and still have a bunch of money to put in the bank. Do you have a lot of Californians coming in now?
Baker: There are. My sons are builders, and they say most of the houses they are building now are very expensive homes. They are for people moving in from California.
Leahy: Most of them, yeah.
Baker: Most of them.
Leahy: What do you think it is about Tennessee that is bringing all these Californians?
Baker: I lived in California for a while.
Leahy: Where did you live?
Baker: Lancaster, Vello Valley.
Leahy: That’s in Southern California.
Baker: Yes, and high desert. And when you think of California, that’s not what you think about. It was ugly and hot and bad in driving, and people literally drove two hours to be able to get to work and home. And so it’s a beautiful place. It’s green, it’s lush. The people are friendly. It’s a great economy.
Leahy: People in Tennessee are nice, aren’t they? We call it Tennessee nice.
Baker: Absolutely. We have a beautiful family in our church. They have 11 adopted children. Amazing people. They moved. They used to live in California and then Oklahoma. And all the mandates were so strong they were looking for a place with freedom. They literally found Maury County and Andy’s videos and started watching. And they said, you know what? That sounds like a place.
Leahy: Is that what brought them?
Baker: They moved here because of that.
Leahy: So it’s that freedom.
Baker: It is.
Leahy: I suppose you could say this is sort of, Andy started it as Maury County, the bastion of freedom. That’s appealing, isn’t it?
Baker: It really is. The liberty and freedom that we’re supposed to have. And all we want government to do is to leave us alone, to let us do what we want to do. That’s what it’s supposed to be. There are some structures of government that have to be there, but we’ve got someone to pray for those who are in authority that we can live a quiet and peaceable life. Meaning you do your job and leave us alone. Let us enjoy our life.
Leahy: A big part of this job, it seems to me, is going to be managing people internally, people who work for the county, but that’s also dealing with people externally. A lot of these companies want to come in negotiating with them. What kind of management background, and what kind of people skills do you have?
Baker: Right. That is major. And I think that’s why that people have been asking me to run. When I spoke at that event in November, right afterward I was inundated with people asking me to run for office.
Leahy: No, really? So when you say inundated, like people come up and say “that was such a great speech, you should run for office.”
Baker: That night dozens of people did that.
Leahy: Dozens?
Baker: And I just laughed it off. Thank you. I’m a preacher, not a politician. But it didn’t stop. Every month and for the last two months, at least every week, somebody has asked me to run for county mayor. Sheila Butt called me and asked me if I would run for county mayor back in January.
Leahy: She called you in January?
Baker: She called me in January.
Leahy: And now she’s running.
Baker: Now she’s running.
Listen to the interview:
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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.
