Live from Music Row Friday 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 Joe Carr to the newsmaker line to to talk about why he is currently leading in polls for the Rutherford County mayoral race, and his promise if elected.
Leahy: We are joined on our newsmaker line now by our very good friend, former State Representative Joe Carr. Good morning, Joe.
Carr: Good morning Michael. How are you this morning?
Leahy: Well, I am delighted to catch up with you again. And just for our listeners, you and I go way back, don’t we?
Carr: (Chuckles) We go back a little bit. As a matter of fact, I think the subject matter this morning would be a poll that was released, and I found this very reputable firm because of a conversation you and I and Ben Cunningham had.
Leahy: Way back when. Let’s set the table. Let’s set the table. So for our listeners who don’t know who Joe Carr is, you were elected as a state representative in the Tennessee House of Representatives. Back when – was that 2010?
Carr: 2008 was when I was first elected.
Leahy: Okay. And you served from 2008 until 2014, is that correct?
Carr: That’s right.
Leahy: Then, you and I – back in 2013, for our listeners – because we are constitutional conservatives, we started a little super PAC and we started the Beat Lamar super PAC, in essence.
Carr: That’s right.
Leahy: And we started in 2013. I went around, all around the state of Tennessee. I went all over the state of Tennessee. I’d go to little Tea Party groups and say “We’re going to beat Lamar Alexander in the GOP primary in 2014.”
Carr: We came very, very close.
Leahy: And we set this group up, and then we were looking for a good conservative candidate. And it was you and our friend Kevin Kukuji. They had a little big debate.
David Webb came down and I think he won that debate narrowly over Kukuji. He chose not to run. There you were. We ended up endorsing it. We had about 100 kids in the summer of 2014 knocking on doors in Middle Tennessee. And you almost won that primary.
Carr: We did. And traveling the state and just getting excited about our Republic, our Constitution, and returning to the vision of our forefathers. Michael, that was just a lot of fun to be a part of something like that.
We weren’t successful in winning, but we were successful in a lot of the ways because I think it launched the Constitution Bee that you’re doing. There’s a lot of things that came out of that that, of course, you can take credit for. So I think all in all, it was time well spent.
Leahy: But you lost that primary 49-40, which was huge. You won Middle Tennessee.
Carr: Oh, yeah.
Leahy: And we had enough money to do the kids do the door-to-door in Middle Tennessee. I think if we’d had more money and I think you could have won that if we had door knockers in West Tennessee and East Tennessee. But there you go.
Carr: We were just a little underfunded. But that’s the way the chips ell.
Leahy: I think we spent like a million bucks and Lamar spent like 7-8 million. Is that right?
Carr: Yes. I think he spent closer to nine, but, yeah, we spent a million. He spent nine. And that just shows you the importance of being able to compete financially.
Leahy: So then you run in a GOP primary against Diane Black in 2016. You lose about two-to-one. You run again in 2018 for state Senate against Shane Reeves. You lose there about two-to-one.
Now you’re running for Rutherford County mayor. Let’s get to this poll, because I saw this poll, and I have to say, you’re running against incumbent Mayor Bill Ketron, who’s got a number of problems, and then County Commissioner Rhonda Allen.
The polling firm you use, Trident Polling and Research, we’ve used them at The Tennessee Star many times. They’ve been spot-on in everything.
Carr: I will tell you how accurate they are. In 2014, when I was using them, the last poll they sent me, which was after early voting ended but before Election Day, they sent me a poll that says Joe, you’re going to lose by seven or eight points. We lost by nine. That’s how accurate they are.
Leahy: And they were very good on the transit tax here in Nashville. They predicted it would lose like 62-37, and it was almost exactly what it lost by.
Carr: They’re very good, their methodologies are sound. Michael, they’ve been around for 15 to 20 years. These guys know what they’re doing.
They know how to do it. They’ve got an incredible database of people that they can rely on to respond accurately. I find them very accurate.
Leahy: This poll was conducted on 455 likely Rutherford County voters between January 19 and January 21. This is the Republican primary, right?
Carr: Likely Republican voters.
Leahy: Likely Republican voters. The primary is May what?
Carr: May 3rd.
Leahy: Okay, so coming up, two and a half months from now. I have to tell you, honestly, I was surprised by the results. It shows in a three-way race, you’ve got 31.7 percent of the vote. Current Mayor Bill Ketron has 15.6 percent, and 11.3 percent goes to County Commissioner Rhonda Allen. 41 percent undecided.
The margin of error is 4.6 percent here. So under any circumstances in this poll, you are in the lead. A, do you believe the numbers? Because I’m skeptical. And B, why do you think right now, if this poll is right, you’re in the lead?
Carr: I do believe the numbers, and here’s why. In late summer and early fall of last year, we did an incredible amount of door-knocking.
You know the effectiveness of going door-to-door, Michael, firsthand. And there is nothing a candidate or its campaign can do that can secure victory better than going door to door. And we literally knocked on thousands of doors.
Leahy: Now you’re telling me something I didn’t know. How many doors did you knock on?
Carr: Oh, well over 3,000 doors. And those were very targeted doors. Those doors were targeted, likely GOP voters, because, of course, you can go to the Rutherford County Election Commission and get the database and screen that for primary voters.
And that’s exactly what we did. We had a very targeted list, and that’s just the canvassing we did door-to-door. We did events, we went to places.
And the other two candidates did little or nothing in that regard. Quite honestly, they left the field open for us to work alone. And I think that what you’re seeing is reflected in this poll.
Leahy: How many votes are you projecting you’ll need on May 3rd to win the GOP primary for mayor of Rutherford County?
Carr: In 2015, 2018, there were about 15,000 Republican voters who cast a vote. We’re expecting maybe 17 to 18,000 this year. So we’re talking that we’re going to need what, 9,000, 10,000 votes to win. That’s all. Unfortunately, it’s a very low turnout.
Leahy: But there’s not a runoff here. You just need to get more votes than anybody else, right?
Carr: That’s correct. That’s right. Yeah.
Leahy: Well, we knew that, because when Lamar Alexander got 49 percent of the votes against you in 2014, he won. He didn’t have to get 50 percent.
In other states, it’s like 50 percent. So if there are three candidates and it plays out something like this, you wouldn’t necessarily have to get 50 percent of the vote.
Carr: No, but I think it’s important for what’s going on in Rutherford County with the ethics issues that we’ve got with some government officials and the things that we’ve got that have divided our county.
Obviously, we want to win, but we want to bring this county together, and we want to unite them around a vision about working together and collaborating and crafting ideas and solutions that meet our challenges and take advantage of our opportunities.
Leahy: The general election would be in August. Are the Democrats fielding a strong candidate, or what do you think will happen there?
Carr: The only candidates that will be on the ballot in the August election will be the Republican primary winner, hopefully, myself. And any Independent that has qualified.
Leahy: The Democrats aren’t fielding a candidate.
Carr: That’s correct. And they haven’t, I don’t know, in the last two cycles.
Leahy: Wow. So this primary is tantamount, it would be hard to imagine an Independent candidate winning in August against GOP.
Carr: Yes. It’s difficult for Independents to win in Tennessee.
Leahy: What is the big single issue that people in Rutherford County care about?
Carr: There are two issues, according to the poll – and this isn’t me, this is the poll. It’s ethical and moral conduct on the part of our elected officials, number one. And number two is the Middle Point Landfill.
Currently, the Middle Point Landfill in Rutherford County takes in 4,500 tons of trash a day. When Mayor Ketron came into office, he promised to solve that problem.
We were taking in 3,000 tons of trash a day. It’s gone up by 1,500 tons a day. And 70% of the trash that comes into that landfill comes from Davidson County.
Leahy: We’ve got one minute. See if you can solve this problem in one minute.
Carr: Sure.
Leahy: How would you solve that problem?
Carr: Get control of the contract. In 1995 Mayor Ketron, when he was on the county commission, voted yes to give Republic Services complete autonomy and control over the landfill without any oversight from Rutherford County. We have to get control of the contract. And we will if I’m elected mayor. I promise you that.
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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 “Joe Carr” by Joe Carr for Tennessee.
Nope, I was there at the debate in 2013 and Kevin Kookogey CLEARLY and EASILY won that debate. It was a shame that Kevin ultimately decided not to run.