I live in the 4th Congressional District. Lincoln Davis (D) has been my absent representative. Oh, he’s in Washington but if you contact Lincoln about anything all you get in response are platitudes and gosh darn good ol boy shucks crapola. When Monty Lankford announced he was going to run for the 4th District I was interested and positive about assisting Monty with his run against Lincoln Davis. That is until I found out that Monty Lankford DOESN’T LIVE IN THE 4TH DISTRICT!

I am of the belief that my representative should live in MY DISTRICT and I can tell you that the 4th District is one gerrymandered district. It’s shaped almost like a hockey stick with 24 counties.

Then Kent Greenough showed up at one of the stops we had on the Vets for Freedom Heroes Tour and although I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to what he was saying it got me interested enough to follow up and learn about Kent and his campaign. A little over a week ago Kent was invited to join a group of women to speak and present his background and experiences and how he thought he could win this primary. After this discussion Kent had won me over. He knew he had an uphill battle not only because he is up against Lincoln Davis but more importantly he’s up against some significant money backing Monty Lankford in the primary race.

What Kent didn’t know is that he’d also have to battle the TN State Republican Party apparatus. It looks like Monty is the anointed candidate and all appearances of impartiality by the state Republican Party during a primary are not a concern. The head of the Williamson County Republican Party (WRCP) held a fund raiser for Monty earlier this year. Now Robin Smith (state party chair) is also stomping for Monty.

I received this email:

—–Original Message—–
From: W.R. Kliner Jr. [mailto:wrklinerjr@mindspring.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2008 8:29 PM
To: Undisclosed Recipients
Subject: Monty Lankford 4th District Fly-around

Hi all,

Robin Smith asked Brett Hale and me to help get a crowd of people together at the TAC Air terminal on Monday, April 21st shortly before lunch. Mr. Monty Lankford, owner of TLC Medical Oxygen & Hospital Equipment, a noted business owner in Williamson county is officially announcing his candidacy for the 4th U.S. Congressional District.

He will be doing a fly-around on Monday and will arrive in Chattanooga at 11:30 a.m.

The local media will be at the airport on Monday to cover his announcement.

I have attached a copy of their Press Advisory. The Chattanooga market feeds television coverage into several counties in the 4th Dist. So, the main purpose for the fly-around is for press coverage. As you can see, they plan to do a bus tour for the remainder of the week throughout the 4th Dist.

I do not know Mr. Lankford personally, but look forward to meeting him, with you, on the 21st. Please try to be there if at all possible. As you know, Lincoln Davis is the incumbent and has bigger plans in the future.

Van Hilleary is helping Monty and called me earlier today. Van told me that Monty actually has more money on hand than Lincoln as of the end of the 1st Qtr reporting period. It should be interesting and informative.

Here is a link to his website.
http://www.lankfordforcongress.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2&Itemid=

Hope to see you there.

Wes Kliner

Wes Kliner = Wesley R. Kliner, Jr. is the Republican Member on the State’s Election Commission and lives in Chattanooga. Mr. Hale is a member of the Capitol Club. I certainly hope that all efforts extended to Monty on his campaigning efforts will also be extended to Kent Greenough by Robin Smith, Wes Kline and Doug Grindstaff.

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