Jim Kyle for Governor

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Comment by Seanna Brandmeir on August 25, 2009 at 10:45pm

I know Kyle will have a campaign table at Jackson Day. Anyone going and willing to help out for a little while?

Comment by Michael Lipe on August 19, 2009 at 5:16pm

Democratic Sen. Jim Kyle Launches Bid for Governor

USA Today—August 11th, 2009

State Senate Minority Leader Jim Kyle on Tuesday formally joined the crowded field of Democrats seeking to become Tennessee’s next governor.
Kyle said his campaign platform will emphasize improving the state’s graduation rates at public colleges and universities.

“We are going to turn our colleges and universities into the economic job creation entities they are supposed to be,” Kyle said following his announcement on the campus of the University of Memphis.

Kyle says his plan involves locking tuition rates for students who make sufficient progress throughout their entire college careers.

“What you pay as a freshman is what you pay as a senior,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press before the event. “The management goal of education will be graduating students, not enrolling students.”

Kyle also wants to create a scholarship program as an incentive for people who left school within a year of graduating to return and complete their degrees.

“It will immediately bringing a large number of people — thousands of people — toward graduation in a very short period of time,” he said. “Which will up our percentage of educational attainment, which makes us more viable in industrial recruitment.”

The emphasis on higher education comes amid difficult times for the state’s public colleges and universities. In June, both the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees and the Tennessee Board of Regents approved tuition increases, the latest round of tuition hikes in recent years.

Kyle, 58, has served in the state Senate since 1983 and as Democratic leader since 2005.

He is joining a Democratic field that includes Jackson businessman Mike McWherter, Sen. Roy Herron of Dresden, former House Majority Leader Kim McMillan of Clarksville and Nashville businessman Ward Cammack. Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen cannot run against because of term limits.

Kyle sought to deflect questions about a committee vote early in the decade to send a state income tax bill to a full Senate vote. The measure was never taken up by the upper chamber after it failed in the House.

“I have probably voted over 100,000 times since I’ve been in the Legislature, and I’m not gong to focus on what happened 10 years ago,” he said.

“Phil Bredesen has shown us that we don’t need an income tax and the people of Tennessee don’t want an income tax,” Kyle said. “To put it as succinctly as possible: We don’t need an income tax and I would veto one as governor.”

Kyle said his Memphis base provides him a built-in edge because the city could account for up to a quarter of the votes cast by Democrats in the August 2010 primary.

“If I put the number up that I should in Shelby County, I can run second in every county in the state and still win,” he said. “I believe I have a huge advantage.”

The senator starts the fundraising race much later than his fellow Democratic candidates, but expressed confidence that he will quickly erase that disadvantage.

McWherter, whose father Ned McWherter was governor from 1987 to 1995, led Democrats in the first six-month reporting period of 2009 with a $650,000 haul, while Herron was close behind.

Kyle said the decision to hold his announcement event in front of the university library named after Ned McWherter was not meant as a slight.

“I supported Ned McWherter for governor, and if he was running for governor today, I would not be,” Kyle said.

Kyle said he also doesn’t expect sour relations with Herron, with whom he shares an office suite at the legislative office complex in Nashville.

“I don’t think it’s awkward,” he said. “I think Roy and I respect each other, just as I respect all the other Democratic candidates.”

Comment by Michael Lipe on August 19, 2009 at 5:14pm

Kyle Announces for Governor, Promises a Focus on Higher Education

Memphis Flyer—August 12th, 2009

Ending a prolonged waiting period of some months, during which it became ever more obvious that state Senate Democratic leader Jim Kyle of Memphis intended to run for governor, Kyle made it formal on Tuesday, opening his campaign before a supportive crowd in front of the McWherter Library at the University of Memphis.
That structure was named, of course, for former governor Ned Ray McWherter, whose son Mike McWherter, a Jackson businessman, may be Kyle’s most formidable rival for the Democratic nomination.

That bit of symbolism no doubt figured in Kyle’s choice of venue, but so did the fact that candidate Kyle, whose son and three daughters were in attendance for his announcement, clearly intends to make a strong pitch for youthful voters. The part of his brief speech that won the most applause concerned the following promise to college students:

“So long as you are making sufficient progress towards obtaining your degree, we will never, never raise your tuition. What you pay as a freshman you will pay as a senior!” Kyle also promised to tap reserves from the state lottery fund to create “an incentive scholarship program” for students who, presumably for financial reasons, have had to interrupt their education.

In answer to questions from reporters, Kyle said that his plan for education would require some restructuring of the state budget, but he made no mention of needing to raise taxes. His only remark in that regard was a vow to veto any proposal for a state income tax, effectively reversing his position of 10 years ago when he was one of he supporters in the legislature for an income tax.

Explaining the reversal, Kyle, who has worked closely with Democratic governor Phil Bredesen, said, “Governor Bredesen convinced me it was wrong and showed me how to govern without it.”

Kyle, whose appearance was preceded on the dais by supportive remarks from both Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton and current city mayor pro tem Myron Lowery, was introduced by wife Sara Kyle, a member of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority who had previously won several elections as a Memphis city judge and as a member of the old Public Service Commission.

Numerous members of the legislature and other local political figures of consequence attended Kyle’s announcement. He has made no secret of the fact that his strategy for winning depends on beginning with a solid base of support in Shelby County.