![[Valid RSS]](/images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
« Did I Hear You Correctly? | Home | Herron Wins Sullivan Straw Poll »
November 15, 2009
Coffee with the Candidate: Kim McMillan
I recently sat down for a brief interview with former legislator and governor's adviser Kim McMillan, who is running to replace her onetime boss, Gov. Phil Bredesen. (Due to an equipment user malfunction, this interview was not recorded via audio, but only by handwritten notes.)
First things first: the coffee. I had an iced latte from Chattz on Market Street. I didn't ask what was in Ms. McMillan's mug, but I assume it was coffee made in the office where she was camping out for the day, a few doors down from Chattz.
I asked McMillan what she thought set her apart from the rest of the candidates running, and she said that she is the candidate that listens. She has been to all but a few of Tennessee's 95 counties, and she has been seeking input from the people wherever she goes.
So, what are they saying? I asked. Her reply was that education ranked first among citizen concerns, with jobs being a very close second. She then indicated that not much has changed along those lines since she was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1994, with the exception that perhaps people are realizing to a greater degree just how inseparable those two topics are.
I wanted to know whether she would focus most on K-12 education, or higher ed (including community colleges), or pre-Kindergarten; she said that all were of pretty much equal priority. She praised the Tennessee SCORE group led by Bill Frist, M.D., a former U.S. Senate Majority leader, and pointed to its final report as a worthy input to the education reform that, many say, the state desperately needs. To McMillan, measuring the success of higher education (i.e., graduation and job placement) is just as important as making sure children have access to pre-K.
I then asked how she was that much different than a couple of her opponents on this issue, since I have been hearing a lot of education talk from Sen. Jim Kyle (a fellow Democrat) and Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam (a Republican), among others. She cited her upbringing—both of her parents are former educators—as well as her tenure in the state House, where she sponsored legislation and got it passed (such as the 2005 pre-K expansion bill, of which Kyle was the Senate sponsor), and where she made sure that education was a priority in every budget; and the fact that she worked closely with Gov. Bredesen on education issues while a member of his Cabinet.
McMillan ended by saying that we should not be defeatist about our ranking (after I brought it up), but that we should focus on what is working well, and improve upon the rest.
I had brought a couple of reader-submitted questions with me, and we moved on to those. First, someone asked McMillan to name one thing she would do differently than Gov. Bredesen has in his two terms. Not surprisingly, I didn't get a specific answer on this one. Bredesen is a popular Democrat in an increasingly Republican-dominated state, so to be a Democrat and start pointing out his weaknesses is simply not done. She said that the issues facing the next governor will be different than those that he has faced, and that his business management skills made him the right person for the job at the time he ran. Sidestep=complete.
The second question was what role McMillan thinks gender plays in this campaign. She is, after all, the only woman running for governor (Ed. note: besides June Griffin, whom most observers write off). Were she to win next November, McMillan would become the state's first female governor. However, she said, she is "not running to be in the history books." She feels that she has the experience and know-how to get things done, and that the unique status her gender would provide is a bonus, much like President Barack Obama's race vis-à-vis his qualifications. She doesn't know that being a woman gives her any more advantage than her being the youngest of the major candidates provides her any inroads to the youth vote.
Since our schedules were cramped, the Kim McMillan campaign has agreed to have her answer some additional questions via e-mail. So, what else would you like to know?
TN Gubernatorial Elections | By joe lance | 9:09 PM
