Recently the former mayor of Knoxville Victor Ashe authored a hit on Congressman Tim Burchett. Of course this is not a new occurrence for the former mayor as he’s consistently targeted Rep. Burchett in the past four years.In this opinion piece Ashe declares that “Burchett wants you to think he’s working class, but he’s not.” Burchett is attacked for buying a farm in Knox County while receiving a pension from his time in the Tennessee General Assembly. What Ashe fails to mention is he is a triple-dipper. Ashe draws a pension from his 15 years in the Tennessee General Assembly, along with his pension from serving as Knoxville mayor for 16 years, and last but not least is his federal pension from his time as ambassador to Poland.Ashe is best known
for his annexation of the people’s land while mayor. He ruthlessly fought to force county residents' private property into the city to collect more tax revenue. Again it should be noted that while Burchett served as Knox County mayor he never raised taxes and actually fought tax increases from the County Commission.Voters need to ask themselves, why is the former city mayor attacking his onetime protege? The answer to that question is 1984. The former city mayor is jealous that Rep. Burchett may be appointed to fill Senator Marsha Blackburn’s Senate seat should she win in November. Ashe embarrassingly lost to Al Gore, receiving only 33.8% of the vote to Gore’s roughly 60.7%. Tim Burchett once told me, “If a leader takes off their tailor-made coat and rolls their sleeves up it says look at me, I'm one of you and I work hard. Don't believe it.” Tim Burchett is one of the people while Victor Ashe simply is not.
Kenny Collins, Maryville, 37804
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Consider why Victor Ashe is taking aim at Tim Burchett | Letter
