Calfee would move on Tiger Haven

Republican state representative candidate Kent Calfee is vowing to move legislation in Nashville for the Roane County Commission if elected.

“If they ask me to, I will,” he said.

District 32 state Rep. Julia Hurley, Calfee’s opponent in the Aug. 2 Republican primary, said it’s misleading to make those kind of declarations.

“Saying you’re going to do something and being able to do it are two different things,” she said.

The state House of Representatives has 99 members, and Hurley said you never know how others are going to react to proposed legislation.

“All you can promise is to do your best,” she said.

Hurley said that’s what she did on a resolution the commission sent in 2011 asking her to sponsor legislation that would have required tracking devices for animals housed at Tiger Haven.

Commissioners expressed frustration because she didn’t sponsor it in the House.

Hurley said she spoke with leaders on the House Conservation and Environment Committee about the  tracking-device proposal.

“They said we’re not passing this the way it is, so you can go back to your county commission and tell them it’s not passing, or you can go back to your county commission and tell them you passed something,” she said.   

Hurley did sponsor a bill that allows Roane County Executive Ron Woody to designate someone from the sheriff’s office or emergency management to accompany the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency on inspections of Tiger Haven.

“That’s what I went with because that’s what would pass,” she said.

The governor signed the bill into law on May 30, 2011.

Hurley hasn’t always been in agreement with her county commissioners. Last year they passed a resolution asking Hurley to sponsor and/or support legislation in the General Assembly to keep Roane County a single House district.

Despite their request, Hurley eventually voted in favor of the redistricting plan that split Roane County into separate House districts. Hurley said she voted for the plan because she was elected as a conservative, and the new district lines will help the conservative cause.

Calfee also insists he’s a conservative. When asked what he would do in a situation where his conservative position conflicted with the commission, Calfee said that wouldn’t be an issue.

“We’ll try to work that out,” he said. “I spent 20 years down there on the commission and I don’t think they’d send me anything that I couldn’t work with, but if they do, we’ll address that between me and the commission.”