Jeffery Washburn

I am a resident of Dresden, Tennessee and currently serve as Mayor for the City of Dresden. I am an attorney at law and a small business owner. I also am a member of Bible Union Baptist Church and currently service Music Director for the church. I believe that experience as a businessman, attorney, and service as an elected Mayor for a small town makes me uniquely qualified to serve as State Representative for the 76th Dist of Tennessee. If elected, I will place the issues and concerns of the 76th District first and foremost. The citizens of this district will be my boss and I will a representative who pays attention to the needs of this District.

• Jobs & Economic Development: Rural West Tennesseans need good jobs at good wages. Too many hard-working Tennesseans are struggling to provide for their families. Far too many have been left out and left behind. As your State Representative, I will work to bring new employers, industries, and jobs to our District.
• Education: Our children are our future. Every single child in Tennessee, regardless of their zip code, deserves an opportunity to succeed. I will work hand-in-hand with teachers to meet the challenges they face in the classroom and make sure they have the resources our children need. Our teachers deserve to be treated and compensated like the professionals they are. And I will make sure teachers and parents can help our children without government bureaucrats in Nashville interfering with our schools.
• Health Care: Tennessee is one of only 14 states that refused federal funds to expand Medicaid, leaving hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans without health insurance. Almost three-fourths of the states, including Indiana when Vice-President Mike Pence was governor, have accepted the federal funds. If we don't take the money, Tennesseans will pay taxes for other states to get health care, but too many of our men and women will do without. No one's parent or child should die because the local hospital closed. Yet recently hospitals in McKenzie and six other rural West Tennessee towns have closed. Tennessee is losing more hospit

Economic Development, Education, and Health Care.

There are many persons who I look up to, but one of the most influential in my life was our former County Mayor Houston Patrick, Mayor Patrick set a good Christian example for all in the way that he lived his life and based upon his love and kindness to his fellow citizens of our county. His shoes would be very difficult to fill, but he set an example that inspired me to be a better Christian and made me aspire to follow his example of service to mankind. As a politican, I also look up to former State Representative and Governor Ned Ray McWherter based upon his ability to bring the difference sides of political debates together and reach compromises that resulted in real solutions to the problems facing the state.

As an Independent candidate, my political philosophy incorporates portions of the beliefs of both of the major political parties. I do not know of any particular book that accurately reflects my personal political philosophy Very possibly the book Crossing the Aisle by Keel Hunt closely reflects my philosophy on how to be a legislator or governor able to work with both sides and achieve tangible results.

Elected officials should be listening to their constituents and represent and serve their respective districts first and foremost! Elected officials should be individuals of high integrity and morals who bring honor and respect to the office that they hold. Elected officials should study each piece of legislation before them to insure that they know what they are voting on and what the impact will be to the citizens of their district.

Ability to listen to and communicate with fellow legislators and work to achieve unity among various members of a legislative group. Very knowledgeable of governmental finance and how to balance budgets within the revenues available. I welcome and appreciate citizen input in matters pending before city government and will do likewise as a member of the Tennessee House of Represenatives.

The core responsibility is to represent the citizens of their district in governing as a State Representative in Nashville.

I would like to leave a legacy that I was an office holder that had his district and citizens at heart and worked each and every day to better their lives and ability to make a decent living wage in the 76th District.

The first big historical event that I recall was the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy on November 22, 1973. I was in the third grade at the time and I recall that our school principal came on the school intercom and made the somber announcement that President Kennedy had been assassinated. On the day of President Kennedy's funeral, my aunt who was my cousin and my Cub Scout den leader had us dress in our Cub Scout uniform and stand at attention before the television as the funeral procession moved toward Arlington National Cemetery. I have since visited Kennedy's grave site at Arlington several times to pay my respects.

My very first job was working in the newspaper business. My family owned two weekly newspapers in Northwest Tennessee and I went to work in the family business first when I was nine years old and then began work when I was 13 years of age in the print shop. I moved from my hometown of McKenzie in February 1974 to serve as managing editor of the Dresden Enterprise. I retired from the family newspaper business in September 2019. I worked in the newspaper business for over 50 years.

The Tennessee House of Representative is currently comprises 99 house districts across the state. Each House district is comprised of approximately 64,000 residents. The House is the most representative of the two chambers of the Tennessee Legislature based upon the smaller house districts and larger number of Representatives who serve. Members of the Tennessee House of Representatives serve two year terms. The Tennessee Senate is comprised of 33 districts with one State Senator elected from each district. State Senators serve four year terms with one-half of the Senators being elected every two years. With fewer members, the Tennessee Senate is prone to have less debate and a more expeditious review of pending legislation.

I believe that it is good and beneficial for state legislators to have had previous experience in the operations of government and parliamentary procedure. As a former city alderman and current Mayor of the City of Dresden, I have obtained a significant amount of experience in interacting with state agencies and exposure to state regulations. I personally believe this experience as an elected city official has provided invaluable experience that can be used to be a good State Representative.

I believe that the Tennessee must find ways to insure that our local community hospitals continue to operate and provide our residents with health care services close to home. Tennessee must find ways to insure that economic development and infrastructure development is distributed evenly across the state in order that all citizens of Tennessee have the ability to make a living wage and good job opportunities. Without a doubt, Education and funding of our schools remains a real challenge in our state. Teachers need to be treated and compensation like the professionals that they are.

The Governor of Tennessee should propose state budgets and legislation that is reasonable and fair for all citizens of this state and which has great potential for receiving bi-partisan support in the state legislature. I would personally like to see more cooperation between the Governor and members of the legislature in developing and passing legislation that is supported by the majority of Tennesseeans. The governor and the legislature need to work to end the disconnect that the citizens of Tennessee feel exists between them and the elected representatives.

It is absolutely beneficial to build relationships with other legislators in order to improve communications among the various members of the legislature and to help end the legislative gridlock that exists in Nashville and Washington.

I favor a process that follows natural boundaries and one that is not intended to unfairly seek to section off citizens or voting blocks to favor either political party or insure the election of candidates from a specific political party. We need to insure that we have districts that insure that the citizens of each district are fairly represented in our State Legislature.

The current committees that I would have a particular interest in serving on based upon my current knowledge and experience would include the Local Government, Education, Health, and Judiciary committess.

As a new member of the legislature and as an independent, I would not be eligible to serve in a particular party's leadership. However, I would be interested in meeting and communicating with the leadership of both parties to learn about the goals of each party and how proposed legislation would be beneficial to the citizens of the state and particularly to the residents of the 76th House District.

I personally knew Speaker Ned Ray McWherter when he served in the House of Representatives and later as Governor for the state for eight years. If there was any recent legislator who I would want to model myself after, it would would be Governor McWherter particularly when he was speaker of the house because of his ability to bring the parties together to achieve real progress for the State of Tennessee with bi-partisan support.

I do not have an interest in running for a different political office in the future. My primary focus as a candidate for State Representative of the 76th District of Tennessee to represent my constituents to the best of my ability for no more than eight years, and probably less, and then step aside from government service.

I hear many personal stories about inability to pay for healthcare and being unable to have access to healthcare. Some of those stories are heartbreaking. I also hear stories from our teachers about how they are unable to effectively teach their students because of having to teach a test that their students are required to take. I also hear stories about excellent teachers leaving the profession because of government interference. I have talked to a number of those teachers who have told me that they loved teaching, but that the hurdles they were required to jump through had become too much. This certainly impacts me when I realize that government interference in our public schools and lack of fair compensation to our state public school teachers is actually detrimental our system of public education as our best and brightest are leaving the profession of teaching.. Touching-yes! Memorable-yes! Impactful-without a doubt!