Trading Up: Phil Roe Is Best For Congress

In his short time in Congress, David Davis has made a name for himself as a strident partisan and a dedicated servant of special interests.

Need an earmark or a special favor? He’s your man. He has not, however, served his district well.

Voters have the opportunity to trade up on Aug. 7 by casting their ballots for Phil Roe, a pragmatic conservative with a record of accomplishments as Johnson City’s mayor. They should make the swap.

The third candidate in the primary, Michael “Mahmood” Sabri, is an intelligent, sincere individual, but this is really a two-man race.

It also is an opportunity that may not come again. If Davis wins the Republican primary, he is almost certain to win the general election in the fall. This quite likely will mean the region will limp along with his subpar representation for a decade or more.

East Tennessee cannot afford such a scenario. The 1st Congressional District lags behind the nation in education, health and income. Davis seems blind to the challenges facing his constituents; he’s more interested in fighting the Democrats than in working for bipartisan solutions to the nation’s problems.

In fact, Congress.org, a private, non-partisan group, just ranked Davis as one of the least influential members of Congress, and the least powerful member of the Tennessee congressional delegation. Davis ranks 430th out of 435 House members. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., ranks 32nd out of 100 U.S. senators.

Although Davis has been a lackluster congressman, this isn’t an anybody-but-Davis endorsement. The Bristol Herald Courier’s editorial board was genuinely impressed with Roe, even though his views are more conservative (and less centrist) on some matters than our own.

A key point in Roe’s favor is his refusal to accept money from special interests. This is in sharp contrast to Davis, who has raised more than half of his money from political action committees. In at least one instance, Davis requested an earmark for a company that gave generously to his campaign. Just whose interest is he serving?

Returning to Roe, his efforts to trim spending and reduce waste on a small scale in Johnson City are worth noting. On his watch, the city installed LED bulbs in its traffic lights, traded some of its gas-guzzling SUVs and full-size sedans for Priuses and found a way to tap methane gas in the city landfill to heat the local Veterans Administration facility. These kinds of outside-the-box solutions are sorely lacking in Washington.

Roe isn’t just a pragmatist searching for common sense solutions. He’s a true fiscal conservative. He correctly identifies the nation’s crushing debt and its profligate spending as one of its principal problems.

“The way the U.S. government’s budget is run is a travesty,” Roe explained to our editorial board. “My grandchildren will be paying off the debt ... and there’s no accountability.”

Roe promises to invest in infrastructure, restrain government spending on unnecessary programs and to pursue a balanced budget. As a retired physician, he also wants to improve access to health care and start a nationwide crusade to increase physical fitness and reduce obesity, particularly among children. He favors nuclear power as a solution to the nation’s energy crisis, and wants to see the permitting process streamlined.

We’d love to contrast these positions with Davis’ stances, but he refused to be interviewed or even fill out a simple questionnaire. Clearly, he doesn’t want to expose his true thoughts to the voters. Alarm bells should be ringing.

The 1st District needs a thoughtful congressman who can work well with others regardless of party affiliation, not a bought-and-paid-for-shill for various special interests.

Roe is the one. We call on all voters – Republicans, Democrats and independents – to cast their ballots for him in the Republican primary on Aug. 7.