JC Press: Former Rep. Bob Patton Warns Voters About Extremist Neo-Con Money Behind Rep. Matthew Hill

An excellent article, "Patton has his say - Ex-representative offers thoughts on party politics" written by Ben Ingram was featured in this morning's edition (September 17, 2006) of the Johnson City Press and provided some seemingly bottled-up insight by former State Rep. Bob Patton to the extreme right detour of Republican Party politics that has been underway here in Northeast Tennessee since late 2003. Patton was defeated by Matthew Hill following not a so-friendly and expensive media attack launched by the Hill Tribe during the 2004 primary election for the Tennessee 7th House District seat in Washington County:

Patton has his say - Ex-representative offers thoughts on party politics
By Ben Ingram
Press Staff Writer
bingram@johnsoncitypress.com

Former 7th District State Rep. Bob Patton isn’t letting this election year slip by without getting a word in. And that word seems to be coming at the expense of some in his own party.

Labeling himself a middle-of-the-road Republican, Patton said he wants voters in Northeast Tennessee to realize that far right Republicans are buying their way into office while leaving the real issues affecting this state behind.

“These far right candidates are mostly rich people who are brainwashing the general public because they have money,” said Patton, who wouldn’t disclose any particular legislators. “This is very dangerous, and these are dangerous people.

“The far right wants everyone to vote the same way — I felt that my votes should reflect what best benefits my constituents.”

Patton says some current Republican legislators are more about politics — voting the party line, not representing the voters that elected them.

“This nation was built on consensus, and they forget that,” he said. “We’re causing a gap between the rich and the poor if we don’t look at broader issues.

“God wants unity, not uniformity. The far right wants uniformity in the name of religion.”

Though Patton, who said he has no plans to run again, says Christians need to be in the political realm, they also need issues.

“I can’t just say I’m a Christian and run for office,” Patton said. “I tried to be a good Christian legislator with good issues.”

[...]

Patton added that a legislator should know more than the people he/she represents, therefore they should learn as much as possible.

According to Patton, other factors that led to him not being re-elected was his stance on a state income tax, which he said 48 percent of his constituency wanted; lies about him being pro-choice, which he says he’s not; the tremendous amount of money put into the [Matthew] Hill campaign and the fact Towne Acres, what Patton considered his best precinct, was taken out of his district.

“My own party did me in,” he said. “Democrats always laugh at Republicans because they say they eat their own, which I learned the hard way.

“At the end of the day, I know that I made good votes for 10 years and brought money home.”

Money, Patton says, is not coming back to Washington County and there have been no new roads for two years — since he lost his re-election bid.

“People have noticed,” he said. “And you must have the ability to work with people.

“The only reason we got the pharmacy school was because the governor was convinced that this was a good place for it — not because of anything the far right did.”

[...]

I think that Patton should have been a little more descriptive and used the pharse "shadowy special interest PAC groups representing a group of individuals tied particular pharmaceutical/investment company in Bristol, Tennessee" somewhere within his interview with Ingram.