News Sentinel endorses Ashley Nickloes for GOP nomination for Congress

Knoxville

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With no one named John J. Duncan running for the Second Congressional seat for the first time in more than half a century, it’s not surprising there’s a hot race for the GOP nomination in this heavily Republican district.

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett has been carrying the frontrunner mantle. His constituents make up almost 64 percent of the district, and he has proven quite popular in recent elections, winning 85 percent of the primary and 88 percent of the general election vote in 2010, the last time he faced an opponent.

His highest-profile opposition has come from state Rep. Jimmy Matlock, a well-known Loudon County businessman who was first elected to the legislature in 2006.

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Also running a vigorous campaign has been Jason Emert, a Blount County lawyer and consultant.

Rounding out the field are a group of candidates who have military experience and are citing those credentials. Hank Hamblin, Vito Sagliano and David Stansberry are running low-budget campaigns. But Ashley Nickloes has separated herself from the pack, both in fundraising and visibility.

Burchett has never lost

Burchett, 53, son of a well-known Knoxville educator, has never lost since first being elected to the state House in 1994 just a few weeks shy of his 30th birthday. Before that, he'd assisted in local Republican campaigns after graduating from the University of Tennessee, and he spent a couple of years running a company that composted city waste until it ran into problems with inspections, protests by neighbors and accusations of political favoritism.

Burchett quickly made headlines in the House with a bill that required open doors at adult peep shows to deter anonymous sex, and he pushed to repeal the motorcycle helmet law, an issue to which he would return in later sessions.

Burchett announces run for United States Congress Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett announces his candidacy for U.S. Congress at the Vol Market #3 on Western Avenue, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017.

After two terms, he handily won election to the state Senate and soon drew national attention with his “road kill bill” that allowed consuming wild animals struck by motor vehicles.

In the Senate, he mostly hewed to the Republican Party line, opposing an income tax, but when the GOP first gained a majority, he voted to retain Democrat John Wilder as lieutenant governor, honoring a longstanding, inter-party conservative alliance.

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As mayor, Burchett has further burnished his conservative credentials, fending off a push to raise taxes and cutting the county’s debt while increasing school funding and building schools and a senior center.

He's been a champion of open government, pushing in the legislature to disclose the fees of government-hired defense attorneys and the records of campus crimes. As mayor, he wrote an influential letter supporting free inspection of public records, and recently he changed Knox County policy to let citizens use cellphones to make copies.

Questions about personal dealing

Burchett’s weak spot has been in drawing a bright line between personal and public interests.

He has repeatedly been careless in reporting campaign contributions, most noticeably in his first race for mayor when more than $20,000 made its way into his and his now-ex-wife’s joint household checking account. During that same race, developer John Turley supplied paychecks for Burchett’s campaign manager, and after the election, a road benefiting Turley was pushed through and Burchett explored a personal real estate deal with the developer.

Burchett hired a former fraternity brother to be county finance director, only to have to fire him a short while later after discovering he was facing criminal charges. While a senator, he accepted a $10,000 “finder’s fee” from a company without revealing it on his disclosure forms, and his stepson (Burchett is remarried and has three stepchildren) used the mayor as a reference to land a job with Knox County, despite a nepotism ban.

In Washington, D.C., awash in money, such a propensity could prove damaging, if not fatal, as U.S. Rep. John Duncan Jr. has seen with the disclosure that he has used campaign funds to support his son.

As of the latest Federal Election Commission reports, Burchett had raised $588,000 in individual contributions, the most of any candidate in the race.

Matlock stepped in when dad died

Matlock, 59, attended Middle Tennessee State University and the University of Tennessee. When his father died he focused on running and expanding the tire business Joe Matlock founded in 1952.

He stuck a toe into politics as early as 1999, helping with a visit by conservative presidential candidate Gary Bauer, then in 2006, he successfully ran for the legislature, earning a reputation as a serious and gentlemanly lawmaker.

His reputation for open government, however, didn’t match Burchett’s. In 2011, he sponsored a bill backed by the bankers’ association that would have cut back on the publication of foreclosure notices, a measure strongly opposed by the newspaper association.

In 2015, House Speaker Beth Harwell appointed him to chair the Transportation Committee, but the following year he surprised many by announcing he would challenge Harwell for the speakership.

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That fall he missed a special session called to address a possible loss of federal highway funds — an issue relevant to his committee — as well as the divisive issue of expelling Rep. Jeremy Durham for sexual misconduct. Matlock said he had a business trip scheduled.

He then lost his bid for the speakership, and his committee chairmanship.

Matlock announced his bid for Congress last year, saying he was running as a “traditional constitutionalist with East Tennessee values, which means "love of God, love of country are still at the forefront."

In this year’s legislative session, he sponsored a bill that directed the state’s finance director to seek a waiver from the federal government so TennCare could bar health service providers such as Planned Parenthood from receiving payments.

Duncan, who has been on bad terms with Burchett, endorsed Matlock, describing him as “one of the finest men I have ever known.” He and his wife have three children, and his oldest son is stepping into the family business.

In 2009, he published a letter in the News Sentinel calling for civility in public discourse, but in this heated campaign, his mailers have turned vicious, including one featuring doctored photos making it appear as though Burchett has his arm around Barack Obama and has Hillary Clinton whispering in his ear as he stuffs cash in his jacket.

Matlock has raised $506,000 in individual contributions and loaned his campaign $175,000.

Emert loans self $320,000

Emert has contributed even more heavily to his own campaign. He has received about $83,000 in contributions but has donated more than $29,000 of his own money and loaned his campaign $320,000.

This is a pattern he followed in an earlier unsuccessful race for House District 13 in 2014, when he loaned his primary campaign more than $74,000 and also made more than $50,000 in direct contributions. He got in trouble with the Registry of Election Finance after that race for failing to file a final report.

Emert, 34, grew up in Blount County, where he and his wife now live, and began his political work in high school. After graduating from Southern Illinois University, he earned an MBA from the University of Louisiana and a law degree from the University of Miami School of Law. He’s been admitted to the Florida bar.

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He worked in his family’s medical supply business and with Coast to Coast Strategies, which helps corporate clients with planning, political intelligence and access, among other services.

Emert also has been active in the Young Republicans, and last year was elected chairman of the Young Republicans National Federation.

Nickloes from family of U.S. pilots

Of the remaining candidates, Nickloes stands out.

She comes from a Scott County family. Her maternal grandfather was a bomber pilot in World War II who died in the South Pacific, never knowing the daughter who would become Nickloes’s mother.

Her father, too, was a pilot, serving in the Tennessee Air National Guard and for a while flying for U.S. Sen. Howard Baker Jr.

Nickloes grew up in North Carolina, earned bachelor’s degrees in history and in communications, with a minor in German, at Appalachian State University and moved to Germany to continue her studies. She returned to the U.S. and worked as a flight attendant for United Airlines while becoming a pilot herself.

Eventually, she followed her roots to East Tennessee and joined her father’s old National Guard unit as a pilot. She has since had five deployments to the Middle East and risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Her husband is a trauma surgeon and professor at the University of Tennessee Medical Center and a 22-year veteran himself. They have four surviving children, ages 8-14, and a fifth they lost.

She now is pursuing a master’s degree in military operations and looks at issues as operational challenges. For example, she believes the opioid epidemic should be addressed at its roots by educating consumers, holding drug companies accountable and finding alternative treatments for pain, as well as treating those who already are addicted.

Limited government, strong military

Nickloes, 45, says she was drawn to the Republican Party because of her belief in limited government and a strong military, and she decided to run for Congress after traveling to Washington, D.C., and finding a dismissive attitude and ignorance of the nation’s global situation.

She has raised $101,000 in individual contributions and $39,000 in committee donations and has been endorsed by Winning with Women and by With Honor, as well as by some sitting congresswomen.

Her priorities in life are faith, family and service.

It’s clear that Nickloes has defined service much differently in her life than have her leading opponents.

Burchett has embraced politics and public service since early adulthood. Matlock did the same at midlife, after a career building a business. Emert, so far, has not gotten past politicking to governing.

Nickloes, however, has laid her life on the line for her country — repeatedly — while also developing broad knowledge of the nation and the world, as a student, a traveler, a flyer, a military leader, a wife, a mother and, by choice and heritage, an East Tennessean.

The News Sentinel recommends her for the Republican nomination for Congress from Tennessee’s Second Congressional District.