The World According to Oatney

Mike Faulk-the almost candidate

Mike Faulk was an extremely gracious and co-operative person to interview. I can understand why he told me shortly before we began the interview that he was glad to do it, partly because he needed the practice-he strikes me as a normally quiet and reserved person. I may be somewhat wrong on that score, but I say this because he seems less outspoken than I am.

I believe he will make a good candidate because even when I asked him a very obvious question-whether he thought Mike Williams' vote for Ron Ramsey at the beginning of the 105th General Assembly was a sincere one-he refused to put down his opponent even then. Mike Faulk will run a clean campaign.

Faulk's resume is impressive. In government service alone he has served as a Hawkins County Commissioner from 1998-2002, as well as a Hawkins County Juvenile Court Referee (1986-89), and as City Attorney for the Town of Mt. Carmel and the City of Church Hill (1990-2003, 1994-2002). Most notably, perhaps, Faulk served as Vice Chairman of the Tennessee Human Rights Commission from 1985-91. This is a point on his resume that I took careful notice of since I am a person with a disability.

Mike seems a genuine sort of character. One of the things that most impressed me when interviewing him was his blunt honesty. If Mike Faulk doesn't know the answer or he doesn't have one he plainly told me "I do not know." He did not attempt to hedge around the question with political-speak-if he had an answer he gave it, and if he did not he didn't try to make one up.

If there were any aspect of Mike's position that I was a bit disappointed with, it was the fact that I fully expected a much harder line on illegal immigration than what he seemed willing to take. This may be as much from a genuine frustration about how the State should deal with the issue, as opposed to a lack of desire to do anything about it.

I want to caution listeners that the audio is spotty on Mike Faulk's end of the conversation and I am not sure why-I suspect he was on a cell phone and it may simply have had some signal issues. Even with that, however, you can easily get the gyst of everything Faulk is saying.


Oatney On the Air-January 17, 2006 with guest potential Fourth District State Senate Candidate Mike Faulk

Labels: Radio show, Tennessee politics

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 3:43 PM