An evening at the Charles Williamson uninhabitable barn

The uninhabitable barn

Tonight I enjoyed a bean supper event at the ranch of Charles Williamson in rural Goodlettsville. Charles is running for the State House in District 50. The event was in Charles's "uninhabitable" "barn." Friends and supporters of Charles's enjoyed good food, conversation and good music.

Wow! The barn did not look nor smell like any barn I have been in before. It is a large attractive brick structure.  The event was in the upstairs of the barn in a large vaulted rustic space with exposed brick and wood paneling.
 

Charles Williamson speaks to supporters

What should be an unimportant foot note in this race between Charles Williamson and his liberal opponent has unfortunately dominated much of the recent campaign. The contest between Williamson and his opponent should be about ideas but Willamson's opponent wants to keep talking about Williamson's barn.

In a nutshell, here is what all of the controversy is about: Charles moved back to the "barn" on his bison ranch where he had previously lived and he registered to vote at that address and he listed that address on his campaign filings with the election commission.

It turns out that the residence was never approved as a home. Construction permits were legally filed more than a decade ago and the structure passed all inspections but the construction permits were never properly closed out and an occupancy permit was never issue. Now, codes will not issue an occupancy permit because the property may be in an unmapped flood plain. In the May 2010 flood the property did not flood and no one knows of the property having ever flooded.

Charles Willliamson, Governor Winfield Dunn and
5th Congressional candidate Brad Staats

Charles could have engineering studies done and pursue a lengthy, costly and time consuming effort to get the permits issued. Instead, he purchased another home in his district, a one-bedroom condo in Bellevue. The election commission has no problem with what has occurred but what should be a non-issue will not die.

His opponent has made all kinds of wild accusations claiming Williamson does not respect the hard work of the codes department and somehow claiming that the actions of Williamson is an insult to the victims of the 2010 flood. How he makes that leap in logic I do not know but The Tennessean is helping him in beating a dead horse.

I had a pleasant conversation with Carol Swain.
We discussed the premier her new TV talk show "Be the People"
based on her book of the same title.

To combat this campaign diversion and smear campaign by his opponent and The Tennessean, Charles needs lots of help. If you would like to help Charles, he needs people to make phone calls, help with door-to-door campaigning and contributions and more. To contribute or volunteer, go to Charles Williamson State Representative.

The Nashvegas Ramblers

About 300 people attended the event tonight. Among the guest was Governor Winfield Dunn and his wife Betty. Carol M. Swain, professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University and TV talk show host made opening remarks and introduced Grammy award winning singer-songwriter Gary Chapman who led the crowd in singing the national anthem.

Following the national anthem, a musician played a moving rendition of Amazing Grace on bag pipes. Charles Williamson then made remarks briefly addressing the controversy about his uninhabitable barn and thanking everyone for their support.

Throughout the evening we were entertained by the bluegrass music of The Nashvegas Ramblers.

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