Tim Rudd

Rep. Tim Rudd: (R) Chair, Elections and Campaign Finance Subcommittee. Rep. Tim Rudd’s vote score of 80% places him in the top 17% of 99 members of the House. It was a tough year; no one earned 100%.

Rudd lost points on a couple of election bills. As chair of House Campaigns & Elections sub, he thinks he know best. The two bills TLRC scored that Rudd dissented:

• HB1201/SB1005 – Changes in campaign finance making it harder to defeat incumbents.  (Rudd supported; we opposed)
• HB2067/SB2189  Would reduce number of votes necessary to keep a minor party on ballot.  (We supported; Rudd opposed).

Credit goes to Rep. Rudd for opposing a bill that passed into law, giving the Ford Motor Company $678,218,300 of taxpayer money to build an electric vehicle plant in West Tennessee. Rudd refrained from voting on a couple of other corporate welfare handouts:

• HB2609 extending an 80% tax break to the Cincinnati Reds’ farm team in Chattanooga
• HB2886/SB2901  Provides $500M for Titans to build new stadium

We oppose corporate welfare in all forms so feel he should have voted no but appreciate that he did not support. Our state government should not be giving economic advantages to any public or private entities. Leave the economics to the free market.

Rudd sponsored a bill that would require school boards to allow thirty minutes at their regular meetings for public comment with the suggestion that up to ten people could speak three minutes each. Unfortunately, it did not pass.

Rudd earned a respectable forty-four points under leadership, giving him an A- and putting him in sixteenth place.