Ashe not impressed by Joe Carr being hired by Lee administration

Former state Rep. Joe Carr (R-Lascassas) announces his U.S. Senate bid in January 2013.

Color Victor Ashe unimpressed by Gov. Bill Lee’s hire of perennial candidate and former state Rep. Joe Carr (R-Lascassas) as an assistant commissioner paying $135,000 per year.

As a lawmaker, “Carr was seldom viewed as leadership material among his peers,” Ashe writes in the Knoxville Shopper News. “The appointment was almost universally greeted with eyes rolling.”

Ashe is a former Knoxville mayor and state Senator who was appointed ambassador to Poland by President George W. Bush.

“Time will tell how this works out,” Ashe writes about Carr. “Hopefully this is an exception in the caliber of appointments Lee makes.

“However, if Carr serves the 7½ years left in Lee’s possible two terms, his state pension will jump considerably with his six years in the legislature. It will go from $450 a month to over $2,000 a month, starting at age 55, because he is a retired lawmaker.”