Ketron: Lee is ‘good man’ to lead Tenn. for 8 years

State Sen. Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro) speaks on the Senate floor on Feb. 26, 2018. (Erik Schelzig, Tennessee Journal)

State Sen. Bill Ketron says he expects Franklin businessman Bill Lee to lead Tennessee for the next two gubernatorial terms.

Ketron, who is running for Rutherford County mayor, made the comments about Lee  at a campaign town hall on Tuesday. Ketron is the Senate Republican Caucus chairman, the same position that gubernatorial candidate Diane Black held before she was elected to Congress in 2010.

“You have a good man here that I feel, in my personal opinion, that will lead us for the next eight years: Bill Lee,” Ketron said at the event.

Ketron noted that there will be a vast reduction in institutional memory given the raft of retirements in the General Assembly. He told Lee he could take advantage of that “void.”

“Now’s a great time for you to come in. Fresh ideas. Push back on those bureaucrats, our state employees — all due respect, but they get entrenched. So now’s a great time for you to come in and do what’s best for this state.”

Lee faces Black, Randy Boyd, and Beth Harwell in Thursday’s gubernatorial primary.