Posts on “Bob Corker”
Critics Say Corker Broke Law for Land Deal
E-mails recently obtained by the Memphis Commercial Appeal are strengthening critics' charges that GOP Senate candidate Bob Corker used his position as mayor of Chattanooga to advance a land deal between Wal-Mart and one of his companies.
The deal has already brought Corker trouble this election: because of a lawsuit against his company, he'll be forced to testify about the deal on October 20, just three weeks before Election Day. Recent polls show Corker in a dead heat with Rep. Harold Ford (D-TN).
Corker's critics charge that as mayor, he illegally bypassed the city council in the final stages of selling a piece of land abutting a conservation easement. Osborne Enterprises, a Corker-owned company, planned to build a road through the easement, but could only do so if they obtained an approved "letter of intent" to donate the road to the city. According to the Commercial Appeal, the e-mails from this period show that the letter didn't receive the approval of the city’s Planning Council until months after the land deal had gone through and development had already begun. Furthermore, the "letter of intent" seems to have been processed almost two weeks after Osborne sold the land to Wal-Mart, for $4.6 million. It only passed through the Council in September.
Corker’s political director, Todd Womack, insists that Corker's actions are “above reproach."
GOP Senate Hopeful Gets Unwanted October Surprise?
In Tennessee, a new development in a three-year-old lawsuit may force new revelations out of the state's GOP Senate candidate, just weeks before the November election.
A judge today required Republican Senate candidate Bob Corker to testify and provide documents in response to a subpoena from a group of environmental activists with Democratic ties, who have filed suit over the former Chattanooga mayor's involvement in a questionable land development deal. Typically, such documents and testimony are public.
The judge ordered the information shared on Oct. 20 -- just three weeks before Tennessee voters are to decide whether he or Democrat Harold Ford Jr. will represent them in Congress. The two candidates are in a statistical dead heat, according to a new Wall Street Journal/Zogby poll.
