Wamp's son went straight to PR firm

Zach Wamp's son Weston is talking openly and matter-of-factly about his role in his father's campaign for governor.

Nothing to hide, from Weston Wamp's perspective, very much in line with father Zach's response to a recent report that laid out ties between the nonprofit Tennessee Valley Corridor economic development organization and AkinsCrisp Public Strategies, which also handles Zach Wamp's gubernatorial campaign.

Weston Wamp works for AkinsCrisp in the campaign. On a typical day, he can be found at the state campaign headquarters in Nashville, as he works as e-communications director, he said.

On Saturday, Weston Wamp, 23, was at the opening of his father's campaign office in downtown Knoxville. U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, from Chattanooga, is involved in a three-way battle for the Republican nomination against Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey of Blountville.

"It was no strategic decision about why I would work there as opposed to directly for the campaign, except I started last summer and just even concerns about carryover of health care it was the simplest for me to go straight to work for a reputable existing company," Weston Wamp said.

"At that time, the campaign didn't even have any full-time employees."

Weston Wamp was a communications major at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

"Both John Crisp and Darrell Akins had taken interest in bringing me on board for the campaign and then even the possibility of re-evaluating later on my own merit, and in the meantime serving primarily in an e-communications role with the campaign."

Zach Wamp told reporters of Weston Wamp's role when the candidate was asked about a story in the Nashville City Paper last week that reported AkinsCrisp's role in doing work for the Tennessee Valley Corridor as well as the Wamp campaign. Wamp said his son works for AkinsCrisp, which has contracted with the campaign.

"There are now a couple of employees at AkinsCrisp who spend, at this point, 100 percent of our time working for the campaign through AkinsCrisp, because they're a contractor of the campaign, and they're a contractor to manage all the communications," Weston Wamp said.

"My part of that is e-communications. Obviously, I end up serving a few different roles, including surrogate. And a lot of times I sort of go off and in that surrogate role I'm more of a son than an employee. That's certainly after-hours, a lot of times til midnight."

Weston Wamp frequently speaks for his father at campaign events when Zach Wamp is unable to attend.

Weston Wamp said in his duties as e-communications director he manages the Web site, a "pretty robust" e-mail program, all social media, and he has played a role in the production of television ads, he said.

"That's kind of my newest role, kind of a liaison between the campaign and the production company," he said.

When asked for specifics about his Web site management, Weston Wamp said, "I have not programmed it, because I'm not a programmer. I work with our team. I'm sort of the intermediary between the campaign and our Web consulting firm."

Zach Wamp told reporters his son works for AkinsCrisp, saying there was a partnership there and that he needed his son engaged and learning their business.

Zach Wamp triggered a clash with the Haslam campaign when he blamed the City Paper story on politics and said somewhere along the way Darrell Akins of AkinsCrisp "made Tom Ingram mad." Ingram is a key consultant in the Haslam campaign.

"That's either sour grapes or smear politics or both coming together and should be completely discounted and rejected because it's just kind of gutter politics," Zach Wamp said. "Somebody's got an ax to grind with AkinsCrisp, and that's really unfortunate. They're a very credible firm."

Bill Haslam was asked Saturday if he had any prior knowledge of the City Paper story. He said no.