Blackburn funds attack site targeting independent rival Hatley

NASHVILLE — The Marsha Blackburn for Governor campaign is listed as the financier behind a website attacking Carter County native and independent candidate for governor Dave Hatley. The site focuses on Hatley's past criminal conviction for bank fraud in the 1990s, for which he served a month in federal prison. The header is a Trumpian moniker, denoting Hatley as "Deadbeat Dave." "David Hatley isn't just a businessman with a checkered past. He's a convicted felon," the website reads. "Tennessee cannot afford a felon running the state." Edited photos on the site depict Hatley in a black and white-striped prison jumpsuit. Playing in the background of the webpage is the Jamaican reggae song "Bad Boys" by Inner Circle. Six Rivers Media reached out to U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn's, R-Tenn., campaign to confirm they had launched the website. The campaign did not respond to the request for comment, though at the bottom of the site is a disclaimer that says: "Paid for by and authorized by Marsha for Governor." Hatley writes about the situation extensively in a memoir he lists for free on his website. In it, he calls the incident "the stupidest decision of my life." "Senator Blackburn's team spent a lot of money to tell Tennessee a story I already told them myself," Hatley responded in a statement. "So, her packet isn't a revelation. It's a book report." In his book, Hatley writes that he found a checkbook in a condo he was renting, and used it to write bad checks to cover the costs of expanding his struggling tanning bed business. "There are people all over this state carrying something," Hatley said. "They've been taught it's the end of their story. It isn't. You are not defined by the worst thing you ever did. You're defined by who you decide to be afterward." The site also mentions a bankruptcy Hatley filed in 2008 on behalf of Great Spa Manufacturing Co., and a personal bankruptcy Hatley filed shortly after. It also provides documents showing $7.7 million in tax liens against Hatley for unpaid taxes. "If Hatley couldn't keep his own tax affairs straight, why should Tennesseans trust him with theirs?" the website reads. Hatley said those matters have been settled and closed nearly a decade ago. "A calendar would have ruined the whole document," he said. In her primary battle against U.S. Rep. John Rose, R-Tenn., Blackburn's attacks against her opponent were mostly handled by political action committees. The webpage is one of the most direct attacks she's levied so far against one of her political opponents in the race for the Tennessee governor's office. A spokesperson for the Hatley campaign said it is a sign that the Blackburn campaign is threatened. "Clearly, Marsha Blackburn is running scared and is threatened by a truly Independent candidate who, unlike her, hasn't taken a single dime from out-of-state special interests," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Her attacks against Hatley is a clear sign that her internal polls show what ours does, her approval rating is upside down and David Hatley is her biggest threat."