Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed GOP candidate for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, Tres Wittum in studio to play Taking the Fifth.
Leahy: In-studio is Tres Wittum, a candidate for the GOP nomination in the 5th Congressional District. Tres, I don’t know if you know this but we do a little game with all the candidates here. Have you heard about that?
Wittum: I’d love to play the game.
Leahy: It’s called Taking the Fifth. Are you ready to take the Fifth?
Wittum: I’m ready.
Leahy: This is an idea where we try and figure out how much you really know about the district. So here we go. Tres Wittum, candidate for the GOP nomination in the 5th Congressional District, Taking the Fifth. There are seven questions.
The first two are about some highways, interstate highways as you’re traveling westbound on highway 40 as you get towards Nashville.
If you don’t want to go through downtown Nashville you can take a three-digit bypass, the one nearest downtown Nashville but you can bypass it shortly. What is the name of that three-digit bypass?
Wittum: I think it’s 440.
Leahy: You are correct, sir. You got it right.
Wittum: Oh, my gosh.
Leahy: So now let’s say you’re going eastbound on 40 and you hit Lebanon and you want to totally go around Nashville.
You want to end up over in Dickson or someplace like that in the western part of Williamson County on 40. What is the name of that three-digit highway?
Wittum: Would that be 840?
Leahy: Ding Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding! You got that right.
Wittum: I’m so glad I drive.
Leahy: (Chuckles) Three presidents have served from Tennessee. Who are those three?
Wittum: Those three great Tennesseans would be President Andrew Jackson, President James K. Polk, and President Andrew Johnson.
Leahy: You are three for three.
Wittum: Go Tres!
Leahy: (Chuckles) That’s clever. Is that your real name, Tres, by the way?
Wittum: Actually, it’s not. It is my real name but it’s not the name on my birth certificate.
Leahy: What’s the name on your birth certificate?
Wittum: My birth certificate says Charles Garfield Wittum III. I have to give a shout-out because I am named after my grandfather and my dad. Actually a Republican. And I got to tell you about the Republican president.
Leahy: We are in threes now. Now, the fourth question. There are three stars on the Tennessee state flag. What do those three stars stand for?
Wittum: They point in, for the equality between the three regions, East, Middle, and West Tennessee.
Leahy: Ding, Ding, Ding. Four for four. There is a Triple-A baseball team in the 5th Congressional District, what is the name of that team?
Wittum: The Triple-A baseball team in the 5th Congressional District? Because the Sounds are not in the 5th Congressional District.
Leahy: Near.
Wittum: But we love the Sounds.
Leahy: Near the 5th Congressional.
Wittum: Go Sounds.
Leahy: That’s a very good point. Yes, you are correct. The Triple-A team is quite near the 5th Congressional District. The Nashville Sounds. Okay, next question.
Are you ready? On the morning of November 30th, 1864, 12 hours before the Battle of Franklin, Confederate General John Bell Hood convened all of his generals, including Nathan Bedford Forrest, at a plantation in Spring Hill. That house still exists. What is the name of that house?
Wittum: Oh, my gosh, I was down there on President’s Day.
Leahy: It’s a hard one.
Wittum: Yes, but I said I visited this.
Leahy: Three, two, one.
Wittum: Man, you’re going to beat me on this one.
Leahy: Ripavilla. It’s a little unfair, because I live about five miles from there and go there.
Wittum: Well, I was there on President’s Day, so I should know that.
Leahy: Last question, President Andrew Jackson was a bitter enemy of another Tennessean, a man who served in Congress from Tennessee in the 1830s and left Tennessee for Texas after he was defeated for re-election. Who was that man?
Wittum: Was it Governor Houston? No, no, no. It was Davy Crockett.
Leahy: Davy Crockett!
Wittum: Yessir.
Leahy: All right, so pretty good. Six out of seven. Congratulations on Taking the Fifth successfully here.
Listen to the interview here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Tres Wittum” by Tres Wittum.
