A Gallatin man who made national headlines when state wildlife officials confiscated his pet raccoon last year has announced he is running for governor.
Mark “Coonrippy” Brown, 55, pulled a petition for the office on Friday with intentions to challenge incumbent Gov. Bill Haslam in the Republican primary in August.
“This is all about the raccoon,” Brown said.
Brown said his letter to TWRA officials seeking a permit went unanswered and a petition to Haslam with over 60,000 signatures was returned unopened.
“Gov. Haslam ignored the cries from the entire United States,” he said. [...]
“He can free prisoners, he can pardon people, but he refused the online petition and refused to accept the letter,” he said. “All eyes were on Tennessee and it made us look bad. It made it look like we were under Caesar’s law.”