A visitor walking into Tim Burchett’s campaign office wouldn’t be able to tell the election is still weeks away.

Plans are made for debates. Phones ring and instructions are passed to campaign workers. Multi-colored Post-It Notes form a mosaic of instructions on the wall.

“There’s only two ways to run – scared and unopposed,” said Burchett, a Republican state senator seeking re-election for the 7th District. “You run like the election is tomorrow and you’re two votes behind at all times.”

Burchett said it’s all about trust with this election.

“I’ve kept my word on issues,” he said. “I oppose an income tax. It’s unconstitutional.”

He said he “generally believes to keep government to a minimum.”

“States that had every form of taxation imaginable, they were in more debt than we were this past year,” he said. “In tough economic times, you have to make tough decisions.”

Discussing the recent government shutdown, Burchett said it was a tough decision and that the legislature faced “a situation where the federal courts could have stepped in.”

“The schools weren’t opening,” he said. “People were suffering.”

“We had to make some tough decisions,” he said.

Burchett said the actual increase to the average Tennesseen from the increased sales tax only works out to about $8 per person per month, but all that one will see from the media is how “everyone is flooding across the borders and all the horror stories.”

Asked how the next Tennessee budget shortfall should be handled, Burchett said you have to look at tenure.

“One in three Tennesseans are on TennCare,” he said. “One in three tax dollars go to TennCare. We have more uninsured on our health care program than the entire state of California, a state that’s five times more populous.”

Burchett said that since Tennessee has universal health care, people are flooding over the borders.

“By TennCare’s own admission over 105,000 use a P.O. Box as their only source of residency,” he said. “They want more money to clean up the problem, but that just ain’t going to happen.”

One other problem he suggested was unlimited prescription drugs, which find their way on the street to be sold illegally. In fact, he proposed a card system to track transactions, but it failed.

His last suggestion for making up the difference with the upcoming shortfall was to look at the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

Burchett attended Bearden High School, where he played wide receiver and was the captain for the football team.

Following graduation, Burchett went to UT.

“They didn’t need my football talents there.”