Shelby County District Attorney General Bill Gibbons, who has headed the largest criminal-prosecution operation in the state for 12 years, believes he has the experience to be the next governor.

Gibbons, who turned 59 on Sunday, spoke at the Greene County Republican Women's Lincoln Day dinner Friday night. He was interviewed by The Greeneville Sun that afternoon.

Shelby County is the state's most populous county, with approximately one million people. Tennessee has a population of eight million.

Despite being targeted for defeat by the national Democratic party in his bid for re-election in a district that usually votes Democratic, Gibbons pointed out that he got 62 percent of the vote in the general election, a landslide.

Gibbons said he thinks his strong showing in a key part of Tennessee with so many votes makes him the strongest candidate in the race for the GOP nomination now.

Others officially running for the Republican nomination for governor are: Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam; Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, of Blountville; and U.S. Rep. Zack Wamp, of Chattanooga.

Asked how someone based in Memphis with a demanding job and almost no name recognition in East Tennessee can be a viable candidate, Gibbons said, all of the candidates are going to have some "long days" until the primary in 2010.

Gibbons said he believes that his track record directing a staff of roughly 100 attorneys who handle about 100,000 cases each year shows he knows how to be an administrator and make tough decisions.

He said, "I sign 250 indictments every week," deciding whether to seek the death penalty and whether to prosecute a juvenile as an adult on a regular basis.

Gibbons added that he is now a veteran of 12 state budget cycles, which this year have forced him to make layoffs, giving him insight into the budgetary process and necessary belt-tightening process.

Whoever is elected governor in 2010 will no doubt still have to focus on what Gibbons called "the economic slump," and create a business climate in the state that brings more jobs.

The governor will also have to "hold the line on taxes," Gibbons said. "There is a benefit to being a low-tax state."

But Gibbons said he will most of all bring his prosecuting experience to the governor's mansion.

"Tennessee has the second highest violent crime rate in the nation," Gibbons said, behind South Carolina. He believes this is because Tennessee also has "weak state laws" that result in convicted criminals not serving enough time for their crimes.

He said, "We need fundamental changes in the sentencing structure" that a governor who knows the problem can propose -- and work for -- until they are made law. I've been seeing that up close for 12 years."

In general, "Law enforcement is doing a good job" of enforcing state laws, Gibbons said. "I want to give law enforcement the hammer it needs in its toolbox -- tough sentencing laws."

"I'm a big believer in drug courts," Gibbons said, and if elected would try to "funnel state dollars" to judges that institute tough rehabilitation measures as an alternative sentence in drug cases.

Gibbons said he would also focus on better schools, more education and more innovation.

He noted that in 2010 Tennessee will move from its own set of standardized tests to a national test. He believes the results at that time "will be a wake-up call" for the state. He acknowledged that Gov. Phil Bredesen has been saying much the same thing for some time.

Gibbons said he would seek to "give local school systems more flexibility" and allow teachers and principals to "think outside the box."

Currently, he said, "Charter schools have to jump through a lot of hoops" to be created and to continue to exist, a process he would try to streamline and simplify.

Memphis has 12 charter schools that Gibbons said generally do a good job. "But it wasn't easy" getting them approved and started, and needs to be easier, if the state is to foster the creativity needed to avoid a "one size fits all" approach to education.

Gibbons said he wants to "encourage innovation at the local level" in schools: "No cookie-cutter approach."

Part of the governor's job is as the state's "chief salesman," Gibbons said.

"As governor, I want to be able to sell Tennessee as a place with low taxes, good infrastructure and safe communities.

Gibbons was raised on a small farm in Arkansas by his mother after his father left her with a family of six children.

He said an extraordinary fourth-grade teacher noticed that he could read better than his classmates, but was not attending very often because he saw no hope for the future.

That teacher bent attendance rules that would have required her to make him repeat the fourth grade, he said. She explained to him that his only real choice for moving out of poverty was to come to school every day in the fifth grade and study hard.

In 15 minutes, "She changed my life," Gibbons said. That teacher's lesson turned out to be true, he said, and Gibbons found other mentors along the way, including a high school guidance counselor who showed him how to get a scholarship to Vanderbilt University, and Lamar Alexander, whom Gibbons met as a high school student.

After college and then law school, Gibbons served on Gov. Lamar Alexander's staff. Gibbons said he learned 90 percent of what he knows about public service while working for Alexander.

Those lessons, he believes, have served him well so far, and would serve him well as governor.

Gibbons is married to Judge Julia Gibbons of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, a George W. Bush appointee.