BusinessTN

When a political candidate steps onto the national stage, his or her life becomes public fodder, a spectacle of public interest. Witness the financial boon presidential hometowns get when they produce a president, or in cases like Crawford, Texas, just being the town where a President hangs his hat. City leaders in Lawrenceburg, Tenn., realized this when former Sen. Fred Thompson finally announced his candidacy for the Republican Party's nomination for president of the United States.

Thompson will have to not only win the nomination, but ultimately entrée to the White House before the full benefits begin to trickle down to his adoptive hometown, but that doesn't mean city fathers haven't started thinking about it. "We've already seen some economic development around town," says Lawrenceburg Mayor Keith Durham. "We're already seeing downtown property being bought by outside investors."

Though that could be due to Thompson's nationally reported announcement from Lawrenceburg, or maybe the refurbishing that went leading up to it.

"When Fred came down and had his announcement homecoming, it made us clean up our act. We needed to make ourselves presentable to the world," says Durham, who notes that the town has not made a concerted effort to capitalize on any potential Thompson hometown tourism yet.

But what could a Thompson candidacy—and better still, election—mean to Lawrenceburg?

"There will be some immediate economic impact probably just from a media spending, especially if Sen. Thompson wins the nomination," says economic development consultant Mark Sweeney.

Sweeney adds that any tourist impact will be determined by how much Thompson claims Lawrenceburg as part of his heritage. Even if he does, Lawrenceburg can expect competition with Thompson's birthplace, Sheffield, Ala.

The Hope, Ark., exit billboard on Interstate 40 reads "Birthplace of Bill Clinton," but in Hot Springs, trading cards—yes, the city printed trading cards—boast the town as the hometown of President Clinton. (Neither got the presidential library, which is in Little Rock.) And President Ronald Reagan may be entombed at his hilltop presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif., but Illinois is where you find the "Reagan Trail." (Tourism in Reagan's former hometown Dixon, Ill., as well as his alma mater Eureka College, increased fivefold following his death.)

Communities and adopted communities have both found ways to capitalize on their status as Commander-in-Chief's hometown. The Secret Service maintains an overbearing presence in Plains, Ga., 60 miles south of Columbus, just because President Jimmy Carter still teaches Sunday school at the Maranatha Baptist Church. Aside from attending the former President's Sunday school class, tourists can have their picture snapped peering out of a 10-foot peanut installed during the 1976 campaign, or tour the train depot that was Carter's hometown presidential campaign headquarters, or visit his high school, which reopened in 1996 as a National Park Service visitor center.

But don't expect Lawrenceburg to see anything more than that, Sweeney says.

"I don't see Thompson's campaign entering into site selection criteria," explains Sweeney, whose firm McCallum Sweeney Consulting provides location consulting to corporations like Nissan and Michelin.

"I do see some up-tick potential over the long term," he continues, "But that won't be any time soon. Ultimately, a presidential impact on a community will really be where a president's library goes, but I would still expect some net positives during the campaign while he stays in the race and some visitor positives if he becomes president—but nothing that will reshape the community." Mayor Durham agrees: "We'd love to have a presidential library, but it's too early in the game to discuss that kind of thing." There is a downside to being the White House away from the White House, however.

Hard times have hit the presidential tourism trade in Crawford (pop. 700), as evinced by shutters and "For Sale" signs hanging over dusty souvenir-shop windows that once boasted a healthy trade of "The Western White House"-embossed cufflinks, cowboy boots and denim shirts. President Bush's plummeting approval numbers are proving disastrous to local retail, which shot up 20% the year Bush took up residence on Pennsylvania Avenue, and climbed steadily through his first term to more than $2.6 million. The slide began in 2005, dropping to lower than pre-Bush number, and locals don't see it leveling out anytime soon.

Mayor Durham is optimistic, nonetheless.

"There's a good feeling in the air for what Fred could mean to tourism and the business community here," he says. Now if they can just get enough voters to feel the same way about Thompson's candidacy.