Republicans filled the Country Place Restaurant with cheers for unity on Saturday, following a bitter primary that pitted many of the local party establishment against their eventual electoral conqueror, Chattanooga attorney Chuck Fleischmann. Several of the losing candidates took to the microphone in support of the winner, but the one he beat by the slimmest margin did not attend.
She had an excuse, though. Robin Smith had sent a letter to party chair Delores Vinson explaining that she had already made plans to help her daughter move into a college dormitory that day before hearing about the event. But a telling difference between Smith and some of the others who legitimately couldn’t make it was that no surrogate spoke on Smith’s behalf. Veteran political journalist Tom Humphrey noted that Smith “didn’t mention winner Chuck Fleischmann in a distributed post-election statement.”
Even with the obvious hole in the party’s fabric, local and state leaders exhibited a sense that the general election is sewn up. And how could they not? Democrat John Wolfe—not to mention any of the independent candidates—faces a steep climb just to make it to Chuck’s starting point, both financially and demographically. Surely the anticipated ease of GOP victory helps to salve the party’s wounds.
Continue reading Unity breakfast missing a course
Hamilton County voters will elect a new County Mayor on August 5. Here are the candidates.
Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam today announced that he is setting up an operations unit at 5708 Uptain Road in Chattanooga. The site is near the historic Brainerd Mission. Haslam has clearly decided that the only way to stop Chattanooga from surpassing Knoxville as the third largest city in Tennessee is to take over parts of the Scenic City. Experts estimate that by expanding his stronghold from Eastgate westward into Highland Park — hardly Littlefield-friendly turf — Haslam will be able to maintain control over enough of Chattanooga to maintain his city’s third-place ranking.
Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield has not commented on the apparent territorial incursion, though the two cities’ rivalry has been noted previously.
“I still have Knoxville in my gun sights, so (Knoxville Mayor) Bill Haslam better take notice.” — Ron Littlefield
Tennessee Ticket will follow this developing story and bring you breaking news updates as they happen.
(In all seriousness, the Bill Haslam for Governor campaign is opening a Chattanooga headquarters at noon on Friday, June 18 at the address noted above. Since Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield and Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey appeared jointly at Haslam rival U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp’s local office opening, and endorsed Wamp, it is not expected that either will attend the Haslam event.)
Talk