The ballot is set for the August 4 county general election and state and federal primary elections. The competitive elections include the Republican and Democratic primaries for the U.S. House of Representatives in the Third Congressional District, which includes Oak Ridge, and the race for one of two seats in Anderson County Commission’s Eighth District, which includes the Woodland, Hendrix Creek, and Emory Valley precincts in Oak Ridge.
There is also competition for two seats on the Anderson County School Board, one in the Third District and the other in the Fifth District.
U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann, an Ooltewah Republican, is the incumbent in the House’s Third Congressional District. He has two opponents in the Republican primary on August 4: Allan Levene and Geoffery Suhmer Smith. (Signs for Fleischmann and Smith have both recently been posted in Oak Ridge.)
There are also three Democratic candidates on the ballot for U.S. House, Third District. They are Michael Friedman, George Ryan Love, and Melody Shekari.
The Republican winner will face the Democratic winner in the November 8 federal general election.
Tennessee Representative John Ragan, an Oak Ridge Republican, is unopposed in the state primary election in August for the state House’s 33rd District, which includes most of Anderson County. Republican Dennis H. Powers is also unopposed in the 36th District.
But both Ragan and Powers could have competition in the November 8 state general election. Democrat Michael S. McKamey is listed as a candidate on the August 4 ballot, but he has suspended his campaign and Herman Collins, first vice chair of the Anderson County Democratic Party, is running as a write-in candidate for the Democrats for Tennessee House in the 33rd District. So, Collins is expected to challenge Ragan in November.
In the 36th District, Powers could face Democrat Bob Fannon in the November 8 election.
Three people are running in the Eighth District for Anderson County Commission: Angeleque McNutt, who was appointed to the seat in August after former Commissioner Robin Biloski resigned; Phil Yager; and Myra Mansfield. All three sought to be appointed to the seat in August 2015, and McNutt was appointed in a 8-6 vote after a first-round 7-7 tie between her and Yager.
Mansfield did not receive any votes in the first round of voting during the August appointment by Anderson County Commission and was not included in the second round. Mansfield also ran for the seat in the August 2014 election but lost to Biloski and Commissioner Myron Iwanksi.
There are two County Commission seats in each district, and only Biloski’s former seat is up for election in the Eighth District in August. Her four-year term would have expired in August 2018, and this August’s special election is meant to fill the seat for the rest of that term.
Biloski was first elected in 2006. She served two four-year terms on County Commission, and she was re-elected in August 2014. She resigned on August 3, 2015, because she and her husband Bill moved to Madeira Beach, Florida.
McNutt’s appointment meant she would serve part of Biloski’s unexpired four-year term through the August 2016 election, the next county general election.
In the Fourth District, J. Shain Vowell is running to fill the remainder of another unexpired four-year term for a seat now held by Commissioner Zach Bates. Bates, an Anderson County Sheriff’s Department deputy, is not seeking re-election in the August special election.
Bates had served a four-year term starting in 2010, but he did not seek re-election to County Commission in August 2014, the same year he unsuccessfully challenged Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank in the Republican primary.
Former Anderson County Budget Director Chris Phillips, who was city recorder in Rocky Top (the former Lake City) at the time, was elected to County Commission in the Fourth District in August 2014 along with Tim Isbel, an incumbent who was re-elected. Phillips essentially filled Bates’ seat.
But Phillips resigned from County Commission the next month, in September 2014, when he returned to Anderson County government as budget director.
County Commission then appointed Bates to the seat in October.
But on Thursday, Bates said he told commissioners that he didn’t plan to stay on the commission.
“I don’t want to be a lifetime commissioner,” Bates said.
So, he is not seeking re-election this summer.
Vowell is an Anderson County Sheriff’s Department sergeant who works at the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton. He’s also the vice mayor of Rocky Top.
The competitive Anderson County School Board seats are:
- Third District—Dail R. Cantrell and Scott Daugherty
- Fifth District—Andy McKamey and Zenith Rickey Rose
Like County Commission races, these are nonpartisan elections.
The deadline to register to vote in the August 4 election is July 5. Early voting starts July 15 and ends July 30.
Here are a few other elections where there is no opposition on August 4:
State Democratic Primary
State Executive Committeewoman-Fifth Senatorial District
- Catherine Denenberg
County General
Assessor of Property
- John K. Alley Jr. (Republican)
School Board—Fourth District
- John S. Burrell
School Board—Eighth District
- Glenda J. Langenberg
There are also judicial retention questions on the ballot, including for Supreme Court judges, Court of Appeals judges, and Court of Criminal Appeals judges.
See the sample ballot here: Anderson County Ballot 8-4-16.
See the Anderson County Election Commission website for more information.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
Copyright 2016 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
