The deadline for candidates to qualify for the November 6 municipal elections was noon Thursday, and four Oak Ridge City Council incumbents have one challenger while there are three candidates for three school board seats.

Besides the four seats now held by incumbents, the November election will include the selection of an additional member of Oak Ridge City Council to fill the rest of the term of Hans Vogel, who was elected to a four-year term in November 2016 but resigned in June to take a new job at Idaho National Laboratory. Only one candidate, Derrick Hammond, has qualified as a candidate in that special election. Hammond was unanimously appointed to the seat by City Council in July to fill the seat through the November election. After his unopposed November election, Hammond will serve the last two years of Vogel’s unexpired term.

Also on the ballot in November are city council and school board seats in Clinton, Norris, Oliver Springs, and Rocky Top. That’s in addition to the state and federal elections for Tennessee governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, and Tennessee Senate and Tennessee House of Representatives.

The four incumbents on the seven-member Oak Ridge City Council who are up for election in November all qualified as candidates by Thursday’s deadline. They are Kelly Callison, R.G. “Rick” Chinn Jr., Warren Gooch, and Ellen D. Smith. The four incumbents last had an election in November 2014. [Read more…]