Local races heating up
While potential candidates still have time to back out of local elections, the races already are heating up as people pick up petitions to run for Farragut offices, as well as Knox County and state offices, in the Tuesday, May 6 election.
So far, current Alderman Alex Cain has picked up and returned his petition to also run for mayor, and former Vice Mayor Louise Povlin picked up the petition on Monday, Feb. 23, to run for mayor, according to Knox County election administrator Chris Davis.
“[Cain] has enough signatures to qualify to run for mayor on the ballot,” Davis said. “We’ve not heard hide nor hair from Sean Murphy since he picked up [the petition to run for mayor].”
The Board of Mayor and Aldermen seats up for election are mayor, Ward 1 alderman, currently held by Scott Meyer, and Ward 2 alderman, currently held by Joe LaCroix.
Davis noted Murphy also picked up the paperwork to run for the South Ward alderman seat.
In the alderman race, “Joseph 'Joey' Ruffalo has enough signatures to be on the ballot in Ward I — North Kingston Pike,” the election administrator said. “South of Kingston Pike, gosh a lot of people have picked up [petitions].”
In the South Ward alderman race, current Alderman Joe LaCroix has returned his petition to run for that seat. Other contenders are Matthew Parsons, Murphy, Randal Roberts and Greg Wiberley.
“It’s getting busy,” Davis noted.
In the Knox County race for mayor, County Commissioners Kim Frazier, representing the At-Large Seat 11, and Larsen Jay, representing At Large Seat 10; School Board member Betsy Henderson, representing District 6, are running
on the Republican ballot while Beau Hawk is running on the Democratic ballot. They will face off in the General Election on Aug. 6.
Farragut residents will not be voting on District 5 Commission or District 5 School Board seats, currently held by Angela Russell and Lauren Morgan respectively, as they are not on the ballot for the May election.
“That was two years ago,” Davis noted, adding they will not be up for election until 2028.
However, Farragut residents will get to vote on a couple of at-large seats, which serve the entire county.
Currently, there are four candidates running for sheriff: David Amburn, Mike Davis, Brent Gibson and former sheriff, Jimmy “JJ” Jones, all Republican candidates.
“They’ve all qualified; they’ve all met the Police Officer Standards of Training,” the Election Commission administrator said. “All four will presumably be on the ballot.”
The first day to pick up a petition for the Farragut election was Friday, Jan. 9, while the deadline to pick up and return a petition is noon Tuesday, March 10. Still, “It’s literally two weeks from today that candidates have to finish up their paperwork for Town of Farragut to run for office,” Davis said.
The deadline to withdraw from the race is noon, Tuesday, March 17, according to Knox County Election Commission. Davis said on that date, the Election Commission will approve all the candidates, and the ballot will be set.
