City Council special election set

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August 24, 2008

City Council special election set

Three men -- each a community leader in his own right -- have qualified for the special election being held on November 4 in Chattanooga's 5th Council District. While your Ticketeer is not a resident of District 5, I have been asked to moderate a Brainerd candidate forum in about a month, and so it goes without saying that I will stay neutral in this race.

The most I can do, then, is to keep an eye on who's supporting whom, what donors are involved, and how each of the candidates plans to win a plurality of votes in what should be a high-turnout election, given that we will elect a new President of the United States on the same day.

Think about it: the historic situation of having U.S. Sen. Barack Obama at the top of the ballot brings a dynamic not usually seen in city council races. Typically speaking, these local elections are about having an edge in the number of die-hard supporters, as (unfortunately, I say) most people don't bother to show up. But if current indications hold true, the number of votes to divvy amongst these three candidates will be significantly larger than normal, and so the task at hand is to reach out to as many of those as possible.

Russell Gilbert Sr., Joe Rowe, and current county School Board Vice Chair Jeffrey Wilson are the candidates. I had the opportunity to interview Gilbert a while back, and hope to repeat that with Rowe and Wilson. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, if you have pertinent commentary to add, please do so.

Chattanooga City Elections | By joe lance | 8:55 PM

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