Marty Haynes, Greg Martin enter Hamilton County District 3 race

Friday, January 1, 1904

photo Marty Haynes is running for the District 3 seat on the Hamilton County school board.
photo District 3 Commission candidate Greg Martin
photo Hamilton County Commissioner Mitch McClure
Arkansas-Tennessee Live Blog

The March Republican primary for the District 3 seat on the Hamilton County Commission likely will be a three-way race.

Two new candidates have picked up qualifying papers to challenge incumbent Mitch McClure.

Marty Haynes picked up his qualifying petition Tuesday while Greg Martin picked up his on Sept. 14, Election Commission records show.

The three potential candidates must submit those petitions with at least 25 verifiable signatures of registered voters from District 3 to the Election Commission by noon on Dec. 8, according to Election Administrator Charlotte Mullis-Morgan.

Martin and Haynes both were born and raised in Hamilton County and graduated from Hixson High School. Both are members of the Pachyderm Club, the local GOP group.

Haynes, a sales representative for Porter Warner Industries, is president of Pachyderm.

"Communities are defined by their neighborhoods, their homes, houses of worship and their schools," he said. "My roots are in Hixson, and I'd be honored to serve District 3."

Haynes was "encouraged by several community leaders" to run for the commission seat vacated in January when former Commissioner Jim Coppinger was appointed county mayor after Mayor Claude Ramsey left to become deputy governor of the state, he said.

Commissioners appointed McClure in January to fill Coppinger's seat.

A special election will be held in 2012 for both District 3 commissioner and county mayor.

Though Haynes never has held public office, he ran and lost in 2010 against incumbent District 3 school board member Everett Fairchild.

Haynes has two adult sons. When they were younger, Haynes served as president of the Hixson High School Parent Teacher Student Association and the Hixson Youth Athletics Association. A graduate of Hixson High School, he's currently president of the Hixson Kiwanis Club.

He said he plans to name Tony Sanders of Tony Sanders Outdoors as his treasurer and will kick off his campaign in October.

Martin, the family services director for Lakewood Memory Gardens in Hamilton County Memorial Park, attended Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn. He is married and has four sons. His wife taught for 10 years in Hamilton County schools.

"I think you would dub me as somebody who is perhaps an outsider to the political machine but as an insider to the community," Martin said.

He's never been elected to public office, but he was appointed in the 1990s to the school board in Long Beach, Miss. Martin was elected chairman of theHome Mission Board, where he oversaw an $80 million budget and 5,000 employees, he said.

"I want to bring common sense to government," Martin said. "I'm very much against raising property taxes."