Scottie Mayfield is staffing up.
On Friday, the Athens, Tenn., dairy executive announced Paul K. Brock Jr. will serve as Hamilton County finance committee chairman for Mayfield's congressional campaign.
Brock is an investment executive with a long history in Chattanooga.
Mayfield is one of four Republicans challenging U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann in Tennessee's 3rd Congressional District, which includes Chattanooga, Oak Ridge and numerous rural East Tennessee counties.
"I think Chuck has worked hard -- I just happen to think Scottie brings a skill set that will allow him to have more impact in Washington," said Brock, a longtime Republican donor who gave $250 to Fleischmann in 2010, according to Federal Election Commission records.
A campaign news release said Brock will be responsible for landing donations from business and community leaders "dedicated to getting Washington's financial house in order" -- a line often employed by Fleischmann.
Asked recently if he disagreed with any of Fleischmann's congressional votes, Mayfield said, "Not really."
The news follows two high-profile hires for Mayfield, a first-time office-seeker who relies on his staff to navigate the basics of fundraising, polling, advertising and other aspects of a political campaign. Mayfield recently retained former Tennessee Republican Party chairman Tommy Hopper as a strategist and nationally renowned pollster Whit Ayres.
"I'm honored that Paul Brock has agreed to take a lead in helping me raise the funds to spread my message of reducing spending, balancing the budget and creating jobs," Mayfield said in the news release.
Brock once was president at the River City Company and Siskin's Children Institute. Now he's an investment executive with Brown Associates. He lives on Lookout Mountain.
The first fundraising quarter of the year concludes today. Mayfield's campaign said they won't release fundraising figures until next week. At year's end, Fleischmann had about $620,000 in the bank for re-election.
Mayfield has finance committee chairmen in Bradley, McMinn and Monroe counties, the news release stated, but the campaign declined to name them.
Ron Bhalla, Jean Howard-Hill and Weston Wamp are Fleischmann's other opponents in the 3rd District Republican primary. Mary Headrick and Bill Taylor are running on the Democratic side.
The primary is Aug. 2.
Chris Carroll covers federal politics for the Times Free Press. A Chattanooga native, he went to Red Bank High School and graduated with honors from East Tennessee State University. Chris investigated violent crime, municipal government and hospitals before taking the political beat. For tornado coverage, he and Pam Sohn won a first-place Tennessee Associated Press Managing Editors deadline reporting award. In 2010, Chris won the Golden Press Card Award of Merit and another deadline reporting ...
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