One week after announcing his candidacy for Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge, Tom Greenholtz's finance committee has raised close to $30,000, according to data released Tuesday afternoon by his campaign consultant.
"I am deeply honored by the support of these civic and community leaders," said Greenholtz, who was appointed in September by Gov. Bill Haslam to fill the vacancy of retired Judge Rebecca Stern.
Greenholtz is running against two other local attorneys, Assistant Public Defender Mike Little and Assistant District Attorney Boyd Patterson. Both have picked up papers to run in the March 1, 2016, Republican primary for the judicial seat. Neither released financial figures Tuesday.
Tennessee judicial codes prohibit candidates from accepting political funds for public office, but Little, Patterson and Greenholtz can straddle this guideline by forming a financial team.
Prominent members of Greenholtz's committee - Elect Judge Tom Greenholtz - include former Supreme Court Justice Mickey Barker; attorney Jerry Summers; and Mike St. Charles, a real estate attorney and chairman of the committee.
Attorneys Brian O'Shaughnessy and Brian Abbott are working on Little's campaign. Little said his team has opened a bank account for contributions, but he's kept his distance from that process.
Little said he plans to run a campaign that showcases his 25 years of experience in Criminal Court, where he started after graduating from law school in Nashville.
"The same court I worked in as a bailiff, that's the same court I'm running for now," he said.
So far, Little has campaigned before work, after work and on the weekends. That may seem like a trivial detail, but time constraints present real strains for judicial candidates with previous commitments.
Patterson, for example, works for the District Attorney's Office. On Tuesday, District Attorney General Neal Pinkston said he and Patterson have discussed what might happen if the prosecutor took a paid leave of absence to seek a formal candidacy.
"My decision is, if he's going to campaign for the judgeship, then he's going to have to leave office without pay," Pinkston said.
The ultimatum, Pinkston said, is out of fairness "to taxpayers and fellow employees who come to work every day and have stuff to do."
Reached later Tuesday afternoon, Patterson gave the following statement: "I could not formally announce until I was financially prepared to take a leave of absence from the office."
Former District Attorney General Bill Cox said prosecutors who worked for his office would use accumulated vacation time to campaign. "Or, if they didn't have enough of that, they just took leave," he said.
Asked what kind of message would that send to taxpayers, he said, "I don't know how it would be viewed by others, but my feeling was, if you have accumulated time that the state owes you, then you can take it."
If Boyd has any accrued personal time - vacation or sick days - he would be paid for those the same way any departing employee would be, Pinkston's office said late Tuesday.
Contact Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow @zackpeterson918.