Lee Helton, the only candidate who qualified for the District 7 Hamilton County Commission seat when the deadline closed last Thursday, may not realize what rare company he is in.
The construction company owner is only the second candidate since the county adopted the mayor/commission form of government in 1978 to have no opposition for an open county commission seat in the primary and general election. Many others have run unopposed in re-election bids for seats on the commission but not when the seat was open.
The only previous candidate who was so fortunate was the Rev. Paul McDaniel in the first county commission race in 1978.
Helton, a Republican who only needs to hold off any write-in votes in the May and August elections, would replace Sabrena Smedley, the two-term District 7 commissioner who is running for county mayor.
Jonathan Mason, a past chairman of the Hamilton County Young Republicans who lost a 2018 Republican primary race for state representative in District 30, had picked up papers to run for the commission seat but announced early last week he was forgoing the race to spend more time with his family.
His matchup with Helton would have been interesting since his state House primary race – a particularly bruising one – was with now-state Rep. Esther Helton, the mother of Lee Helton.
When the commission form of government was adopted, the District 7 seat initially was won by Democrat Jack Mayfield. He did not seek re-election in 1982, having served on the commission’s predecessor, the Hamilton County Council, since 1962.
Since then, the District 7 seat has been held by only three people, Harold Coker, Larry Henry and Smedley, all Republicans.
McDaniel, the only other candidate for an open seat to sail unscathed through the primary and general elections, initially had sought to be a delegate to the 1977 Tennessee Constitutional Convention but was challenged because of a Tennessee law that prohibited ministers from serving as representatives or senators.
He won his case locally, lost at the Tennessee Supreme Court, then won at the United States Supreme Court, which cited various provisions from the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of free speech to equal treatment to other laws.
McDaniel, the longtime minister at Second Missionary Baptist Church, served on the state constitutional convention, then threw his hat in the ring as a Democratic candidate for a seat on the newly minted county commission. While every other seat was challenged, his District 5 bid was not, obviously in appreciation for the work he already was doing in the community.
He went on to serve five terms on the commission, and his fellow commissioner honored his fairness and circumspection by electing him chairman several times.
McDaniel, Jo Anne Favors, Greg Beck and current Commissioner Katherlyn Geter are the only four people to have served in the District 5 seat since the commission’s inception. Geter is not running for re-election, but Beck is running for his old seat in the May Democratic primary.
The only situation close to that of Helton and McDaniel was that of Charlotte Vandergriff in 1998. She sailed through both the primary and general election without an opponent. And even though she hadn’t been elected in 1994, when commissioners last stood for election, the seat wasn’t officially open. She was in it.
She had been appointed to fill the unexpired District 3 term of her husband, Buster Vandergriff, who died in 1996.
Helton, who serves as treasurer for the Hamilton County Republican Party and is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Homebuilders Association of Greater Chattanooga, reported $16,600 in hand on his January campaign financial disclosure form. That included a $10,000 loan he made to the campaign, another $1,600 donation he put in, $1,600 from his mother’s campaign, $250 from the campaign of his stepfather, Hamilton County Assessor of Property Marty Haynes, and several thousand from others in the construction industry.
Whether that amount scared away other potential District 7 opponents is not known.
No disrespect to Helton or his campaign, but we like to see all races contested, especially for open seats. It forces candidates to reveal what they think about issues affecting the body on which they seek to serve, it allows voters to see how a candidate handles himself when answering questions and it gives voters a choice.
However, unless something unforeseen occurs, he will sail onto the soon-to-be 11-member commission in August without much more than having to lift a finger.