What a wild end to an oddly entertaining county mayor’s race.
We thought we were through with the smarmy antics of a defeated Republican primary mayoral candidate. But then outgoing Hamilton County Commission Chair Sabrena Smedley showed us a full picture of “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
She told the Chattanooga Times Free Press on Tuesday that she had an informal phone conversation with Democratic mayoral candidate Matt Adams on Monday and that he told her there may be a role she could play in his administration if he won the election against Weston Wamp, the Republican who snatched the May 3 primary victory from Smedley by 318 votes.
You will recall that Smedley then challenged her Republican primary loss to Wamp, claiming he encouraged Democrats to “cross over” and vote for him in the primary.
She lost the election, then lost her appeal. Then this week she cozied up to Adams, a 26-year-old Democratic newcomer in what looked like an effort to attract cross-over votes from Republicans to the Democratic candidate in an election that became focused on a single topic: a new Lookouts stadium on South Broad Street. At issue: whether local officials should approve a plan to finance the stadium with an $80 million, 30-year bond issue.