Incumbent Hamilton County Commissioner Mike Chauncey, R-East Ridge, is seeking another term and looking to continue progress in balancing the needs of developers, residents and homebuyers.
Chauncey holds the District 8 seat, which represents the city of East Ridge plus some parts of the Hamilton Place area. He’ll face Democratic challenger Josh Wichman, who also lives in East Ridge, during the county’s general election Aug. 6.
Chauncey, 50, has worked as a real estate agent for 20 years. He was raised in Harrison, and he moved to East Ridge in 2004. East Ridge is where he bought his first home with his wife to raise a family. They have three children.
His first foray into the public eye was serving as an appointee on the East Ridge Planning Commission, which was also his first experience with local resistance to development, Chauncey said in an interview.
Before he was appointed in 2017, he thought East Ridge was going downhill, he said. Businesses were shuttering, and people were moving away. He didn’t know what the problem was until he started his work on the Planning Commission, he said. He discovered a prevalence of not-in-my-backyard attitudes was an issue. People making that argument against development are sometimes referred to as NIMBYs.
(READ MORE: Democratic challenger Josh Wichman looking for cohesive growth in East Ridge)
“It really wasn’t because no one wanted to invest in East Ridge,” Chauncey said. “These developers, they weren’t getting a fair shake. The leaders during that time, the council members, they were constantly caving to the mob, the NIMBYs.”
He saw the city’s leadership pushing away growth based on the opinions of a handful of residents, he said, and he wanted to stop that.
Chauncey and his fellow Planning Commission members decided they were going to turn the town around and get people into office who supported developers trying to bring life to East Ridge, he said. So he ran for East Ridge City Council and won in 2018.
Since then, East Ridge has been flooded with growth, Chauncey said.
“We had to fight tooth and nail, the not-in-my-backyarders, every single meeting,” he said.
Similarly, when a seat opened up on the Hamilton County Commission in 2022, Chauncey saw an opportunity to do more good for the county as a whole, he said. Now, he works on positive development planning across the county, in his view, he said.
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He feels that affordability needs to improve for families moving into starter homes in East Ridge, he said — and part of doing that is approving more expensive developments elsewhere in the county.
“That’s one of the reasons why I’m pro-growth out in the unincorporated areas,” Chauncey said. “I think it does give some relief to the municipalities. Say you’ve got someone who lives in East Ridge, and they have a nice little home that’d be perfect for a young family, and they want to move out to Ooltewah and upgrade. Might free up a house in East Ridge for that young family.”
Overall, his goal is to keep property taxes low and keep life affordable for residents, he said, while also encouraging economic and population growth to bring in revenue and balance the county budget.
Chauncey recently received a $4,500 donation from a PAC run by the Homebuilders Association of Greater Chattanooga.
Gabe Thomas, the president of the association, said by phone that Chauncey listens carefully during debates about development and is an honest person. Though Thomas doesn’t live in Chauncey’s district, many members of the association do, he said, and Chauncey is well aware of the number of contractors and other workers in East Ridge that depend on him.
“He’s just always been willing to listen to both sides,” Thomas said, “but then see down the middle and make difficult decisions, and we love supporting him because of that.”
OFFICE DETAILS
Duties: County commissioners set the county property tax rate, vote on the annual budget, approve county contracts and vote on local zoning requests.
District: District 8 includes the city of East Ridge and parts of the Hamilton Place area.
Key issues: Economic growth and local business development, housing affordability, a new sports complex.
Timing: New commissioners take office Sept. 1
Salary: As of fiscal year 2027, commissioners are paid about $28,600 a year.
THE ELECTION
The general election is Aug. 6, and early voting runs July 17-Aug. 1.
WHERE THE CANDIDATES STAND
Do you think the school budget is adequately funded?
“I think it’s adequately funded in the sense that there’s only so many dollars that can go around. It’s adequately balanced, we’ll say that. But there’s always room for improvement … there’s been a lot of emphasis on the condition of buildings. I think there needs to also be a lot of emphasis on the condition of our sports facilities. These students, when they come to school, they want to learn, but they’re also excited about the sports they get to play … You don’t see parents parenting like they have traditionally, so now is more important than ever to have teachers and coaches that are being properly paid and able to provide after-school programs for these kids like sports, something to mentor them.”
— Mike Chauncey, Republican
“Simple answer, no. There are a lot of areas where we could move funding around. There’s a lot of deferred maintenance with a lot of our facilities that I know we’re trying to tackle, but when you’re only able to get to one school a year or something, issues keep compounding. We were finally able to give teachers a little bit of a raise this year, but from my understanding, we had to cut a percentage of staff to support teachers. It doesn’t necessarily make their job any easier.”
— Josh Wichman, Democrat
If elected, what major project or initiative do you want to complete within the next four years?
“I’d like to see a mega sports complex down in Camp Jordan. My daughter played volleyball through high school, and she played club ball. We traveled to Nashville, Knoxville, Atlanta. It was so expensive, so tiring. If we had a nice megaplex here in town, it would’ve been so nice … I’d also like to see the stadium project have progress with the build-out, and The Bend project, too. I call these recreational spaces, places you can go to, walk around and have free fun.”
— Mike Chauncey, Republican
“I would like to see investment into projects that look at building neighborhoods so they can walk to the grocery store or walk to a park. East Ridge does not have CARTA service. Many people do this every day — they have to walk to Brainerd Road to access CARTA, and Moore Road is the only road that has sidewalks the entire way there. Just looking at things like that. If you give people options, they will take them. But if you don’t, then we’re forced into driving cars all the time, which leads to congestion and frustrates everybody.”
— Josh Wichman, Democrat
Contact city and county reporter Siena Duncan at sduncan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.