PDF: Count elections
The number of candidates vying for Hamilton County Commission seats and county mayor grew by five between 2006 and this year, and the number of independent candidates has quadrupled.
Dr. Bruce Oppenheimer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University, said those increases could be the result of a feistier political atmosphere.
“There may be some sort of splinter from the Tea Party movement,” he said.
But Dr. Oppenheimer qualified that judgment with questions about the candidates’ viability, their support base and whether the independents could end up ideologically aligning with one party or the other.