Incumbents, challengers in 3 local legislative primary contests enter final campaign stretch before election day

A voter leaves a polling site after casting a ballot Tuesday, July 26, 2016, in Atlanta. Two Republicans faced off for a shot at replacing a retiring west Georgia congressman as runoff elections were held across the state Tuesday, as challengers also sought to oust several incumbent state lawmakers. Georgians returned to the polls in several races that required runoffs because no candidate won more than half the vote in the May 24 primaries.
A voter leaves a polling site after casting a ballot Tuesday, July 26, 2016, in Atlanta. Two Republicans faced off for a shot at replacing a retiring west Georgia congressman as runoff elections were held across the state Tuesday, as challengers also sought to oust several incumbent state lawmakers. Georgians returned to the polls in several races that required runoffs because no candidate won more than half the vote in the May 24 primaries.

Early voting

No statewide totals were posted on the Secretary of State's website for Friday or Saturday, but as of Thursday, 228,393 Tennesseans had case early or absentee ballots in the county general and state/federal primary elections. Hamilton County posted complete figures, including Friday and Saturday, of 11,509 early ballots cast. Those broke down into 6,606 Republican ballots, 4,787 Democratic ones and 116 general election contests such as school board or various judicial contests. Election Day is Thursday.

NASHVILLE - As early voting in Tennessee wrapped up on Saturday, candidates for the General Assembly are readying their final push for votes in Thursday's state party primary elections.

What that boils down for folks in Hamilton County is this:

If you live in one of two state House districts where incumbents face primary challengers, or in the Senate district where a three-way fight is underway for the Democratic nomination, expect more phone calls, door-knocks, mailers and radio ads.

In the House District 29 Republican primary, two-term incumbent Rep. Mike Carter of Ooltewah and Collegedale city councilman and Realtor Ethan White are squaring off in a district that also includes Sale Creek and other precincts across the Tennessee River.

And in House District 28, a racially diverse district encompassing portions of inner-city Chattanooga, East Chattanooga and Brainerd, the Democratic primary features incumbent Rep. JoAnne Favors, a retired nurse and health care executive, and challenger Dennis Clark, who owns a small public relations and marketing firm.

Three Democrats, meanwhile, are battling in Senate District 10 for the right to face Republican incumbent Todd Gardenhire in November. An added complexity is that two of the Democrats have the same last name, though they're not related.

Nick Wilkinson is Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke's deputy administrator of economic development. Khristy Wilkinson is a former part-time adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and self-described "Bernie Sanders Democrat."

The third Democratic hopeful is Ty O'Grady, an entrepreneur who has spent nothing on his race, according to latest filings with the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance.

photo Mike Carter - 29th District
photo Ethan White

House District 29:

Carter, an attorney and former Hamilton County General Sessions Court judge, said annexation has been "the overwhelming issue" among voters as he campaigns door to door.

First elected in 2012 and unopposed in 2014, Carter two years ago upended nearly 60 years of Tennessee law with a bill that barred cities from annexing by ordinance and gave property owners a vote.

"What I really enjoy is when you knock on a door and someone says, 'I know who you are. You're the guy who stopped forced annexation,'" said Carter, who said he's lost 27 pounds going door to door with a group of Southern Adventist University students who are backing him.

Carter is spending heavily on direct mail - five mailings so far - and has a radio ad in the works.

White said he's doing plenty of door-to-door campaigning as well with his own volunteers.

"The big thing we're pushing is better education through school choice," he said.

White said there is a "misconception" being pushed in the district that he is being promoted by the Tennessee Municipal League, which is angry over Carter's law ending "forced" annexation by ordinance.

"That's absolutely false," said White, noting the group isn't funneling money to him and that as a Realtor he strongly believes "people need to have a say on how they're taxed."

"My race isn't about annexation," he said.

photo State Rep. JoAnne Favors during a meeting at the Times Free Press offices on May 26, 2015, in Chattanooga.
photo Dennis Clark is a Democratic candidate for the Tennessee House District 28 seat.

House District 28

Favors' contest with Clark took a tragic turn Friday when the challenger's brother, Jeremy Clark, was killed in a shooting in East Chattanooga.

In a statement Friday, Dennis Clark thanked the community for its support and saying he will stay in the race.

"As we struggle to understand why his life was taken so suddenly, my family and I have chosen, in his honor, as he would have liked it, to continue my campaign for change in our community and to fight to end the violence occurring in our neighborhoods," he said.

Favors said she called Clark on Friday "to express my condolences," noting a family member recently was murdered downtown, where he was working as a security guard, and she lost a grandson in a car accident.

She said "all of us are concerned about the violence in our communities and the nation, it's pandemic."

Clark has called for "safer streets, stronger families and communities and smarter children" and he argues the black community's needs aren't being addressed at the state level.

He also has called for better school funding.

Favors said Clark has tried to blame her for violence in the district "because I haven't been performing adequately."

That's a misunderstanding of legislators' role, Favors said, because lawmakers don't run city or county governments; local officials do.

"I have not got control," she said. "That's the city and county responsibility. I do collaborate with city and county governments on laws that need to be passed."

Favors, who is one of 26 Democrats in a House run by 73 Republicans, said it's difficult to get Republicans to pass laws that would benefit her district. She and other Black Caucus members this year pushed a plan to help address crime and the economic factors they see as helping fuel it. They didn't get far.

photo Todd Gardenhire
photo Nick Wilkinson
photo Khristy Wilkinson

Senate District 10

The three Democratic candidates agree on two things: They want Republican incumbent Gardenhire out and they back passage of Haslam's Insure Tennessee plan to extend Medicaid to an estimated 280,000 low-income residents, which Gardenhire helped kill.

Nick Wilkinson said he's "pretty proud of the job we've done in the city and the mayor has obviously been a good leader. And I think for working folks and families, I think we've done pretty good."

Khristy Wilkinson has a different take.

"Little of what Nick Wilkinson claims to have achieved in his tenure with the city and in his prior positions has had a positive impact on the vast majority of Chattanoogans," she charged in a recent email. "The economic growth in Chattanooga has not been equitable and the gap between the wealthy and the poor is widening."

Nick Wilkinson said, "We've done a good job of creating jobs, being inclusive and creating diversity and focus on real issues to real people."

Khristy Wilkinson disagrees and along with O'Grady recently excoriated Nick Wilkinson in a recent email for not participating in a debate.

Nick Wilkinson said he missed the candidates' forum because it came as the city was paying homage to the July 16, 2015, attack in which five U.S. service members were killed in Chattanooga.

"We've probably done a half dozen of these forums and these meetings," he said.

Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow on twitter at AndySher1.

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