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Chattanooga Knows: What 1994 Hamilton County candidate won despite being snubbed by both daily newspapers?

Staff Photo / In 2000, then-Hamilton County Sheriff John Cupp shows some of the items confiscated at security stations at the courts building in Chattanooga.
Staff Photo / In 2000, then-Hamilton County Sheriff John Cupp shows some of the items confiscated at security stations at the courts building in Chattanooga. Staff Photo / In 2000, then-Hamilton County Sheriff John Cupp shows some of the items confiscated at security stations at the courts building in Chattanooga.

By Lew Gilliland 8 min read



Q. What 1994 Hamilton County candidate won his race despite being snubbed by both of Chattanooga’s daily newspapers?

A. John Cupp won the first of three terms as Hamilton County sheriff in 1994 despite failing to win an endorsement from either The Chattanooga Times or the Chattanooga Free Press.

The 1994 race featured three men vying to replace longtime Sheriff H.Q. Evatt, who was retiring. Evatt’s chief deputy since 1978, Jim Hammond, won the Democratic primary. Cupp, the former directer of the sheriff’s department’s narcotics information division, a job he held for 14 years, prevailed on the Republican side. Independent candidate Floyd “Flop” Fuller, the county’s corrections chief and a former county commissioner, also wanted the job.