Don’t expect the type of fireworks in May’s Hamilton County primary election as we saw four years ago.
Unless some Republican comes out of the woodwork before Thursday’s deadline to qualify to challenge Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp, he will cruise into August’s general election with no opposition.
You might remember three years ago, with the retirement of County Mayor Jim Coppinger, when Wamp, Hamilton County Commission Chair Sabrena Smedley and businessman Matt Hullander fought a very close three-way race, with Wamp edging Smedley out by 318 votes out of 40,709 cast.
The 2022 Republican primary contest also featured a challenge to Hamilton County District Attorney General Neal Pinkston; a challenge to incumbent District 1 (Soddy-Daisy) County Commissioner Randy Fairbanks; two combatants each in the open District 8 (East Ridge) and District 10 (Ooltewah) commission seats; and races in three school board seats, including two in which incumbents were defending their posts.
Democrats, meanwhile, only had challenges in open District 5 (Chattanooga/Brainerd) and District 11 (Chattanooga/Lookout Valley) County Commission seats, one open school board seat and one for the Chattanooga city judge.