Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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Media attention, which had seemed better than adequate in coverage of the City Council primary election campaign, turned to media apathy on election night, as no local radio or TV station could be found providing election results or commentary in the two hours after the polls closed. Not so much as a creeper appeared to list the tallies on TV screens. Candidates and their supporters watched breathlessly as the Channel 10 news desk offered a teaser about a trout-fishing story. At least one restaurant hosting a poll-watching party closed before any results had been announced. Finally, during their regular 10 p.m. news broadcast, Channel 43 offered some poll results— after a feature about the New York mayoral primary.

Meanwhile, News Talk radio was all talk and no news. Not even the daily News-Sentinel would go so far as to hold its "final" edition for downtown delivery to print the results. Beyond a stand-alone photograph, the early Wednesday editions made no mention that an election was conducted in Knoxville Tuesday. Media turnout was worse, believe it or not, than voter turnout.

Round One

Mark Brown was sitting pretty on election night, but things were somewhat less comfortable for him on election eve, when he was seated between rival 1st District City Council candidates Sandra Moore and Sheryl Rollins at the final campaign forum of the primary season. The fur started flying at the City People event after Moore walked around the room "thanking" each of her opponents for their sterling qualities and then claiming to embody a mix of all those good things, whereupon Rollins accused Moore of ripping off a signature Rollins campaign issue. Within seconds, the two women were standing there yelling.

"There were fingers pointing, hands rolling and names being called," said one witness. Moore told Rollins she sounded stupid. Rollins told Moore that she was not entitled to appropriate women's issues, since Rollins had already staked out that territory.

Brown attempted to explain the eruption by saying that this was the last of many debate appearances, and "everybody's tired."

Round Two

Leave it to the administration of the Knoxville Fire Department to find a political angle. The Knoxville Firefighters' Association is conducting elections now, and the candidates for president are one-term incumbent Stan Ingle and former KFA president Bill Warwick. Two years ago Ingle defeated Warwick, who had served multiple terms, in part because Warwick was perceived as being excessively friendly to the administration.

The day after the World Trade Center attack, Ingle moved to include KFA in the international union's effort to raise money for the families of the New York firefighters who were lost in the disaster. A few days later, the move to buy the city of New York a new fire engine came about, and KFD Chief Gene Hamlin decided to tap a firefighter to head up the department's efforts—Bill Warwick.

Meanwhile, Back in the County...

Things are looking rather more placid for a reelection bid next year by Sheriff Tim Hutchison. Formerly-disgruntled deputies Jay Witt and Todd Cook will be joining up with formerly-disgruntled former deputy Scott "Scooby" Moore to throw the sheriff a party. The event will unfold at the home of GOP activist Jane Chedester. This is significant because Witt, who springs from an extremely active (politically) Fountain City family, had been on the outs with Hutchison for the past year or so, since being demoted and replaced as head of court services by Bobby Horner (son of County Commissioner Mary Lou Horner). Witt, a practical joker who had already gotten himself in dutch for an incident involving a live chicken with a badge around its neck, was believed to be gearing up to support Hutchison's probable GOP primary opponent, former chief of sheriff's detectives and still disgruntled J.J. Jones.

Also worth noting on the county side was the announcement Tuesday by former County Commissioner Madeline Rogero that she will not run for county executive next year. That leaves the Democrats' cupboard pretty bare in that race, in which Republican Mike Ragsdale is perceived as the favorite.