One day after leaving her post as executive vice president of the RiverCity Company, Ann Coulter threw her hat into the ring to become Chattanooga’s next mayor.
Ms. Coulter formally announced her candidacy at the Hamilton County Election Commission headquarters Wednesday afternoon immediately after filing her qualifying papers.
“I believe I bring the right mix of experience and enthusiasm to be the next mayor of Chattanooga,” said Ms. Coulter. “I have completed my duties at RiverCity, so I can focus totally on the enormous task of campaigning in every corner and on every corner of our city. If you live in the city limits, I’m going to be somewhere very near you between now and March 1.”
She said, “My career has been a combination of planning and doing, and I think that’s the combination we need in City Hall to build on the incredible momentum created by the previous administrations. And I’m confident people will get involved with this campaign once they hear about our vision for the future of the city.”
In making the announcement, Ms. Coulter cited two decades of professional and volunteer experience that “have prepared me well for the mayor’s office. From the faith and values I was taught at home to the work I have done in neighborhoods to my early work at Bonny Oaks School, my life has pointed toward community service,” said Ms. Coulter.
She said she had gathered hundreds of names on her campaign petition, and she said she plans to work "24/7" in campaigning.
She said her priorities will be jobs, education and neighborhoods.
Asked about Chattanooga never having had a woman mayor, she said, "I think people may be ready for a different kind of leader."
The candidate introduced Jeff Olingy, former executive vice president at the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, who will be serving as her campaign manager as an unpaid volunteer. “The fact that Jeff is willing to donate his time to this effort is indicative of the kind of enthusiasm we’re already seeing for this campaign,” said Ms. Coulter.
Prior to joining RiverCity in 2000, Ms. Coulter was the executive director of the Regional Planning Agency. She has also been director of the City Office of Economic and Community Development and has run her own consulting business.
Ms. Coulter is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science from the University of Missouri.
In 2003, she was awarded a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University, where she spent two semesters studying cities, leadership and citizen involvement. Ms. Coulter and her husband, Tom Trevor, live in North Chattanooga, and their daughter is in graduate school at MTSU.
A native Chattanoogan, she is a graduate of Brainerd High School.
Her campaign bio says she "was raised in the Methodist Church and was taught early on the importance of ethical behavior and service to others, working at the Bonny Oaks School during her high school and college summers."
City Council
District 1
Linda Ward Bennett qualified
John Lively qualified
District 2
Sally Robinson picked up papers
Jim Crooks picked up papers
District 3
Dan Page qualified
District 4
Jack Benson qualified
Buddy Presley Jr. picked up papers
Robert Reid picked up papers
District 5
John "Duke" Franklin picked up papers
Johnny L. Smith picked up papers
Cynthia Stanley Cash picked up papers
District 6
Julie Chamberlain qualified
Marti Rutherford qualified
District 7
Karen M. Lee picked up papers
Charles "Pete" Drew qualified
Manuel Rico qualified
Jeff Peterson picked up papers
District 8
Shonteion Strickland picked up papers
Leamon Pierce turned in papers
District 9
Yusuf Hakeem qualified
Ezekiel Jones picked up papers
J.T. McDaniel qualified
Isaac Robinson III picked up papers
Delores Carter picked up papers
Mayor
Angela Clark qualified
Ann Coulter turned in papers
Karl Epperson picked up papers
Eddie Eubanks Jr. picked up papers
Richard Hamilton qualified
Dan Johnson qualified
Ron Littlefield qualified
Richard Secrest picked up papers
Thomas Smith picked up papers