Early voting has started in Rhea County in earnest. As of Monday evening art 4 p,m., 723 persons had voted so far. Monday was the opening of early voting in Spring City that runs until Saturday at noon. Despite afternoon showers that dampened the day, 126 people showed up to vote Monday afternoon at the Spring City Municipal Building.
According to Felicia Goodman, deputy administrator of Elections, it has been a steady event since Friday when everything started.
On the ballot are the county general elections where most candidates are running unopposed. On the district level incumbent District Attorney General Mike Taylor is running as an independent and challenger Courtney Lynch from Winchester is running as a Republican. Ms. Lynch worked as an assistant district attorney for the 12th District for Mike Taylor until recently.
In the Public Defender's Office, incumbent Jeff Harmon of Dunlap is running against Republican Ted Engel who is an assistant public defender in Hamilton County and supervises all the other public defenders.
The hottest race in the county is that for county executive. Seven people are running for the four-year job of running Rhea County.
Jim Vincent is currently serving as interim county executive after the resignation of George Thacker. Running against him are Brittany Fisher Dean, Dustin Henderson, Adam McRorie (assistant fire chief for Dayton), Jeremy Horton, Marty Revis and Rusty Rogers, who is currently District 9 county commissioner.
All commission seats are up this year with most facing opposition. Only Second District County Commissioner Jim Reed and Fifth District commissioner Emily Fugate are unopposed. All other districts have at least two people running. In District 1 incumbent Billy Thedford is facing a challenge from Jonathan Roberts. District 3 incumbent Philip Dunn is opposed by Jennifer Gentry and former commissioner Grover Parks.
District 4 incumbent Leo Stephens is facing a challenge from Jack Kauffman, who ran four years ago and newcomer Joe Burgess. District 6 has incumbent Sandy Francisco facing former Spring City commissioner Bailey Hufstetler, a local realtor who recently organized a debate between the Sessions Court judges in May prior to the primary and the county executive candidates.
District 7 commissioner Jim Vincent chose to run for county executive leaving the seat open for three newcomers - Tommy Ballard, Bradlee Brown and Masen Cheeks. Incumbent Bill Hollin is facing opposition from Nick Welch. District 9 is an open seat as current commissioner Rusty Rogers is running for county executive. Newcomers Mark Cashman, Lealan McSpadden and Jimmy "Jimbo" Miles are trying to break into county politics.
Only four of the nine school board seats are up during this election. District 1 John Mincy, District 3 Perry Massengill and District 9 Dr. Henry Reid are running unopposed. District 5 board member Brenda Hill chose not to run this time. Jane Scott Graham, a retired Rhea County High School teacher, is facing Anthony "Moon" Roddy. In District 7, Republican nominee Dennis "Punkin" Akin is facing auctioneer Doug Colvin, who is running independent. Current District 7 board member Dale Harris was defeated by Mr. Akin in the May Primary. This is the first time that all school board members in Rhea County have had to declare their party affiliation.
Rhea County was moved into the newly formed 1st Senate District this year losing long time State Senator Ken Yager. Cleveland businessman Adam Lowe is running against 24th District Representative Mark Hall. Rep. Hall did not reply to the Bradley County Voters Guide, which says it is a grassroots alliance of patriotic groups working together to simplify communications and impact change in Bradley County. Rep. Hall also did not attend several scheduled debates in the district citing scheduling conflicts. Senator Mike Bell, who is retiring this year, would have been the incumbent in the district.
Both incumbent Republican District 31 Rep. Ron Travis and his Democratic challenger, David L. Brown, are running unopposed in their respective primaries.
Early voting ends this Saturday in Spring City and at the Dayton Election Commission on July 30. Election Commission officials remind voters they need to show photo identification when coming to the polls either for early voting or on Aug. 4 at the polls. Election day voting runs from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 4. Early voting hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more information you can contact Tom Davis, administrator of elections, or Felicia Goodman, deputy administrator of elections, at 775-7817.