Concord Farragut Republican Club Met Last Night

A great crowd attended the Concord-Farragut Republican Club last night. The speakers scheduled were Scott Moore, Knox County Commission Chairman and candidate for Knox County Clerk, John Owings, Knox County Law Director and Fred Sisk, candidate for Trustee. Sisk was running late and ultimately did not make it to the meeting.

Several other candidates were present last evening and made their pitch for election. L.B. Steele, candidate for Trustee; Jason Biggs, representing Mike Lowe, candidate for Property Assessor; Phil Ballard, candidate for Property Assessor; Roger Kane candidate for Trustee; Laurie Alford, a business controller for the Tennessee Press Service, Inc and candidate for Knox County School Board, Fifth District; Dr. Richard Briggs, candidate for County Commission, Fifth District; Sherry Witt, candidate for Register of Deeds; John Schoonmaker, candidate for County Commission, Fifth District and controversial City of Knoxville political activist Lynn Redmon representing Foster Arnett, Jr.

Both State Representative Parkey Strader and Craig Leuthold, County Commissioner announced that they were in attendance and not running for anything.

It was great seeing former Sheriff Tim Hutchison attending the meeting. He was sitting near the Moore family. Scott Moore during his talk acknowledged the presence of the former Sheriff and thanked him for his many years of service to Knox County. Moore worked in the Sheriff’s Department for 15 years and many of those years for Sheriff Hutchison who was first elected in 1990 and served until January 31, 2007. I commented to the Sheriff when I first saw him last night. “I haven’t seen you since January 31 st” He laughed.

The News-Sentinel certainly enjoyed the years of 1990-2007 using our Sheriff as a whipping post. However, he was always doing his job of protecting our neighborhoods, locking up the bad guys and never let their attacks keep him from his job. I hope Sheriff Hutchison will be back on the ballot in the future. He still has a lot to give this community.

John Owings was asked “If the law director were to have their law license suspended or revoked for any reason for any period of time. What is the course of action?” Law Director Owings said that the Knox County Charter states that if the law license of any attorney in Knox County is suspended or revoked for any reason, they must forfeit the office. A follow-up question was asked. “Has your opponents law license been suspended for a few days recently?” Owings replied, That has been reported.