In the school board race, first district seat "A" will have three contenders. Two term incumbent Bill Marcus will be defending his seat against Tellico Villager, Ken Hupp and Kenny Ridings of Loudon. Hupp is a retired school director from Illinois. Ridings is a Loudon Police officer who also serves as the SRO, School Resource Officer, for Loudon County School system.

Two term incumbent Scott Newman, first district seat "B", will be running unopposed.

Third district will have two new comers with the decision of incumbent Lisa Russell not to seek re-election. Philip Moffett and Michael Phillips will be vying for the seat.

The fifth district will see the most action. Incumbent, Gary Ubben seat "A" will have three challengers. Brian Brown, Teresa Karimian, and Freddie E. Walker will be challenging Ubben for his seat. Brown is an employee of the Loudon County maintenance department. This will be Karimian's second fore a into politics. She ran for county commission in 2010 but came up short on her bid to unseat commissioner Harold Duff. Freddie E. Walker is the former fifth district seat "A" school board representative. Walker was defeated in 2008 by Ubben.

I will be challenged by twenty-one year old Jeremy Buckles for seat "B" in the fifth district. Buckles is currently a senior at Mississippi State University in pursuit of his Bachelors of Science in Operation Meteorology.

Seventh district incumbent Craig Simon will be unopposed in his re-election bid.

In the state house races, both incumbents will have challengers. 21st district republican incumbent Jimmy Matlock will be unopposed in the August primary but will face democrat challenger Andrew Bennett in the November general election.

32nd district republican incumbent, Julia Hurley, will be challenged in the August primary by former Roane County commissioner, Kent Calfee. The winner of the August primary will face two challengers in the November general election. Democrat Jack McNew and independent Allen Cole will be on the November ballot. Both are Roane County residents.

Candidates have till this Thursday, 4/12 noon, to withdraw their name from the ballot if they so choose to. 

It's a little early right now, but in the coming weeks I'll be reporting much more detail on the races and candidates. As usual, I'll set up an election page to post candidates information and all the particulars of the election.