To begin with, this letter is strictly my opinion. Furthermore, I cannot claim to be an impartial observer of the 3rd District County Commission race. I serve as the interim Representative of the Knox County Democratic Party for that district. Contrary to an article in Tennessee Lookout, I am not Stuart Hohl’s campaign manager, nor have I been paid for helping his campaign. However, my daughter, Hannah Mackay, is his campaign manager and is paid through her company, Mackay Consulting.

Randy Smith, the current Commissioner, is term limited. Smith served with distinction. I think he would be a strong contender to just about any office he chose to run for in the future.

Last year a few of us Democrats looked at the numbers and the demographics and decided that the 3rd District was ready to elect a Democrat. Stuart Hohl emerged as the choice.
He works as a manager in the video production industry, is married to a music teacher and has a son, John. He came here to go to the university. He says he decided to stay here because he fell in love with three things: Knoxville, the Tennessee Vols, and his wife, Hilary.
He is an interesting fellow, more of a problem solver than a politician. He has never been involved in politics, with either party. Smart, curious, and well intentioned, he has an incredible ability to connect with people. He will make a good Commissioner.
Unlike his opponent, Stuart realized that the role of a County Commissioner is to work together, across party lines, to solve local problems. He advocates focusing on improving our public schools. As he campaigned, he learned that the Third District has too few County parks, greenways, or recreational facilities. The County, unlike the city, doesn’t even have a greenway committee. Stuart supports effective government. He sees no point in involving county government in symbolic ideological battles. While knocking on thousands of doors he has heard over and over again from voters who are tired of the divisive and angry rhetoric that defines today’s political discourse.

Stuart’s opponent presents a clear choice. This is her 5th time on the ballot without ever being elected to anything. At the beginning of her campaign, she stated the reason she was running was to “stop the Washington liberals from taking over our area”. Now she has switched reasons and claims to want to “work together to solve local problems” (sound familiar?).
She has a long history of divisiveness on various political boards at the Courthouse. The best know was the Merit Board “gas card” issue that is so complex and intertwined with local political cliques that it cannot be explained in a few short paragraphs. Basically, she voted to give one of her political allies a taxpayer funded car and gas card. This drew the ire of our popular Sheriff.
This and other politically motivated complaints dragged on for some time and resulted in the Merit Board, which she chairs, running up outside legal fees to the tune of $479.122 paid for by you and me, the taxpayers.
She was a supporter of the “Stop the Steal” efforts, which I think have been entirely discredited. She even tried to overturn her own defeat to Eddie Mannis when she ran unsuccessfully for State Representative. She was ultimately unable to provide any evidence of fraud and her challenge was thrown out.
A quick look at her Facebook page shows a recurring theme “Vote for me, I’m a Republican”. Yet we have found a surprising fact. Prominent Republicans, lions, and lionesses of the party do not support her. It is not my place to reveal any names, but Stuart has bipartisan support the likes of which I have not seen since the days of Tommy Schumpert.

When this campaign began very few gave him a chance. Stuart was a decided underdog. Now the conventional wisdom is that the race is tightening. I believe we are seeing an upset in the making. I generally try to follow Yogi Berra who said, “I never make predictions, especially about the future”. But in this case, I predict that Stuart Hohl will prevail and be elected the next 3rd District County Commissioner.

Here is the Coldwell Banker Wallace December report.

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Feel free to call me if you have any questions.
865-556-1276
Greg Mackay
Real Estate Broker

Here is the link to my YouTube channel for the June Housing Report compiled from the Knoxville Area Multiple Listing Service data.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Greg Mackay
Real Estate Broker
Coldwell Banker Wallace
865-556-1276

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Here is the April Housing Report compiled from the Knoxville Area Multiple Listing Service data.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Greg Mackay
Real Estate Broker
Coldwell Banker Wallace
865-556-1276

Infograph

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Charts

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Here is the March Housing Report compiled from the Knoxville area Multiple Listing Service data.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Greg Mackay
Real Estate Broker
Coldwell Banker Wallace

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I want to thank Claudia Stallings our VP of Residential Sales who compiles this report monthly.

If you have any questions about this or any realty concerns feel free to contact me.
865-556-1276

Greg Mackay
Coldwell Banker Wallace

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Patrick Relford
(865) 335-7941
press@votevirginiacouch.com

VIRGINIA COUCH LAUNCHES RUN FOR TENNESSEE HOUSE DISTRICT 18
Knoxville Attorney’s Campaign to Focus on ‘Opportunity’

Knoxville, Tennessee - March 11, 2020 - This week, Knoxville lawyer and small business owner Virginia Couch announced her intention to run for the Tennessee House of Representatives, seeking the District 18 seat.

“I believe success depends on opportunity,” Couch said. “And I will fight for all Tennesseans to have the opportunity to receive a quality public education, the opportunity to have access to quality, affordable healthcare, and the opportunity to improve their economic condition and achieve financial security.”

“Our governor and legislative majority in Nashville are actively working to block access to these opportunities for many Tennesseans,” Couch added. “I won’t sit back and watch any longer. I’m going to do something about it.”

Couch is an attorney with The Trust Company of Tennessee, and is also the founder and co-owner of Barkside Lodge, a dog boarding, daycare, swimming, and grooming center in Lenoir City. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee with a B.S. in Business Administration and from the University of Tennessee College of Law where she earned her law degree with a Business Transactions Concentration. Since 2009, she has also served as Adjunct Faculty for the University of Tennessee College of Law teaching contract drafting.

She said her law and small business background will suit her well as a State House Representative.

“As a business lawyer and a small business owner I have learned two important skills missing in many legislators: how to listen and how to work as part of a team.” Couch said. “I’m excited for the chance to bring my experience to the Capitol.”

Couch, a 32-year resident of Knoxville, currently lives in the Seven Springs community with her partner, Brian Blind.

Putin and a boy.

For what it's worth:
I think Romney will pick Senator Rob Portman of Ohio as his running mate.

From Forbes. The self proclaimed "Capitalist Tool"

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Someone forgot to tell Ron Paul that this thing is over.
His troops stormed the Minnesota delegate convention on Saturday and took over:

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Earlier this month in Maine the same thing:

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And Nevada too.

Watch Montana on June 3rd.

Knox County Charter Sec. 2.03 specifies the following elections for County Commission in 2010:

County Commission District 1 for six years
County Commission District 2 for six years
County Commission District 3 for four years
County Commission District 4 for six years
County Commission District 5 for six years
County Commission District 6 for six years
County Commission District 7 for four years
County Commission District 8 for six years
County Commission District 9 for six years
County Commission Seat 10 at-large for four years
County Commission Seat 11 at-large for four years

New.
On our website.

KnoxVotes.Org

Check to see if you are registered to vote.

See (link...) for a detailed explanation of the process.

We have processed 34,600 names on the White petition.
26,231 are valid thru stage 1.
This is a rejection rate of 24.19%.
We do not count signatures if the person is not registered, if the "genuine address" or the date is absent or if the citizen failed to print their name.

This represents over 71% of the needed signatures.

We have checked 6687 thru stage 2.
6637 were valid.

Greg Mackay
Knox County AOE

We have a two part process to verify the petitions.
First, using the Petition Eligibility System developed by the County Information Technology Department, we look up each signer. We verify that the person is registered and has put down the address we have in our files. We also look to make sure that the other components required by law are there: printed name, date, and the complete wording of the amendment(s) on the page.
We call this Stage 1.
In Stage 1 we have processed 25,010 names on the White petitions.
19,268 are valid.
The rejection rate is 22.95%.
We have completed Stage 1 for 52.55% of the number needed to put the white petition on the ballot.
In Stage 2 we check the signature on the petition against the signature on the voter registration card. If the worker thinks they are not the same signature we make a copy of each signature and put them in the "Disputed Signature" file.
This is a very slow process.
I do not have any exact numbers for Stage 2 but after two and a half full days there are less than a dozen names in the Disputed file.

Greg Mackay
AOE

We have processed 18,837 on the white petition.
14,543 are valid.
That is 22.77% rejection rate.

This is 39.67% of the needed number.

The easiest way to register to vote is to print the online form, fill it out and mail it in.

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The link tells you how to register and how to find the address of your election office.

These forms work anywhere in the USA.

Send this along to everyone and lets have a viral voter registration drive.

Greg Mackay
Adminisrator of Elections
Knox County, Tennessee

The title says it all.

The link explains it all.

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With the date of the New Hampshire presidential primary set at last, the primary calendar is finally in order. The first votes will be cast 38 days from today in Iowa. The course ahead over the next three months:

Thursday, January 3: Iowa

Saturday, January 5: Wyoming Republicans

Tuesday, January 8: New Hampshire

Tuesday, January 15: Michigan

Saturday, January 19: Nevada; South Carolina Republicans

Tuesday, January 29: Florida; South Carolina Democrats

Saturday, February 2: Maine Republicans

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Early voting starts here Jan. 16