It is gonna be interesting, first we have two Independents in the race. We will not hear from them until after the May Republican and Democrat primary elections. The Independents automatically appear on the August 2010 ballot. The Independents are Robert Bedwell, local businessman and also Lewis Cosby, well known critic of the current Mayor. Cosby is currently a Republican delegate of the Concord precinct. His move to run as an Independent could make for some interesting Republican conversations.

In the Democrat primary, we have newcomer and youthful Michael McBath and former Knoxville President of the NAACP Ezra Maize. This one is difficult to handicap because the Democrat party is split 500 ways to Sunday. But, if the Democrats had a brain, they need a young image for their aging liberal organization. So, McBath would be the best one to re image their party.

In the Republican primary is the barn burner. The winner of this primary has a 98.9% chance of moving into the 6th floor corner suite on September 1, 2010. You ask, “Why a 98.9% chance in Republican Red Knox County?” To quote Former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards, somebody “getting caught in bed with a ‘dead girl’ or a ‘live boy’ “. But we digress.

This race pits Seventh district State Senator Tim Burchett and Former Knox County Sheriff Tim Hutchison. There is no way to handicap this race today. Burchett has been running longer and according to sources close to the Burchett campaign has a nice advantage in early polling. According to sources close to the Hutchison campaign the last two weeks has increased in dollars to the campaign and the talk is turning in the right direction. Debates and opportunities for the voters to contrast and compare the candidates will decide the ultimate outcome.

Stay tuned, we are confident this race will cause our blog team to wear out a couple of laptop computers.