Tony Norman plans run for BOE seat

Tony Norman

Today was the first day to pick up qualifying petitions to run in the March 1 Knox County primary. RIGHT SMACK HERE to see who has so far. The deadline is noon Dec. 10.

Now, so far former County Commissioner Tony Norman has not picked up one. But, he told me the other day that he fully intends to run for the 3rd District seat currently held by BOE Chairman Doug Harris. (Doug has said he doesn't plan to seek re-election.)

This does not bode well for current Superintendent Jim McIntyre nor the current KCS administration.

Here's the deal:

Four of the current nine BOE seats are up next year. Currently, the board voting block is, on average, 5-4 with a pro-administration majority. The seats that are up are currently held by Harris, Karen Carson, Mike McMillan and Tracie Sanger.

Of those four, McMillan is the only one not in the so-called pro-administration voting bloc. He's also the only one pretty much guaranteed to win re-election.

That means the folks who don't approve of the administration's current direction need only one seat to gain the majority.

In the meantime, Carson has said she doesn't plan to run, so if she doesn't change her mind, expect a dogfight between new candidates for that seat. Expect a dogfight for Sanger's seat. Someone will take her on. That's pretty much a given.

And Doug's seat? Well, Tony Norman is a pretty popular guy in that district. And he's not a McIntyre supporter. Someone will more than likely run against him, but I don't see them winning. Of course, we're still a little more than five months away from Election Day.

Still, this is going to be a long five months for McIntyre whose name along will become a campaign issue.

And, it could be even longer. There's also a general election in August.