KYLE MURPHYStaff Writer

With just a week left before the deadline, two candidates have officially filed for Tullahoma Mayor and Aldermen races while more names have picked up their papers for the aldermanic race.

The deadline for potential candidates to pick up and submit their qualifying papers for the August election to the Coffee County Election Commission, located at 1329 McArthur St. in Manchester, is Thursday, April 4, at noon. The withdrawal deadline is the following Thursday, April 11 at noon. 

As of Saturday, March 23, Lynn Sebourn, who serves as the Coffee County Commissioner for District 9, is the first candidate to file his papers for the seat of Tullahoma Mayor, while Jeff Damron has picked up his papers for the race. As of writing, the other potential candidates who have picked up, but have yet to file are current Tullahoma Alderman Daniel Berry, Petros Pisinos, C. Scott Shasteen and George Wilson. Earlier this month, current Mayor Ray Knowis announced he would not be seek reelection, citing health reasons as one of the contributing factors.

For the race for Tullahoma Aldermen, current alderman Derick Mann, Matthew Whitaker Bird, Busch H. Thoma and Damron join potential candidates Richard Marshall and Sernobia McGee in picking up their papers. Meanwhile, Franklin Cammack has officially qualified for the race of Tullahoma aldermen. For the aldermanic race, the seats of Jenna Amacher, Daniel Berry and Mann will be on the ballot.

For the Manchester races, William Nickels has picked up his papers and joins potential candidate Brandon Imhoff for the race of Manchester Mayor. Other candidates Robert “Bob” Bellamy and Joey Hobbs have already qualified for the seat of Manchester Mayor. Current Manchester Mayor Marilyn Howard announced in February she does not plan to seek reelection, citing time with her family as impacting the decision.

For Manchester aldermen, Shannon Fletcher joins other potential candidates Jason Bramblett, Harold Jones and James Threet in the race. These candidates have yet to qualify as of writing. Similarly to Tullahoma, three seats will be on the August ballot as the terms of current aldermen Julie Anderson, Bellamy and Ryan French will expire in August.

The other candidates who have picked up their papers are Rupa Blackwell for the State Executive Committeewoman for District 16, Khamai Marion’Day Rozier for the 4th District U.S. House of Representatives seat and Veronica D. Owens, who has submitted her qualifying papers, for the U.S. House of Representatives – 4th Congressional District. Current State Senator Janice Bowling has filed her papers for her 16th District State Senate seat, and current State House of Representative Rush Bricken has filed his petition for his 47th District State House of Representative.

The other races on the August ballot will be winners of the March 5 primary, which decided the winners of those respective offices. Those offices include Coffee County Property Assessor, with Elissa Fletcher winning the primary, Tullahoma City Schools Board of Education with Broc Compton, Rosie Graham, Pat Welsh and Kim Uselton winning their respective seats. Also on the county were Dowe Jones and Roger Chamers winning the seats of the Coffee County Commission Districts 1 and 2 respectively; Arlis Markum for Road Commmissioner Seat 2, District 4; Holly Matthews for Coffee County School Board Seat 1 – Districts 1,3 & 4, Gary Cordell and Scott Hansert for Coffee County School Board Seat 2 – Districts 2, 6 & 7; Robert Gilley and Beth Yentsch for Coffee County School Board Seat 3 – District 5, 8 & 9; Randal Braker for Constable Seat 3 – Districts 5,8 & 9; and Susan Parsley and Lee Sullivan Manchester City school board.