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By Buzz Trexler

Star Correspondent

Four candidates, including two incumbents, met the noon Thursday deadline for filing qualifying papers for three Elizabethton City Council seats that will be decided in the Nov. 5 elections along with state and federal seats.

Candidates qualifying for one of three seats open on City Council include:

– Two-term incumbent Kimmie L. “Kim” Birchfield, a retired law enforcement professional first elected in 2016. He serves on the Parks and Recreation Board, Surf Betsy Advisory Board, and 911 Emergency System Board. Birchfield previously served on the Elizabethton City School Board and has made unsuccessful runs for Carter County Sheriff.

– Deborah B. Gouge, a retired educator seeking her first political seat. She served as Elizabethton High School’s fine arts chair and was choral director for 37 years. Gouge retired from the city school system at the end of this past academic year.

– David Richard Tester, who previously served on City Council, but was unseated in the 2018 midterm election. He served as board chairman of Carter County Tomorrow, which was dissolved in 2019.

– Longtime incumbent Jeffrey C. Treadway, who serves on the Bonnie Kate Theatre Board, Historic Zoning Commission, and Main Street Board. Treadway was first elected to City Council in 2012.

Candidates qualifying for city judge include incumbent Jason L. Holly and Teresa Murray Smith, and voters have seen this situation before.

City Council elected Holly as interim city judge in February 2020, succeeding T.J. Little Jr., who died Dec. 28, 2019, leaving the city without a judge. (Little had been in the seat since 2007.) The following August, Holly failed in a write-in bid to fill Little’s unexpired term, losing to Smith. However, Holly defeated Smith in the November 2020 election.

Three candidates – including incumbents David Phil Isaacs and Jamie M. Schaff – are running for three open seats in the city school board race: incumbent David Phil Isaacs, incumbent Jamie M. Schaff, and Elizabethton dentist Robert Wayne Lewis Jr.

Three incumbents are seeking the three open seats on the Watauga City Commission: Dennis G. Hicks, Richard D. McCracken, and Albert Mitchell Thomasson.

Also on the Nov. 5 ballot:

– Republican Timothy Aaron Hill, the incumbent in the District 3 state House race, will face Democrat Lori Love. Both were unopposed in their respective primaries on Aug. 1. District 3 includes Johnson County and part of Carter, Hawkins, and Sullivan counties, including Blountville.

– Incumbent Republican Marsha Blackburn, who has represented Tennessee in the U.S. Senate since 2019, will face Democrat Gloria Johnson, of Knoxville, who defeated three candidates in her party’s primary.

– Incumbent Republican Diana Harshbarger, who ran unopposed in the Republican Primary for her 1st District seat, will face Democrat Kevin Jenkins, of Sneedville, who defeated Bennett H. Lapides, of Gatlinburg, on Aug. 1.

Alone on the ballot will be Renea Jones, who defeated longtime Elizabethton Mayor Curt Alexander in the bid for the 4th District seat in the state House of Representatives during the Aug. 1 Republican Primary, sending her to Nashville as there is no Democratic opposition. District 4 includes Unicoi County and part of Carter County.

The deadline for qualifying candidates to withdraw is noon Thursday, Aug. 23.

The voter registration deadline is Monday, Oct. 7. Early voting runs from Wednesday, Oct. 16, through Thursday, Oct. 31. The deadline to request an absentee ballot is Tuesday, Oct. 29.