The Knox County primary election is upon us!

Our interest is in races with a direct impact on the safety and health of our neighborhoods. County Commission seat 11 is hotly contested and land use is the big sizzle.

Long time community volunteer Kim Frazier and wife of Dr. Russ Frazier, who has just returned from volunteering in Ukraine, is pitted against wrestler/gym owner Devin Driscoll who seems to have a strong youth athlete following.

Mrs. Frazier is a long time advocate for neighborhoods, better schools and roads and Mr. Driscoll, heavily supported by the development community is said to be the face of a sports themed development in Farragut.

Ms. Frazier’s camp has alleged their signs are being repeatedly vandalized and stolen from private property and volunteers have filed police reports. Mr. Driscoll, when asked to intervene with his volunteers allegedly responded “Arrest ’em.”

Here is an article by astute, long time political scene reporter, Betty Bean printed in KNOXTN News. Like us, she is curious why so much money and paid expertise is being poured into the campaign of a candidate, who, like our Mayor, is a former wrestler with no prior civic experience.

This one concerns us, but draw your own conclusions. How much is a candidate worth and why are home builders spending more than $100,000 (as of last January, surely more by now) to elect him? Why would a community volunteer decide to go pro and largely self-fund her campaign?