Back on inside Tennessee,
our panel to weigh in with some final
thoughts on the race for mayor.
Again, this is a primary If
someone receives 50% + 1 though,
they are the new mayor of Knoxville,
so there's a lot at stake. John.
Some would say money matters. Does it?
And how much are we seeing in this race?
It's not a bad thing, that's for sure.
And as far as American Canyon,
she is way in the lead.
Latest 1/4 reports have her with
152 K on hand just right now,
or at least as of the end of June,
spending 33,000 and taking in 48.
So that's basically far out distances.
Everybody else.
The closest would be Jeff Tallman.
He's got 57167 on hand,
took in 9500, spent 37132.
The other two either zero or very,
very, very little.
And again these are the latest
reports and so there may be a lot
that has happened since those.
I don't know about you guys, but I've
gotten a lot of mailers at my home.
Some of you all have too.
So let's talk about it.
Can mayor can Cannon win 50% + 1 or
does she have a real serious challenge
from the three of these candidates?
I don't think there's a serious challenge.
The question is, can these three candidates
add up to 50% + 1 on their own together
to force a runoff in the in the general?
And I think frankly the answer is no.
I I predicted India will
prevail in the primary 50% + 1.
It may be a little closer than she likes,
but she's popular within the city limits.
There are a few detractors.
I know that again, some of the KPD
rank and file are not happy with her.
I know there are a few elements
of the city that aren't happy,
but I think she wins. Susan,
I think Jeff Tallman has has at
least run an effective campaign.
He's been out knocking on doors,
he's been at all the forums and
he's somebody that we know.
He's a businessman and I think that does
appeal to a certain part of voters.
So if if there is a runoff,
I think it will be Jeff.
I think she certainly has the, you know,
probably has the lead right now.
She's raised a lot of money.
An incumbent always has an advantage.
Well
if there's money, I if there's a runoff,
excuse me, it might be constants as well.
I think Constance and Jeff are going
to be closer than people realize.
Early voting is underway and it
may be the difference of just a
few votes because we've seen it
happen in city elections time
they may only be a few votes.
Let's let's shift to the conversation
about a special session coming
on the 21st of this month.
Susan Governor Lee calling that session,
but he listed 18 priorities.
Some would say that's way too many.
Some say he didn't include some key
ones that should have been in there.
Well, those he didn't include,
he knew he couldn't get past.
I think I've never seen that
many for a special session.
Normally it's one or two
things and they focus on that.
I think this was,
it's Donna and I discussed before the show.
You know, some politician probably
put those 18 together because if
he gets three or four or five,
it's a win.
If he had put two or three things
out there and got none of them,
then he's a loser and a lame duck
for the rest of his term.
Don, is this a case where typically it's like
when you go into questioning for the FBI,
they already know the answer before they ask
the question? I think they,
I think the governor does know the answer
or the likely answer to most of them.
So much of them, Yeah. No.
And so much of them really have
little to do with gun safety.
They have to do with mental health,
some of the same meaningful things,
some of the same things
we talk about buzzwords,
things that will probably be easy to pass,
but the end of day,
will they make us significantly safer?
No. We have not gotten to the heart
of gun regulation and control in
a meaningful way that does not
tread on the Second Amendment.
And God forbid we do that,
John. We know that about 70% of
this legislature is made-up of rural
counties and some would say it's
dominated by those lawmakers from those
counties who are going to be hugely
influential on this special question.
What do you think has a chance,
maybe some juvenile justice stuff.
I he has talked about maybe
trying to shift more money to
help with mental health services.
There's a shot he'll like get
some Democrats to support that,
you know, a lot of cosmetic stuff.
You know, if some more money did
go for mental health services,
I think that would be a great
thing because we all know
regardless of what the party is,
we have a serious problem right
now across the state of Tennessee.
We closed all our mental
institutions in the late 90s.
We'll have two. Yes. Yeah,
they put it this way.
There's not a single thing on his list
of 18 that would had any meaningful
effect on the covenant shooting,
Covenant school shooting.
And that's if you're going
to use a litmus test.
That's a pretty good one.
Not a single thing he's proposing.
We focused on the mayor's race.
You can watch those interviews
in their entirety on the
inside tennesseepage@wbir.com.
We're back next week with a preview
of this special session with
two lawmakers from Knox County.