A new wrinkle in the runoff contest for the City Council’s District 2 seat may have shifted some voter sentiment in the direction of Rachel Knox, w
JB
Knox and Tomasik on the campaign trial in July
ho — on the basis of October 8 results showing her trailing Frank Colvett Jr. by a 2-1 margin — has been, and probably still is, a decided underdog.
Knox, a Democrat, netted 3387 votes in the regular general election, for a percentage of 22.5 percent. Colvett, a Republican, had 7455 votes, or 49.53 percent of the total in the four-person race, leaving him a hair’s breadth from the outright victory that would precluded the need for a runoff.
The new boost for Knox comes from the third-place finisher in that race, sometime Libertarian/sometime Republican/sometime Tea Partier Jim Tomasik, who had 2811 votes, for 18.67 percent of the total and, as the recipient of votes from conservative populists, is generally credited as the proximate cause of Colvett’s missing out on a majority the first time out.
Now Tomasik, in a letter to fellow advocates of de-annexation in the Cordova area, has formally endorsed Knox over Colvett, a fact which prompted Colvett, expressing concerns about “bias” at the event, to bow out of a scheduled Tuesday night debate with Knox to the Cordova’s Voice group at the old Cordova Community Center.
Knox was present and spoke to the group, pledging her support for the de-annexation process, which is the subject of proposed enabling legislation in the 2016 General Assembly, and promising to represent the citizens of Cordova “as long as you are in my city district.”
In his letter to Cordovans, Tomasik spoke of friendly meetings with Knox during the late campaign and said she “needs our support to win the run-off.” Tomasik said, “Ms. Knox will serve us well, and she also cares deeply about the public safety of Cordova.”
About Colvett, however, Tomasik had this to say: “Her opponent in the run-off has already proven he has no interest in listening to the constituents of Cordova. While serving on the land use board… he tried to steamroll the approval of building a Walmart at Macon Road and Houston Levy [sic]…This not the kind of leadership that will serve us, and if he is elected we will continue to be a marginalized and neglected part of the city of Memphis….”
