In the least surprising development imaginable in the nascent Knoxville mayor's race, the News Sentinel is reporting that Knox County Court Clerk Foster Arnett has taken his hat back out of the ring. Not that it was ever really very much in there to begin with. The rationale for Arnett's run was always hard to parse (beyond the hand-of-Victor-Ashe that some inevitably saw behind it--Arnett was a reliably loyal flack for the Knoxville Police Department during Ashe's time as mayor). And apart from appearing on some local political talk shows to say he was running, and naming a campaign treasurer, there was no sign of an actual campaign. As we noted last week, he was alone of the six putative mayoral candidates in having no campaign web presence at all. And with the first round of campaign fundraising disclosures due next month, Arnett might have figured it's better to quit while he's not quite so obviously behind.
Plus, Arnett was just re-elected last year to a job that pays $99,747--about $30,000 less than city mayor, but with what we assume is a lot less hassle. Anyway, that leaves five candidates to watch as we move toward disclosure time. Should be interesting.
UPDATE: We hear from Mayor Ashe that he was no-way no-how involved in encouraging Arnett to run. So now you know.
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