By Vivian Shipe
KNOXVILLE, TN — The seat held by 2nd US congressional district Congressman Jimmy Duncan Jr for the last thirty years is now up for grabs. As he prepares to retire and spend time with his family ; a plethora of candidates has surfaced to compete for the position.
East Knoxville Community Meeting goup, (EKCM) which under the direction of Michael
Covington, meets monthly to bring vital first hand information and resources to the East Knoxville Community; set up a forum for all ten of the candidates. Eight of the ten invited came for turned out to be a most informative hour and a half session. The two not in attendance were Tim Butchett and Ashley Nickloes.
Under the tight direction of radio personality Hubert Smith; all candidates answered hard questions vetted to them. Some of the questions were in the areas of building walls at the border, the press: friend or foe, willingness to take PAC money, separation of children from their family, and the selection of the next Supreme Court Justice.
Each candidate answered frankly when questioned and none held back on their answers or in their disagreement with the stance of other candidates.