Eddie Mannis and Indya Kincannon advance to the General Election Day on November 5th. Where do these Knoxville mayoral candidates stand on clean energy issues in Knoxville?

If you’ve been following along with our coverage of the Knoxville elections, you might be on the edge of your seat wondering how the candidates did and how many Knoxvillians showed up to the polls. Local businessman and Knoxville native, Eddie Mannis pulled in the most votes, with former school board chair Indya Kincannon coming away with the second most votes. Mannis and Kincannon will face off in the general election on November 5.

Here are some brief highlights from these two candidates from our Energy Forum in late July to help you understand where they stand.

Fixed Fees

• Kincannon stated she “opposes regressive fixed rates,” and pointed out that “better ways to finance fixed costs are being done in other cities and KUB knows there are other ways.” She also stated a desire to work with KUB to find a revenue neutral way to work on low-income weatherization to replace the decrease in funding from TVA.
• Mannis called the fixed fee issue a “tough issue” and one thing that would address this is to make the KUB Board more representative of the community. He stated that he “would have that hard conversation with everybody I appoint, don’t forget you are representing the entire community.” 

Note: After these quotes KUB announced that it will not seek further increases to the fixed fee for the next three years after the scheduled increase goes into effect this fall. 

Climate Goals

• Mannis articulated satisfaction with the recently approved goals, stating they were a “milestone.” 
• Kincannon expressed that the goal for the community could be more ambitious (the current goal does not include a community goal until 2050).

Note: The climate goals referenced here were a proposal at the time of the Energy Forum, and were passed unanimously by the City Council on August 13.

TVA

• Kincannon promised to use the mayor’s “bully pulpit” to push TVA. 
• Mannis stressed the “bully pulpit” as a last resort and instead would build and leverage strategic partnerships.

KUB Board

• Kincannon suggested at least one KUB Board member be someone who has “experienced getting one of those pink slips” for utility disconnection.
• Mannis asked for greater public participation in the nomination process, particularly by attending City Council meetings where nominations are approved.

Knoxville General Election – November 5

The general election will be held on November 5. Here are some important dates and links for that election.

• August 7, 2019: First day to request an absentee ballot
• October 7, 2019: Final day to register to vote before election
• October 16, 2019: First day of Early Voting
• October 29, 2019: Final day to request an absentee ballot
• October 31, 2019: Final day of Early Voting
• November 5, 2019: ELECTION DAY

Less than 20,000 of the registered ~92,000 Knoxvillians cast ballots in this Primary Election. If you voted, thank you! It’s important that we take it one step further and bring out our friends, family and neighbors to the polls to vote for leaders to will advocate for a cleaner and healthier Knoxville! Stay tuned for more election coverage as we get closer to November 5th!