In the previous post of Matthew Park’s refusal to participate in a forum when all three candidates would not be invited. I have sent emails to Andy Fox and Stacey Bryan Smith. Mr. Smith responds with an email to me, here it is.
Hey Brian, thank you for reaching out. I am not shocked that I was not invited to the forum. It seems this is politics as usual for this group of Republicans supporting Andy Fox, who it seems are the same ones who were trying to remove me from the ballot. It is true I was not promoting my campaign before the Republican primary because of knowing the history of independent candidates splitting the vote and a democrat winning the seat, (ex Perot allowing Clinton to win 1994 and Taft/Roosvelt allowing Wilson 1912 to win). I love my area enough to not split the vote. I did, however, continued to meet with my community to give my experience on how to make legitimate points in zoning meetings to improve their case against the overzealous developers and politician’s decisions on how many houses per acre. I have been involved in zoning meeting due to my job as a radio frequency engineer for 28 years. I know due to my experience of what works and what does not. During these meetings with community, I was alarmed to hear more about the Republican candidates temperament along with Andy Fox’s team shenanigans as they were called in the June 3rd editorial from former Republican mayor Victor Ashe, the character of this man and his team were being revealed and I knew this was not a man to represent the south Knoxville community. Especially after their slanderous accusations, I was going to put all my cards on the table and go all in for the people of south Knoxville and the if the conservative vote is split it will be because of Mr. Fox’s missteps and accusations. The current term limited republican commissioner was condescending toward his own constituency and after witnessing the zoning speech concerning the Tipton station property Mr. Fox gave to board members; with his bullying tactics, he would not be an improvement. For the Republican committee to call me illegitimate and I have no chance of winning they are spending a lot of time and effort to discredit me. What are they afraid of? I believe come August 1st we have the potential to shock the political system and that is my goal. Thank you for your email and support for a voice for all candidates.
S.Bryan Smith
9th district commissioner candidate
When I receive Fox statement I will share it, just as when i covered his visit to Dry Hollow in November, recording his hour long talk, with zero edits.
