The filing deadline for the Louisville Metro Council’s 6th District has passed and a total of 20 people have applied for consideration to fill the seat, which was declared vacant following the sudden death of Councilman George Unseld.
The council will hold two special meetings later this month, the first on June 29 to interview the candidates and another on June 30 to vote for the replacement. The crowded field includes community organizers, legal professionals, small business owners and former Metro government employees.
Here are all the applicants:
John P. Albers: a 6th District resident, who doesn’t list any work experience.
Phillip Baker: a State Farm insurance salesman.
Carolyn Bowman: an adjunct professor at Georgetown College.
Carol Clark: a former Louisville Metro Police officer and small business owner.
Kevin L. Dunlap: a housing and community development consultant and interim chairman of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
Dan Borsch: a small business owner and co-founder of the Facebook group “Say NO to Bridge Tolls,” who challenged Unseld in the 2004 Democratic primary and 2006 campaign manager for U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth.
Ken Herndon: the director of operations at the Louisville Downtown Management District and former council candidate who narrowly lost to Unseld in the 2008 Democratic primary race.
Cassia Herron: former organizer with Community Farm Alliance and economic development officer in Metro government, who previously worked as a volunteer with the Louisville Urban League.
Angela Hollinsworth: an outreach coordinator with the health department.
Deonte Hollowell: an adjunct professor at Spalding University, lecturer at the University of Louisville and instructor at Jefferson Community and Technical College.
Rachel M. Hurst: a political consultant for various organizations, including Habitat for Humanity of Louisville Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and the Kentucky Fairness Alliance.
Keith B. Hunter: an assistant Jefferson County attorney and civil rights attorney, who was close friends with Unseld and his rumored successor.
David James: a former Louisville Metro Police officer and president of the Fraternal Order of Police, who served as commissioner of the Kentucky Bureau of Investigations and currently a lieutenant with the University of Louisville campus police department.
Paula Johnston: an officer manager at a doctor’s officer until January.
Giavannai Lusco: a social clinician in the state cabinet for health and family services.
Stephen Peterson: an executive assistant manager at Walgreens Co.
Bobbie Powell: a labor organizer and Jefferson County Public School instructor.
Mary Sullivan: a former security guard and receptionist at Actor’s Theatre.
Barney Sutton: a state realty agent.
Neeka L. Parks Thompson: an attorney who previously worked as deputy director in the state’s Personnel Cabinet.
It’s important to note that the Jefferson County Attorney’s office is conducting a background check on all the applicants to ensure that they qualify for the position. The candidates are required to be 21-years-old, a qualified voter and have lived in the district for over a year prior to the election.
Once that is complete council members will begin reviewing the resumes before picking a replacement, who must be appointed by a majority vote of the council. The spokespersons for both council Democrats and Republicans tell LEO Weekly that the seat will remain Democratic.
“The council president has asked for a set of questions that pertain to their citywide vision and what qualifies you to serve the people of the 6th District,” says Democratic caucus spokesman Tony Hyatt, adding council members will also ask thorough follow-up questions. “The target time for each applicant that we’re looking at is 15 minutes for each candidate. Any additional information about them will be reviewed by the council.”
After the council makes its selection, both major political parties will pick their respective candidates to run in the general election this November to finish the remainder of Unseld’s term. That leaves open a possibility that whoever the council selects to fill serve for the rest of 2010 could be trumped by the party’s nominee, but Hyatt says the Democratic leadership in the city will probably respect the council’s choice.
9 Comments
I still would like to know how a people working for Louisville Metro can apply for a polictical office. I am a metro emploee and I am not allowed to run for office unless I resign my from my current job.
“Keith B. Hunter: an assistant Jefferson County attorney and civil rights attorney, who was close friends with Unseld and his rumored successor.” Really? Did Councilman Unseld tell you that or did Denise Bentley. Everyone knows Hunter is Bentley’s first choice and she is telling the world “that’s what George wanted.” David James is her second choice. I’m for Daniel Borsch. He’s made quite an improvement on the Burger Boy in our neighborhood, helps people out a lot, and has been getting us to sign petitions to turn the streets around here back into two-ways. I’m also offended by “this has to be a black seat” everyone is saying in the paper. What is this, a Woolworth’s counter with a sign – “No Whites”? All those eulogies last week said Unseld was for everyone; now those same people are calling this a “black seat.” Is there a gay seat, or a Jewish seat, or a hispanic seat, or a Baptist seat, or a Catholic seat, or an atheist seat?
I’m usually not interested in responding to “anonymous” posts, but here goes.
“Keith B. Hunter….close friends with Unseld…Did Councilman Unseld tell you that or did Denise Bentley?”
Hunter and Unseld both said it on numerous occasions in interviews with me before. In the second Jerry’s kids column back in 2009, this was reported under no objection by you or anyone else mentioned at that time.
Q: Are local politics so petty people have to prove their friendship?
“I’m also offended by ‘this has to be a black seat’ everyone is saying in the paper.”
It appears civil rights leaders are making it an issue in part because that was what proponents of merger were promising back in 2002 — six seats drawn with minority representation. I’m not sure if that argument will hold water when the council selects a replacement.
Q: When the mayor said a reason for city-county merger was the old city becoming, “poorer, blacker and older,” were you equally as offended?
Either way, the people of the 6th District deserve a qualified representative — black or white, Republican or Democrat — but they ultimately have the final say in 2012.
Ok, if Mr. Unseld said it to you directly then I stand corrected and I apologize. Still, it is now Bentley pushing Hunter, just like she pushed that wet-dry vote a few weeks ago in another district she doesn’t live in; she does not live in the 6th District and shouldn’t be interfering. Isn’t she a closet Republican anyway? The proponents of merger promised FIVE seats, not six – go back and read the stories. Mr. Unseld’s area was always described as a swing district. It still is. You did not address my Woolworth’s comment. Is it right to put a sign out on the “diner counter” saying “No Whites, Blacks Only Need Apply”? That’s what the so-called Civil Rights leaders are apparently saying. If so, they aren’t Civil Rights leaders as they are not pushing civil rights for everyone, just a select group. That’s called discrimination and I doubt Mr. Unseld would appreciate his old seat being used in a discriminatory way. As for whatever Jerry Abramson said, I probably ignored it. He is old news and I’m glad we’re getting a new mayor, even if the Democrat that was nominated wasn’t my first choice as I voted for David Tandy. Dan Borsch should win.
The NAACP encouraging the Metro Council to select an African-American for the 6th District seat is equivalent to Jim Crow segregation?
It’s a debatable position, I agree, but I don’t think the NAACP has establised a separate and unequal society in the 6th District.
That’s an incredible exaggeration to say the least and just demonstrates either a lack of knowledge or appreciation of black history. Period.
Ironically, those claiming the civil rights organization is pushing a “racial quota” forget that merger was based in part on whitewashing the old city’s population.
Let me get this straight, cutting the city’s black population almost in half was okay, but petitioning that one council seat out of 21 remain black is a pogrom?
If you say so. This is Kentucky.
You are turning this into a merger argument. That’s not what this discussion is about. Espousing leaving out the “Blacks Only, Whites Need Not Apply” sign at the counter is discrimination. That’s what Mr. Cunningham is doing. Thankfully we do have elections. Some of us choose to vote for black candidates when we think they are the most qualified and some of us choose to vote for white candidates for the same reason. My state representative is a black guy (Meeks) and I know I have voted him a few times. Voting for or calling for a “black seat” or a “white seat” is racist. When I go vote over at the Hildebrand House, the ballot doesn’t say “Black Seat Council District.” Racism may be a Kentucky value elsewhere in the state, and maybe in parts of Louisville (I do not know where you live) but in Old Louisville in the 6th District racism is not tolerated by a lot of people. We have blacks, whites, gays, straights, religious, atheists, poor, and rich people. Fuck, we have all of those except the rich ones right here in the building I live in. Using merger as an argument for leaving out the “Blacks Only, Whites Need Not Apply” sign is a ruse. I’m still for Borsch. I know he is white and in the opinion of those so-called Civil Rights leaders he is apparently unqualified because of his skin color.
You can discount quite a few of these candidates. My personal choice is Herndon as he suffered through one of the most negative assault campaigns I had seen yet in Louisville and still barely lost.
With that in mind I would suggest also discounting Carrie Herron from the mix. Herron is Gerome Sutton’s girlfriend (or was) and Sutton has had major trouble from fund he is in charge of with the African American Think Tank including a $30,000 grant from the State. It does not bode well if his GF worked for Metro in Finance that she did not help him. Some rumors say she helped him get the $30,000 loan and she was driving around a new BMW Sutton bought with those funds as reported at WHAS11.
Mr. Springston – My relationship with Mr. Sutton is personal and not professional. His work with the Think Tank has nothing to do with my ability to hold a Council seat or do anything else. If you were to speak with anyone who knows me and familiar with my work ethic, including those from the Metro Economic Development Department where I worked (and had nothing to do ever with getting the Think Tank funds), they will tell you that I always did my job and well. I am a people person and have a track record of working with a diverse set of people and know how to get things done. I would bring that to any job…you are definately entitled to your opinion, but check your facts before you spread vicious rumors.
Well Mrs. Herron let me the first to tell you are wrong. Your personal choices do undeniably affect your professional development. If your decision making abilities allow you to personally be involved with a person like Rev. Gerome Sutton you most certainly will never hold a local political influenced office. Rev. Sutton is a crook, he does not work and clearly uses the Think Tank as his own personal slush funds. You are and have been unemployed for some time and appear to be his live in girlfriend and “baby momma” this clearly does not bode well for you. Not to mention that a simple background check revealed you once left your child alone in a downtown restaraunt. You suddenly do not appear too reliable! Please Carrie how do you support yourself by the way? Through the misdeeds of your live in boyfriend and “baby daddy”, the good ole Rev. Sutton! Rumblings have even linked Rev. Sutton to drug dealing in the city and you want us to believe that you are not cupable in any way? You live off this crook, benefit from this crook yet you want to take no respnsibilities, please. You are clearly no better than Sutton you operate a fradulent business, Aunties Catering, that is not registered. Please honey for sake of good will sat down and save yourself face and hope this crooked preacher baby daddy of yours does not have the face the hands of Lady Justice any time soon. Trust me you are not thought of respectably in the community. You are a bad example for aspiring young Deltas. You are shacking up with a preacher for goodness sake. You have nothing to do with the Think Tank funds yet you live off of its proceeds? What a fraud you are! You are the exact type of person that we don’t need. Good riddance preacher’s baby momma. Please ride off to oblivion or feel the wrath of the WHAS-11 follow up to the story on your baby daddy and you. I promise it won’t be pretty when the Secret Service, F.B.I, State Police and I.R.S get finished with you. By the way, ignorance is no defense – you know that your “baby daddy” does not hold a regular job to wit how did you think he was support you and your kids borne out of wedlock. And please don’t mention Felt’s we are a gigantic leap ahead of you. Your character is severely flawed at the least.