News

County Commission race left winners and losers

Michael Edney and Tim Griffin share a laugh during a Chamber of Commerce forum on April 23.

By Bill Moss, Published: May 22, 2014

Popularity contest
The District 4 Board of Commissioners looked close on paper. It was close at the ballot box.
Incumbent Tommy Thompson's win gave him a 10-for-10 record all-time in countywide elections. He won election as Clerk of Superior Court eight times before running for the board seat in 2010. The District 4 campaign between Thompson and former sheriff's deputy Tim Griffin pitted two figures who were well-known and popular and had seemingly done nothing to make enemies.
In 32 years in the courthouse, Thompson had dealt with thousands of local citizens going through everything from filing estates for loved ones to fighting foreclosures to paying speeding tickets. Voters had already punched the circle beside his name nine times.
Griffin's resume included camping atop a billboard on Four Seasons Boulevard to raise money for the Special Olympics. He had served on three different volunteer fire departments and worked as a law officer for both the Hendersonville Police Department and the sheriff's department. His work as a DARE officer placed him in front of thousands of elementary school students and dozens of teachers from Etowah to Edneyville. For several years he perched atop a billboard on Four Seasons Boulevard to raise money for the Special Olympics. He ran unsuccessfully for sheriff in 2006.
"You had kind of a neck-and-neck race between two people well known in the community and I think it came down to more of a popularity race as compared to mine and Larry's," Lapsley observed.