Owen To Seek Council Presidency

Democrat Tom Owen will seek the Louisville Metro Council presidency next year.If elected, Owen would become the fourth consecutive Democrat to hold the position. Current President David Tandy is running for mayor, as is his fellow Democratic councilman Jim King and Republican councilman Hal Heiner.Owen says he's running as someone who is not involved in the upcoming mayor's race and who has an understanding of the issues the council will take on in 2010."We are dealing with budgetary, we're dealing with fiscal pain. We're dealing with a mayor who will be leaving office at the end the year and does have his attention increasingly focused, I believe, on being a candidate for another office," he says.Owen further says he wants to keep the mayoral politics out of the council and steer the body away from partisan fighting."I'm not a miracle worker," he says. "But to the extend possible, I would like to see the council take a step or two above what I have seen a great deal of, and that is gotcha politics."A spokesperson for the Republican caucus says a member of the GOP will likely run against Owen. A candidate has not yet been chosen, but Councilman Ken Fleming is being encouraged to run. The election is next month.