Parties Considering Nominees For 6th District Election

The local Democratic and Republican parties will soon nominate candidates to run for the 6th District Metro Council seat previously held by the late George Unseld.The  seat is now held by Deonte Hollowell, an independent who was appointed by the council after Unseld's death. There will be a special election for the seat in November, and the major parties have until August 10th to choose nominees.The Democratic Party is accepting applications through Saturday. Chairman Tim Longmeyer says candidate interviews will begin soon, and a committee of nine party officials will vote on a nominee on the 29th."There are three legislative districts that comprise Metro District 6 and each of those legislative districts has three members," he says.Any Democrats who applied to be appointed by the council will automatically be considered, and Longmeyer says he's not sure who else would pursue the seat."Really, no preconceived notion," he says. "On one hand, you would think most of the individuals who were interested probably would have applied to the Metro Council, so we really don't know how many additional to expect."Among the previous applicants who will be considered are Ken Herndon and Neeka Parks Thompson, who each almost received enough votes to be appointed. The county GOP will vote on a nominee this month. Hollowell has said he's interested in running in the special election, too.