Boyd Prevails over Lambert in District 8 Commission Race

Commissioner Tim Boyd, center, reacts as members of his campaign team and family react to election commission returns.

The voters of District 8 have returned Tim Boyd for a third term to the Hamilton County Commission.

Boyd, who was challenged for the second time by East Ridge Mayor Brent Lambert, received 1,203 votes to Lambert’s 714 in the Republican Primary. There is no opponent in the General Election.

“This is one of the most satisfying moments of my life,” Boyd said. “I cannot begin to thank the people who voted today. They stood by me as the politics of personal destruction played out at an unprecedented level in Hamilton County. I wish I could shake the hands of every one of the 1,203 good people who voted for me today because they know the difference between right and wrong.”

Boyd was indicted by a grand jury in April on a charge of extortion. Those charges were a result of Lambert secretly taping several conversations with Boyd concerning “damaging information” Boyd had on Lambert regarding campaign contributions Lambert had received from developers in East Ridge 31 months after being re-elected to mayor of the city. On the tapes Boyd had suggested that Lambert should pull out of the election.

Marc Gravitt, a former East Ridge City Councilman who served two terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives, outdistanced Randy Johnston for the Register of Deeds position by more than 3,000 votes. Gravitt will now face Democrat Vicki Schroyer in the general election.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.