Zane Vanover wins Sullivan mayoral race over Angie Stanley

KINGSPORT — Zane Vanover's second try for elected Sullivan County office turned out like his first one four years ago: a success. However, that means a second time running for county mayor did not prove to be a charm for Angie Stanley, who lost Tuesday's mayoral election by a much wider margin — nearly 3,000 votes — than her narrow primary defeat against incumbent Richard Venable four years ago. Total unofficial turnout Tuesday was 15,236, more than the originally predicted turnout of 10,000 to 12,000 by Administrator of Elections Jason Booher, based on past comparable elections. Unofficial results of the May 5 Sullivan County Republican mayoral primary released before 10 p.m. indicated Vanover won over opponent Angie Stanley 8,639 to 5,680. Both are from Kingsport. Vanover did not seek reelection to his District 6 County Commission seat this year, instead making a run for mayor of the region's most populous county. This marked the second mayoral race lost by Stanley, the first a 121-vote loss in 2022 to Venable, who did not seek reelection this year after 16 non-consecutive years as county mayor. This year, she lost to Vanover by 2,959 votes. The winner in the mayoral race will face no competition from a Democrat, independent or write-in candidate in the Aug. 6 general election, since none in those categories qualified. In all votes cast before election day, including absentee and mail voting, Vanover started the night's results with a lead of 4,644 to 2,886. Those results were released just after 8 p.m. on the Sullivan County Election Commission website. Stanley has won two elections for county commission and one for school board, but this makes her second loss in a county mayoral race, making for an overall political race record of 3-2. The final unofficial tallies were done shortly after 9:50 p.m. Vanover, in a victory party at High Voltage in downtown Kingsport, declared victory at about 9:40 p.m. He thanked his supporters and family in a speech. "The main thing I want to say to you tonight is first of all thank you, thank you, thank you. And I think this sends a pretty good message to a lot of people. I think the message is work hard, do things the right way and it pays off," Vanover said. Venable did not officially endorse Vanover, but said he was feeling reassured with the election result. "I'm just so happy to have somebody of his caliber and his experience," Venable said. Stanley, in a more subdued gathering at a private residence off Muddy Creek Road in Blountville, conceded at about 9:56 p.m. in her campaign treasurer's house. She told supporters she knocked on almost 6,000 doors on her own with a little help from supporters over six months. She said the two top campaign issues were high quality healthcare in the county and reducing high taxes. "I knocked on not one door where anybody was happy with their healthcare or happy with their taxes," Stanley said. "I'm still on the school board and I'll continue to fight for our children's education," Stanley said. "I gave it my all. There's nothing I'd do different." However, she said "the media" unfairly reported mostly on two political action committees instead of the three that sent out mailers and other communications in the race. Both candidates have served on the commission, with Stanley serving eight years ending in 2022 and Vanover serving four years that will end when new District 6 commissioners take office Sept. 1 and he takes office as mayor for four-year terms. PACs, HARSHBARGERS AND SPENDING The race began in a mostly cordial fashion, although a February political action committee mailer against Vanover from the Tennessee Stand PAC began a slew of negative PAC mailers and communications from Tennessee Stand PAC and Sullivan County First PAC, which through postage markings for both came through Core Insight. That is connected to Roe, founder of Axiom Strategies LLC and/or a sister company were used by Stanley, U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-1st, and her son, District 4 state Sen. Bobby Harshbarger, R-Kingsport, in past campaigns. The connections are outlined in a May 5 article in the Times News. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is probing Tennessee Stand PAC because its mailers went out during the winter, but it had showed no receipts or expenditures into the spring. Tennessee Stands, a conservative group, filed a complaint with the Registry of Election Finance saying Tennessee Stand was confusing people into thinking it was affiliated with Tennessee Stands. Further confusing things is that Tennessee Stands subsequently has filed to become a PAC. Another PAC, the Defend US PAC, put out pro-Vanover messages. The PAC messages for Stanley were more negatives against Vanover than positives about her. In addition, the congresswoman endorsed Stanley through a PAC-sent electronic communications on two different times, one with each pro-Stanley or anti-Vanover PAC. Also, Bob Harshbarger Jr., the congresswoman's husband and father of Bobby Harshbarger, gave $1,900 each to five Sullivan County Commission hopefuls and $1,000 to another. The elder Harshbarger is seeking one of three District 6 commission seats, and although he is among three GOP candidates for those three seats in the May 5 election and thus guaranteed a win, the three will face off with two independent District 6 hopefuls in the Aug. 6 general election. One or two of the independents could win a District 6 seat. However, of the candidates Bob Harshbarger Jr. supported, only four were on the GOP primary ballot, and of those, the only one who won was newcomer Lakie Derrick in District 10. Those who lost were Tracy Haraz and Rick Hicks, both in District 4, and Stacey Vaughn in District 7. Bob Harshbarger also gave money to independents Zac Thomas and Travis Sampson, who will be independents in the three-seat District 11 general election race with three Republicans Aug. 6. The Harshbarger connections go deeper than just an endorsement of Stanley by the congresswoman. In addition, Bob Harshbarger Jr. in 2022 gave $500 to Vanover's District 6 commission campaign, according to financial disclosures on file with the Sullivan County Election Commission website. Also, Diana Harshbarger, then Diana Ketron, and Vanover, in his youth known as Randy Vanover, attended the old Kingsley Elementary from 2nd grade, when Vanover's family moved to Sullivan County from Virginia, through 12th grade at the old Ketron High School. All told, adding pre-primary financial disclosures from both campaigns, from the beginning of spending for both candidates combined, show that Vanover and Stanley spent more than $257,000 based on pre-primary reports. However, that does not include any of the spending from the three PACs that sent mailers and other communications to voters. MORE BACKGROUND In direct campaign contributions, Vanover received money from a PAC of former state Sen. Jon Lundberg, R-Bristol, who lost to Bobby Harshbarger in 2022. He also got contributions from former Kingsport Mayor Pat Shull, who formally endorsed Vanover. Stanley received in-kind contributions from Diana and Bob Harshbarger. One of the "dark money" PAC mailers decried two campaign contributions from Ballad Health officials, which Vanover pointed out were made by individuals, not by Ballad as an entity. Stanley repeatedly said a top priority for her as mayor would be getting competition back to offset Ballad's monopoly in hospitals, saying she supported the Tennessee General Assembly's action that would end the Ballad monopoly by 2028. Vanover is a farmer and former president of the Farm Bureau in Sullivan County, and as a commissioner he serves on various committees in county government, including one keeping tabs on the new county jail construction expected to be completed later this year. He serves on the Tri-Cities Airport Authority and the NETWORKS — Sullivan Partnership economic development group. He also is a former county school teacher at Sullivan North, Central and South high schools, having taught biology, history and geography and coached baseball and football, and has worked in land development. He and his wife, Kay, have two grown daughters and four grandchildren. Stanley is the current vice chairwoman of the Sullivan County Board of Education. She campaigned as operating a hair salon for 36 years. She is a graduate of Sullivan South High School. She and her husband have two grown children, Chuck Stanley. She campaigned on better transparency for county government, including a more robust and user-friendly county website, something Vanover also said he supported. Both said on the campaign trail in forums that they wanted to provide better funding for Sullivan County Schools, Kingsport City Schools and Bristol Tennessee Schools. The county provides funding for the county and city schools operating in the county, including Johnson City, that is split based on each system's share of students. A portion of state sales tax collected in the county and its cities goes toward local public schools, and the cities add more funding to that. Both were certified as "bona fide" Republicans by the local GOP, headed by Matthew Johnson, also a District 6 GOP commission candidate along with Bob Harshbarger Jr. and Tim Pullon. However, past Democratic primary votes became somewhat of an issue. The Vanover campaign cited a 2008 Democratic primary vote by Stanley, while the Stanley campaign responded with a 1990 Democratic primary vote by Vanover. Those would be 36 years ago for Vanover, who said he did not recall such a Democratic vote, and Stanley, who declined to address that blue party vote.