New Poll Gives Joe Carr Comfortable Lead in Race for Rutherford County Mayor

A new poll reveals strong support for former Tennessee State Representative Joe Carr’s campaign for Rutherford County Mayor.

The Oregon-based Triton Polling and Research released the poll this week. The company polled 455 likely Rutherford County voters between January 19 through January 21 of this year, according to a press release.

If the election were held today, 31.7 percent of those polled would vote for Carr. Exactly 15.6 percent would reelect current county Mayor Bill Ketron. Exactly 11.3 percent would vote for candidate and current District 11 County Commissioner Rhonda Allen.

The poll said Carr has more support than Ketron and Allen combined. With that said, exactly 41.3 percent of respondents remain undecided.

Carr told The Tennessee Star on Wednesday that he expected a much higher percentage of undecided voters.

“I thought the undecideds would have been more like 60 percent,” Carr said.

“With regard to where we stood, I knew we were doing well. We worked very hard in the fall. This probably was better than what I was expecting. We were surprised on two fronts: one, how many people have already made up their mind, and two, the margin that we showed in this poll.”

Carr said he and his supporters campaigned hard late last summer and early last fall by knocking on thousands of doors throughout Rutherford County.

Poll results also reported the following:

• Exactly 92.1 percent of respondents, when asked, said it was important to restore ethical and lawful leadership to the county.

• Addressing the odor and water quality issues associated with the county’s Middle Point Landfill was also a high priority for respondents, with 76.3 percent saying it was very important to them and an additional 18.3 percent saying it was at least somewhat important to them.

• Exactly 82.2 percent of respondents said ensuring that county infrastructure is paid for in a fair and equitable way is a high priority, while 84.4 percent said improving county roads is a high priority.

• Exactly 70.1 percent of respondents said a high-quality curriculum and facilities for K-12 schools is a high priority.

Carr said Wednesday that the county has tremendous challenges — and tremendous opportunities.

“At the top of the list is the unrestrained growth we are experiencing. Everybody wants growth, but a boom town has unrestrained growth that is somewhat out of control. We are one of the fastest-growing counties in the state and one of the fastest-growing in the country,” Carr said.

“We need to get a handle on our growth, but, specifically, the landfill is a very, very top priority.  Ketron came into office in 2018 and promised to solve the landfill crisis in Rutherford County. When he came into office that landfill was taking in 3,000 tons of trash per day and it now takes in, according to TDEC [the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation], 4,500 tons of trash per day. And 70 percent of that comes from outside of Rutherford County. We have to get some control and oversight over the Middle Point Landfill.”

The election for party nominees for Rutherford County mayor is scheduled for May 3, according to the county government’s website.

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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star and The Georgia Star News. Follow Chris on Facebook, Twitter, Parler, and GETTR. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Joe Carr” by Joe Carr. Background Photo “Rutherford County Courthouse” by Ichabod. CC BY-SA 4.0.