There's a very simple answer to who's at fault, Lenoir City mayor, Tony Aikens, and city council members who will do anything Aikens tells them to do.

You have to go back to February 2021 when Aikens got the council to pass an ordinance that stated that a judge candidate does not have to live within the city limits to seek that office. It was well known that Aikens was planning to run then city attorney, Greg Harrison, for the judgeship even though he did not live in the city. Aikens and the council were warned that was not legal, they proceeded anyway.

Then in early 2022, Aikens got the council to cut the judge pay from $75,000.00 to $7,200.00. His hope was that any other candidates thinking about running for judge would just drop out of the race. He knew full well if his candidate won the election, he would get the council to reinstate the 75k salary. Of course that's exactly what happened. Harrison won the election by 33 votes.

Shortly after the election, Aikens stated, at a city council meeting, the reason he had the salary cut was to get the current city judge, Robin McNabb, out of office. All of these actions sure smack as election interference.

Some had suggested to me that Greg Harrison, should be blamed or the election commission should be blamed. One even said the state supreme court got it wrong.

Bottom line, Tony Aikens caused this whole mess, costing the city tax payers at least $47,500.00 to pay Harrison legal fees. I guess attorney Greg Harrison could have told Aikens he was wrong and not run. The election commission certainly had no authority to take any actions on the election and I guess you could claim the court got it wrong but that's a big hill to climb.

Mayor Aikens only made one huge miscalculation, he never expected former judge, now council member, Robin McNabb, would pursue the city's illegal actions to conclusion. In fact he was counting on the fact that she would not. Hopefully, Ms. McNabb will bring the same determination to city government as a council member.

So if anyone wants to point the finger at anyone, it has the be the mayor and council. And that's all.