Local Democratic leaders began taking applications Monday, Aug. 18, for the state Senate District 30 seat in the Tennessee Legislature that becomes vacant Sept. 1.

KYLE

And Shelby County Democratic Party Chairman Bryan Carson scheduled a caucus of local party executive committee members from District 30 on Aug. 28 to discuss the vacancy.

The state Senate seat becomes vacant on Sept. 1 as veteran state legislator Jim Kyle begins his eight-year term of office as chancellor. Kyle was elected Shelby County Chancery Court judge in the August elections.

Because regularly scheduled state House and state Senate primaries were also on the August ballot, the executive committees of both local parties will select their nominees with a special general election to come on the Nov. 4 election ballot.

The deadline for those interested in the Democratic nomination to submit their names for consideration is noon Aug. 22.

Kyle was re-elected in 2012 to a four-year term in the Senate.

The winner of the special general election would serve to the end of 2016.

Kyle’s vacancy is one of two to be filled in the aftermath of the August elections.

The other is in Chancery Court where Chancellor Kenny Armstrong, one of three judges in the civil court, was re-elected to another term on the court as he ran unopposed.

Before the election but too late for Armstrong’s name to be removed from the Chancery Court race ballot, Armstrong was appointed by Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam to the Tennessee Court of Appeals. And Armstrong’s tenure on the appeals court begins Sept. 1, the day that his new term of office in Chancery Court was to begin.

The Governor’s Commission for Judicial Appointments began taking applications last week for that vacancy. The commission will recommend three finalists to Haslam for his consideration.