Going over Tuesday's election picks

Jennifer Owen

So, how did the ol' Porch do when calling Tuesday night's elections? Well, pretty darn great.

I got nine out of 11. Not too, too shabby. You can read the original predictions RIGHT SMACK HERE.

But, a slight recap.

The county commission races were pretty easy. Michele Carringer is too well known in that 2nd District to lose. Advice: This campaign ain't over. The general election won't be easy.

4th District Incumbent Jeff Ownby's past problem was too much for him to overcome politically (although I do believe he's a good commissioner), and Hugh Nystrom is just too strong of an opponent. The third candidate, Janet Testerman, didn't campaign as hard and didn't campaign right. Her platform was way too general and didn't contain enough substance. Advice: Talk to Jeff. He listens to his constituents.

Brad Anders creamed John Ashley. Everyone saw this one coming. Advice: I don't really have any.

Laura Kildare over Cheri Siler was an easy one, but I figured Siler - with her name recognition - would pull some votes and she did, despite suspending her campaign several months ago. Advice: Campaign hard in the general election. Carringer isn't a pushover.

The countywide races were a little more tricky. Quite frankly - and I was right - I suspected incumbent Law Director Richard "Bud" Armstrong to pull 60 percent over challenger Nathan Rowell. Again, the commercial with county Mayor Tim Burchett supporting "my friend" Bud was a killer. Advice: Rowell says he's going to run in four years. He probably wouldn't be a bad choice, but he needs to lose the slogan that he's a "professional and not a politician." If you run for office you're a politician. Period.

I had John Whitehead down for "barely, barely" beating Jim Weaver in the property assessor's race. He did. By 70 votes. That one could have gone either way. Weaver got a little dirty toward the end, bringing in Whitehead's family, but, whatever, it's politics. Credit to Whitehead for hiring Clay Crownover as his political handler. He knows what he's doing. Even though he's a Democrat in Knox County. Heh. Hahaha. Advice: Don't go into the office and fire everyone. There's good people who work there.

On the school board side of things, I picked a runoff between Susan Horn and Buddy Pelot with Lori Ann Boudreaux placing third. I got that one right as well. I thought there might be a slim chance that Horn would get 50 percent plus one and win it outright, but Pelot was well-funded, so I figured she'd probably hover around 45 percent. I was right on that. Advice: It's gonna take more than money to win this race.

On the presidential side, I picked Trump and Clinton. No-brainers. Advice: Prepare yourself Tennessee. Regardless of who our next president is. Heh.

Now, what did I miss?

OK, I had Rick Staples over Evelyn Gill in the commission race. Like I said, she looks great on paper but he's out there campaigning. Here's why I think he lost. Rick has run unsuccessfully for office a number of times. That puts a bad taste in some folks' mouths. I think it did him in. Advice: Gill, even though she's a Democrat in a strong Democrat district, is in for a fight in the general election. Michael Covington, a Republican, is a strong candidate.

My second bad call was picking Grant Standefer over Jennifer Owen. I'm sorry, but I didn't give her a snowball's chance. This was clearly a pro-superintendent vs anti-superintendent race and the last time that happened in North Knoxville, the heavily funded pro-Jim McIntyre candidate (Tracie Sanger) won. Now, that McIntyre is stepping down as superintendent he was not even a factor. That led me to believe that Grant - with all the coin that the big wigs gave him - was a shoe in. Oops. Advice: Never, never, never underestimate the art of shoe leather and banging on doors.

Anyhoo, congrats to the winners. And those who didn't win aren't necessarily bad candidates. I can see many of them coming back for another shot someday. 

Looking at the election predictions

Friday morning quarterbacking the elections. So, how did the ol’ Porch do? I got 14 out of 18, or almost 80 percent. I think I need to get a better crystal ball.

So, what did I miss?

Well, Clarence Pridemore, an attorney who has been practicing law for three years defeated long-time chancellor, Daryl Fansler, only because Republicans voted for one of their own based on party choice rather than experience and qualifications. I’m not even sure Pridemore knows where the City County Building is.

Dude isn’t just over his head. He’s at the bottom of the ocean. Expect the other two chancellors to take up the workload. Also, expect a drop in cases filed in chancery court. No one wants to take a chance. Lawyers – good ones and bad ones – are lamenting this elections. Ask them if you don’t believe me.

Anyhoo . . . whatever.

Attorney Bill Ailor also a Republican, defeated Harold Wimberly for the circuit court judge division 2 seat. At least Ailor, who doesn’t appear to age, has some clue of what’s going on, and actually campaigned.

I thought Jason Emert would edge out Eddie Smith for the state House (13th District seat), but really it could have went either way. I figured all the bad publicity would have helped Emert. Common sense prevailed in this race.

Additionally, I thought there was a chance that Steve Hall – despite his support of Sen. Stacey Campfield – had a shot of narrowly defeating Martin Daniel. I think deep down I felt Daniel would win, but second guessing is for suckers.

In the meantime, I called it for:

• Clerk Foster Arnett
• Trustee Ed Shouse
• Register of Deeds Sherry Witt
• BOE (1st District) Gloria Deathridge
• BOE (6th District) Terry Hill
• Circuit Court Judge (4th Division) Greg McMillan
• Criminal Court Judge Scott Green
• General Sessions Judge Patricia Long
• Governor Big Bill
• U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander
• U.S. Senate Gordon Ball
• Congressman John Duncan Jr.
• State Senate (7th District) Richard Briggs
• Supreme Court judges get retained

Again, congratulations to all the winners. We’ll see some of you in the November races.

Da Porch predicts Aug. 7 elections

Ah, another Election Day. Write in my name, vote for me, whatever. Here’s my predictions for a number of the races.

COUNTY GENERAL

Clerk: Incumbent Arnett Foster Jr., a Republican, creams his Democratic opponent,  Mike Padgett. Let’s face it, most people think Foster’s done a pretty decent job and Mike seems to have a propensity to make up crap. He also launched a nasty campaign and, I think, quite frankly, people are sick of negative campaigning.

Register of Deeds: Incumbent Republican Sherry Witt destroys independent challenger Donald Wiser, who could potentially find himself behind bars this time next year. Thanks for wasting our time, Donald.

Trustee: Ed Shouse, a Republican, handily defeats Democratic challenger Jim Berrier. People like Ed and Jim just doesn’t have any name recognition.

BOE District 1: Incumbent Gloria Deathridge barely makes it past challenger Marshall Walker. There’s a chance he eeks it out, but I’m giving it to her based on the power of incumbency. Walker and a third opponent during the May primary actually combined for more than 50 percent of the vote, but I don’t see him getting every one of the other guy’s votes.

BOE District 6: Terry Hill handily defeats Sandra Rowcliff. Call it the “McIntyre” factor.

Circuit Court Judge Div. 2: Harold Wimberly, a Democrat and incumbent, beats Bill Ailor, a Republican who doesn’t appear to age. Heh.

Circuit Court Judge Div. 4: Greg McMillan, a Republican, easily defeats, Daniel Kidd, a Democrat.

Chancellor: Daryl Fansler, a Democrat and the incumbent and one of the most respected judges in Knox County, hands Republican challenger Clarence Pridemore his a$$. Pridemore ran only on the idea that people would vote for him because he had an “R” in front of his party’s name.  He refused to campaign, refused to do interviews and refused to pay off a credit card debt. Like Donald Wiser in the Register of Deeds race, he wasted time for a lot of folks.

Criminal Court Judge: This one is tough pick, but I think Scott Green, a Republican, defeats Leland Price, a Democrat. Either one would do a fine job.

General Sessions Judge: Incumbent and Republican Patricia Long easily beats challenger and Democrat George Underwood Jr. (I finally saw my first Underwood campaign sign the other day by the way.)

STATE/FEDERAL PRIMARIES

Governor: Come on, really??? Big Bill takes this one with like 80 percent. Coonrippy places second. Heh. Coonrippy.

U.S. Senate: Incumbent Republican Lamar Alexander easily defeats Joe Carr, once again proving that the tea party really doesn’t have much of a grasp in the state.

U.S. Senate: Gordon Ball, a Democrat, takes this one, only to lose to Alexander in November.

U.S. House of Representatives: Incumbent Republican John Duncan Jr. easily defeats Jason Zachary. There is a chance that Zachary gets 35 percent of the vote, which technically might be considered an upset.

State Senate Dist. 7: Richard Briggs defeats incumbent Stacey Campfield, a Republican. There’s another challengers who might actually get 2 percent of the vote. There’s some talk among Democrats that they’ll vote for Stacey because they think their candidate, Cheri Siler, would have a better shot against him than Richard. Uh, no. She won’t. She’ll lose.

State House Dist. 13: Despite the shenanigans, there’s a good chance Jason Emert, a Republican, pulls out a win over Eddie Smith. It doesn’t matter, though, because incumbent and Democrat Gloria Johnson will win in November.

State House Dist. 18: Another close one, but I think incumbent and Republican Steve Hall gets a narrow victory over Martin Daniel.

I left out a few races (executive committees and Farragut for example, because I really haven’t followed them). I’ll also go ahead and predict that the Supreme Court judges also get retained.

Don’t forget to tune into WBIR tonight for all your election coverage.

There ya go. On to November.