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.
