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May 15, 2006
What Election? - The one you didn’t show up for. That’s what election
This is where you – nearly nine chances out of ten say it’s you – are soundly berated for abandoning your civic duty and for failing to flood the precincts with your voting selves. One is tempted to look upon your slothful, fetid mass with a combined pity and disgust; but one is reminded that such will not really improve anything. So, it’s back to the cheerleading. In August and November, we can get a majority of eligible voters to the polls. Why not? The only thing stopping us is apathy. Rah, rah.
In case your curiosity clutches at you in ever the feeblest way, here’s what the few of us have wrought. Some in Chattanooga elected a new member to the nine-person City Council. 1,519 bothered to cast votes in the 9th District, with about six in ten going for Debbie Gaines. Quenston Coleman came in a distant second. The voting minority of Chattanoogans also re-elected their two judges: Sherry Paty, who outdid challenger Gerald Webb; and Russell Bean, who was unopposed.
In other courthouse news, Circuit Court riders Jackie Schulten, Marie Williams and Neil Thomas cruised to victory. That’s because no one ran the races with them. The two Democratic candidates in Division 2 waged the closest contest in the election, however. Tom Crutchfield edged out Steven Grant, and will face Republican Jeff Hollingsworth in August. If you didn’t vote on these, you’re in for enduring eight years of what we chose. The Chancery Court was renewed again, and most of the Criminal Court was as well. The one exception there is Division 1, where two veteran prosecutors will joust for the gavel. Rodney Strong is the Democratic nominee, and Barry Steelman is the Republicans’ choice. You’re straight, then: Crutchfield v. Hollingsworth in Circuit 2, and Steelman v. Strong in Criminal 1. The rest of the bench slots are formalities.
The Hamilton County Board of Commissioners will have at least two new members this September. Jim Coppinger won the three-way GOP primary in the Third District, and faces no further opponent. The composite (a nicer way of saying “gerrymandered”) Sixth District is a story in precincts: incumbent Lou Miller had her strongest support in East Lake and its southern neighbor Cedar Hill; Lookout Valley was almost a tie (and East Side 1 was a tie); and the evidence shows that community organizing and these newfangled interwebs can make a difference, for in St. Elmo 1, newcomer John Allen Brooks won 75 percent and had the highest precinct vote count. He also cleaned up in Sunnyside, with 84 percent of that precinct. Commissioner Miller was the only incumbent ousted in the primaries, and it was a rather inglorious unseating, to the tune of a 65 to 35 advantage for Brooks.
Commissioners Fred Skillern, Richard Casavant, Greg Beck and Larry Henry all fended off primary challengers, but Beck and Casavant will face opposition in the general election. Casavant’s August 3 opponent, fellow UTC faculty member Joe Dumas, was quick to point out on his blog that Ken Holloway, Casavant’s primary opponent, garnered 31 percent against an incumbent, where there was low turnout – and Dumas reads into that a sense of dissatisfaction that he will endeavor to leverage in the coming months. Dumas is a Libertarian, but Tennessee’s ballot access laws (written by Republicans and Democrats) force him to appear as an Independent on the ballot. Fifth District Commissioner Beck, a Democrat, defeated Cynthia Coleman, and if the numbers hold up, he should have no problem dispensing with Republican Bernie Miller in the general. Only 321 voters cast ballots for Miller, while Beck had 1,802 to Coleman’s 798.
That leaves the two other match-ups, in Districts 4 and 8. Warren Mackey seems poised to win his first (or second, depending on what really happened in the 2002 primary) election to the seat he now holds through appointment. The heavily Democratic district pushes the numbers that way (not to mention that Mackey now has the incumbency advantage), though Brian Caldwell is a worthy opponent who will undoubtedly continue his fight for quality of community no matter the outcome of this race. In the Eighth, we can anticipate nothing less than an all-out battle. Democrat John Bailes showed up with enough primary votes to make this interesting. He had 733 to former Democrat Curtis Adams’ 817 Republican nods. The push will be on, all summer long, to get voters to the polls in the south central districts. The County Mayor race is now set, where incumbent Claude Ramsey will likely keep the position despite the efforts of Brian Johnson. Sheriff candidate Billy Long also faces an uphill battle against John Cupp, but this one is too unsettled to call. There’s the independent candidacy of Dave Alverson, which may add some sort of spoiler effect; and Long may well be planning a hard-hitting campaign now that he is past the primary. There’s one more contest to mention (before the additions of General Sessions Judges and part of the School Board, which will be covered in subsequent columns), and that is the challenge by Johnny Horne to Criminal Court Clerk Gwen Tidwell. It’s tough to read the tealeaves on Horne’s higher vote count, as there doesn’t seem to be any public dissatisfaction with Tidwell’s performance. This could simply be partisan warfare. Court clerk positions are hardly prime perches for launching new policy intitiatives.
The rest of the elected government jobs will be held by the same people you’re used to seeing do them. District 9 County Commissioner Bill Hullander, District Attorney Bill Cox, Public Defender Ardena Garth, Trustee Carl Levi, County Clerk Bill Knowles, Register of Deeds Pam Hurst, Circuit Court Clerk Paula Thompson, Juvenile Court Clerk Ron Swafford and Juvenile Court Judge Suzanne Bailey are thanking something like 13.68 percent of us for returning them to their posts. We’re clapping ourselves on the back rather smugly for having taken charge of this for you, yet we unhesitatingly welcome the rest of you slackers to the ranks of citizenhood – if you so happen to wake up one day with a twinge of concern.
[From the May 10, 2006 Pulse.]
Pulsations | By joe lance | 02:01 PM