Election '06: Incumbents rule the day

November 9, 2006

By BEN GARRETT
Independent Herald Editor

HUNTSVILLE — Scott County voters joined voters across the state in voting for incumbents in Tuesday’s gubernatorial, state representative and U.S. representative races, as well as for the Republican nominee in the race to replace retiring Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

Local voters also voted with voters statewide to approve state constitutional amendments banning gay marriage and providing for property tax breaks for seniors.

In local municipal races, meanwhile, most incumbents retained their seats — including Huntsville Mayor George Potter and Winfield Mayor Kenneth Burchfield — and a referendum that would have allowed the sale of liquor by the drink in Huntsville narrowly failed.

Nationwide, it appeared as midnight approached Tuesday that Democrats would regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives, while the U.S. Senate remained too close to call. Going into the evening, Democrats needed to take 15 House seats away from Republicans and six Senate races away from Republicans in order to regain control of Congress.

Votes were returned in Scott County relatively quickly after polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday evening. A malfunction with one of the MicroVote voting machines used during the early voting period, however, held up final returns, with some 400 early votes not being released by the Scott County Election Commission until 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night.

Tuesday’s vote went off without a hitch in many of Scott County’s 10 voting precincts, with the exception of Winfield, where a early morning malfunction caused a four-hour delay in voting in the Fifth District.

The election day vote followed a record midterm early voting period in Scott County that saw 2,908 votes cast. An additional 2,644 voters cast ballots on election day, for a total voter turnout in Scott County of just 39.4 percent.

TOWN OF HUNTSVILLE

In the Town of Huntsville’s municipal election, Mayor George Potter and all four of the town’s aldermen were re-elected to two-year terms. Also in Huntsville, a referendum to allow the sale of liquor by the drink narrowly failed.

Potter, a three-term incumbent, found himself in a close battle with challenger Glenn G. Lawson for much of the evening. Lawson outpolled Potter 76 to 60 at the Huntsville precinct on election day, but with votes from the Fairview and Helenwood precincts added in, Lawson’s lead shrunk to 79-73. Potter won the early vote by a large margin — 179-86 — allowing him to retain his seat by an overall margin of 252 to 165. Challenger Milford Dwayne Chambers received 23 votes.

All of Huntsville’s aldermen sought re-election without opposition and received several hundred courtesy votes. Alderman Robert Smith was the top vote-getter, with 243, while Sharra Crowley received 237 votes, Wesley Riggins received 229 votes and Mark E. Love received 215 votes.

The town’s referendum that sought to allow the legal sale of alcoholic beverages failed by a narrow 16-vote margin, with 219 voters casting votes against the referendum and 203 casting votes in favor of the referendum.

TOWN OF WINFIELD

In the Town of Winfield, voters returned incumbent Mayor Kenneth Burchfield for a new four-year term, as well as incumbent Alderman Vurscle Bert Burchfield. Incumbent Alderman Chad D. Jones was defeated by challenger John D. Sexton by a single vote.

Burchfield defeated challenger Cecil Strunk by 15 votes, receiving 137 votes to Strunk’s 122 votes. Alderman Burchfield received 170 votes, followed by 120 votes for Sexton and 119 votes for Jones.

STATEWIDE RACES

Incumbent Governor Phil Bredesen (D — Nashville) will serve a second four-year term after cruising to victory in Tuesday’s election. In the state’s 38th District, incumbent Leslie Winningham (D — Huntsville) will serve another two-year term, and in the state’s Fourth Congressional District, incumbent Lincoln Davis (D — Pall Mall) will serve another two-year term.

Also on Tuesday, it appeared that Republican nominee Bob Corker had been elected to fill the seat of retiring Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

Voters also overwhelmingly voted to approve constitutional amendments banning gay marriage in Tennessee and providing for property tax relief for seniors.

In the gubernatorial race, Scott County voters joined voters statewide in giving the nod to Bredesen. Bredesen received 3,230 votes in Scott County (61%) to 1,931 (36.5%) for challenger Jim Bryson, a state senator from West Tennessee.

Statewide, Bredesen led Jim Bryson 64% to 30% with 81% of the vote returned late Tuesday night. Bryson conceded the race to Gov. Bredesen early Tuesday evening, shortly after vote totals began to be returned after the 8 p.m. poll closures.

Davis, who replaced Van Hilleary in the Senate when Hilleary ran for governor in 2002, received 3,652 votes (74.2%) in Scott County, while Republican nominee Kenneth Martin received only 1,262 votes (25.7%).

District-wide, Davis had been projected the winner late Tuesday, leading Martin 66% to 34% with 73% of the vote counted.

Winningham received 3,778 votes (77.8%) in his home county, while independent candidate Champ Langford, who ran against Winningham as a Republican nominee in 2004, received 1,070 votes (22.0%) here.

District-wide, Winningham had been projected the winner late Tuesday, leading with 69% of the vote to Langford’s 31% with 39% of the vote counted.

In the highly-watched Senate race, Corker received 2,798 votes (52.1%) in Scott County, while Democratic nominee Harold Ford, Jr. received 2,504 votes (46.7%). Statewide, the vote was much closer, with Corker leading Ford 48% to 47% with 82% of the vote counted at midnight Wednesday morning.

Corker had received 823,329 votes to 766,890 votes for Ford, a difference of just over 46,000 votes. Most prognosticators were unwilling to call the race, which could affect balance of power in the U.S. Senate, in Corker’s favor; however, Republican leaders in Tennessee were expressing their confidence that Corker had defeated Ford as votes continued to be returned early Wednesday morning.

In the vote on “Amendment 1,” which would amend the state’s constitution, Scott County voters chose overwhelmingly to ban gay marriage, with 4,469 (87.8%) voting in favor of the amendment and only 620 (12.2%) voting against the amendment.

Statewide, 81% of the voters had voted in favor of the amendment and only 19% against it with 79% of the vote counted. Media organizations declared shortly after the polls closed and votes began to be returned that the amendment would pass.

Also passing with ease was a constitutional amendment that will allow for property tax breaks for seniors over the age of 65. In Scott County, 3,777 (83.0%) voted in favor of the amendment, while 774 (17.0%) voted against it. Statewide, 83% of voters had voted in favor of the amendment and 17% against it with 77% of the vote returned.

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