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.