“Sweep” was the word, in several different ways and cases, as votes were tallied in the final regular election of 2014.
In Tennessee, all four Constitutional Amendments on the ballot passed: Amendment 1, which gives the General Assembly strong new authority to legislate limits on access to abortion; Amendment 2, which allows for gubernatorial appointments of state appellate judges but grants the selfsame General Assembly veto power over those appoitments; Amendment 3,which bans for all time a state income tax; and Amendment 4, which grans veterans’ groups the right to hold charity raffles.
In Shelby County, every participating municipality passed its referendum allowing wine-in-grocery-store sales, beginning in July 2016. The voters of Lakeland, the only county municipality not to have such a referendum, passed one allowing sale of liquor-by-the-drink, establishing the prerequisite for a wine-in-grocery-store referendum down the line.
Sen. Alexander
And, in the nation at large, virtually every U.S. Senate race that had been regarded as a toss-up saw the coin land with the Republican elephant heads-up. In Tennessee’s Senate race, GOP incumbent Lamar Alexander ran away from Democrat Gordon Ball, while incumbent Democrat Mark Pryor in neighboring Arkansas fell to Republican congressman Tom Cotton.
Republicans in Tennessee, who were never in jeopardy, increased their super-majority in both legislative chambers, staging an upset or two in the process.
Among other results, inn the closely watched Germantown mayoral race, Alderman Mike Palazzolo turned away a challenge from former city administrator George Brogdon with relative ease.
To that inveterate and inevitable question at election time — “Any surprises?” — the true answer was, “None,” except for the larger-than-expected outcomes in almost every situation and the speed with which the outcomes presented themselves.
Turnout for Tuesday’s election — in Shelby County, in any case — was far lighter than it had been in 2010, when a comparable local and statewide ballot was featured. But there was no overt indication that a heavier turnout would have revealed any difference in voter sentiment.
In partisan contests, Tennessee voters made it clear overall that what in recent years has been a sea change from Democratic to Republican loyalties would continue. And further evidence that Tennessee voters were engaged in a process of redefinition was the ease of adoption for the four Constitutional Amendments.
To be sure, there were some unsurprising outcomes. As expected. 9th District Democratic congressman easily defeated Republican challenger Charlotte Bergmann, while, in the adjoining 8th District, Republican incumbent Stephen Fincher made short work of his Democratic foe, West Bradley.
State Sen.-elect Kyle
Along with Cohen’s win, Democrat Sara Kyle’s romp over Republican opponent George Flinn in the special election for state Senator in heavily Democratic District 30 was one of the few bragging points for Democrats — not just statewide but in the nation at large, where Republicans garnered more than enough U.S. Senate seats to take over the Senate and presented a beleaguered President Obama with a Congress controlled in both legislative chambers by the GOP.
As for Obama, who saw his party’s candidates in virtually every state distance themselves from him in (mostly) vain attempts to win their races, it is difficult to escape the sense that voter fatigue was nigh on to universal with the lame-duck president’s remote personality and inability to achieve successes or to properly advertise those he had achieved.
With the House and Senate now both in control of the Republicans, Obama is now in the position of having to take what he is allowed from a national legislature that was already recalcitrant. And the presidential veto is now almost the only weapon he has to defend his prerogatives and the remnants of his agenda.
More analysis and the numerical breakdown of the election results to come.
