...I am certain that the vote spread between new Chair Don Dougherty and his opponent, Acting Chair Betty Reddick, was around 40 votes.

Personally, I was disappointed that on announcing the victor, Bill Owen, who officiated our meeting, didn't thank Reddick specifically for having accepted the leadership role for the party on former Chair Jim Gray's resigination. Democrats owe a great deal to Reddick for having stepped into the void at that pivotal--and chaotic--point in Knox County politics. At the end of our meeting, Mark Cawood had a quick whispered conversation with Owen, at which time Owen asked attendees to thank Reddick for her service. She drew a great deal of applause.

And personally, I felt the party owed former Chair Jim Gray, who was not in attendence, a kind mention, as well. Jim was an extremely bright and very passionate leader, which combination sometimes made for contentiousness within the ranks. His strength, though, is/was his strong and intuitive grasp of our party's most basic unifying tenets and his abilities to relate those tenets to current events. He "taught" the party's platform better than anyone I know locally, and for that, I very much respect him.

I'm sorry, I can't recall who, if anyone, oppossed Alex Smith and Will Minter for First and Second Chair. I'm certain that the Third Chair race was contested, but I can't recall Kevin Barry's opponent. In the Fourth Chair race, Lorraine Hart beat out Thera Cox, a very hard working veteran from the 1st Commission District. The races for Secretary and Treasurer were uncontested.

I'm with Michael. Betty Reddick left the coffers considerably fuller than did Brian leave them for the GOP. We could have sprung for coffee and doughnuts.

(Michael, rocketsquirrel, or others I may not have seen today, can you fill in the gaps in the sketchy report I offer Sandra?)

Knox Insider 007: "It seems like the GOP take care (of) their people."

This we knew already, Knox.

Jim Gray fought for term limits about a year before the public caught on, after they saw what he predicted did indeed happen. Some of those who blamed Jim for the sky being blue are gone and some are now in party positions of power. Outside lawyer circles Daughtery is an uknown entity, we'll see how it goes. The past few conventions the women's club sold concessions, guess they were too busy campaigning for Betty to get that together.