Mike Padgett came in third in the race for the U.S. Senate Democratic nomination. The News Sentinel reported on the front page that Padgett "tied for third," but the State of Tennessee Division of Elections begs to differ:

Bob Tuke 58946 32.3%
Gary Davis 38971 21.3%
Mike Padgett 33341 18.2%
Mark Clayton 32160 17.6%
Kenneth Eaton 14638 8.0%
Leonard Ladner 4668 2.6%

There was another interesting outcome over in Blount and Sevier Counties. In the Republican primary for the State Senate 8th District, Former Rep. Doug Overbey knocked off incumbent Sen. Raymond Finney by a scant 139 votes:

Jim Bishop 977 4.6%
Raymond Finney 10036 47.4%
Doug Overbey 10175 48%

Finney carried Blount Co. by a huge margin, but Overbey scored big in Sevier Co. Which is odd, because I would have guessed that nobody over there had ever heard of him. The 20th House district, Overbey's former seat that he gave up to run against Finney, is a relatively small part of Blount Co. Finney did not concede and says he wants a recount [1].

Some other incumbents got the boot, including U.S. Rep. David Davis [2] in TN-1, who lost in the Republican primary to challenger Phil Roe by 460 votes. In the State Senate 14th district Democratic primary, incumbent Sen. Steve Roller lost to Eric Stewart by 131 votes.

Sen. Rosalind Kurita narrowly defeated Democratic primary challenger Tim Barnes by only 19 votes in a hotly contested race. Barnes is considering a challenge [3].

In another "turnout counts" election, Blount County school board candidate Patricia Bell lost by only 14 votes [4].

In the "poetic justice" department, incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen hammered Nikki Tinker, who drew national attention and the ire of Barack Obama for running racist ads, by more than 60 points in the Tennessee 9th Congressional district Democratic primary.

The Black Wednesday victories in Knox County were real puzzlers, especially some of the margins.

The most surprising to me was the race for Sheriff, with Republican J.J. Jones beating Democrat Randy Tyree by nearly 16 points. I really thought it would be closer than that, and that Tyree actually had a chance for a narrow victory. Again, low turnout was probably a factor, as were short memories and scandal fatigue.

The other disappointing result was Property Assessor. Andrew Graybeal was clearly the more qualified candidate, but Black Wednesday candidate Phil Ballard won by more than 25 points. Go figure.

Congratulations to Sam McKenzie in County Commission 1-A, Amy Broyles in 2-B, and Finbarr Saunders in 4-A for their decisive victories.