Ditto ad infinitum.

Except there was nothing to vet, really - he hasn't been practicing long enough, and he refused to talk to reporters. I did talk to a couple of people who knew him growing up in Harlan, and they all said he's a nice guy who had a possibly rough childhood. But I don't think any more reporting on him would have made a difference - the people that voted for him over Fansler were just voting a straight party line. I reported that he didn't even know what Chancery does - didn't make a difference at all.

But when even Ruthie Kuhlman (albeit somewhat disingenuously) agrees something is wrong? Whoo boy.

She admitted she thinks judges should have more than three years' experience, although the minimum qualification in the state is that they must be licensed attorneys and have 25 registered voters sign a qualifying petition to get on the ballot.

"Maybe in the future the qualifications that they use for judge positions will be worded differently after this and the qualifications will be changed," she said.

Judges should be appointed, not elected.

Here's what I wrote in May:

Cutline: Fansler supporters Democrat Dennis Francis and Republican Mike Moyers.
Photo by Betty Bean
Who the heck is Clarence “Eddie” Pridemore?

By Betty Bean

“I know a lot of you’d really like to see me get re-elected,” Chancellor Daryl Fansler told the guests at his campaign reception in the upstairs room at Calhoun’s on the River. “And some of you are afraid I won’t.”
He drew raucous laughter and knowing looks from the big, bipartisan crowd.
Three last words bear repeating. Big. Bipartisan. Crowd.
Once upon a time, Chancery Court was once known as the “Keeper of the King’s conscience,” and over the centuries came to be known as a court of equity that existed to do justice in cases too complex or sensitive for Common Law to handle. Fansler is a Democrat. Many of his strongest supporters are not. But they are very worried about what might happen if an unqualified candidate gets elected to preside over Chancery Court – where there is no jury to sort out the facts – simply because of the R after his name.
Fansler, who practiced law for 15 years before he was elected to Chancery Court 16 years ago, has presided over cases dealing with hugely important issues like the Open Records law, Moody v Hutchison and zero tolerance. He has built a reputation for fairness and diligence without respect to party affiliation.
Don’t believe me? I’ll drop a few names of those who attended Fansler’s reception: Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, Chancellors John Weaver and Mike Moyers (Fansler’s colleagues), Knox County Sheriff’s Office operative Lee Tramel, Knox County Register of Deeds chief deputy and GOP party activist Nick McBride, attorney Betsey Meadows, former County Commissioner Larry Stephens, Chancellor Telford Forgety of Dandridge, longtime Republicans Patsy and Terry Miller, former party chair, attorney Chad Tindell, Knox County Finance Director Chris Caldwell.
When asked why he was there, Burchett, a deeply conservative former state legislator, said Fansler had helped him with an anti-pornography bill.
“Daryl’s a straight-up guy,” he said. “We better start thinking more about getting good people in office or we’re going to lose our country.”
When asked if he’d be willing to talk about this race on the record, Tindell said, “Do it!”
Then he lit into Fansler’s opponent, Clarence “Eddie” Pridemore, whose candidate profile on the Knoxville Bar Association web site says he is a 1992 graduate of Harlan County High School, a 2004 graduate of the University of Alabama (no major subject specified) and a 2010 graduate of the Nashville School of Law. His past experience listed is working as a research assistant in a Wartburg law firm 2007-2010 and as a solo practitioner in the Pridemore Law Offices. 2011- present. He has never tried a case in Chancery Court and is said to have primarily worked as a private investigator.
“I’ve never heard of him as an attorney, or as a Republican. I just never heard of him at all, and I’m pretty active in the community,” Tindell said.

There were things to vet, but it would take knowing who to ask (he hasn't done well in his few cases in circuit court), and where to go – upper East Tennessee, particularly Claiborne County, where I am reliably informed they are laughing out loud at his election.

His legal residence is a house deeded in some other guy's name, and he drives a car with Kentucky tags. His "law offices" appear to be non-existent.

The problem was that no good lawyer in Knox County was willing to run against Fansler, for both ethical and practical reasons (the practical reason, of course, is that it's so risky to run against a sitting judge). Pridemore, who evidently isn't intimately acquainted with ethics, had nothing material to lose because he doesn't practice in Chancery Court.

Ruthie's a tool.
Lawyers have been sounding the alarm for months about this. I got this in March, for example:

These judicial races are crazy. Extremely unqualified, Republican ideologs running statewide. Combined with Appellate Court selection takeover, AOC Budget take over efforts, AG selection challenges, and general intimidation of the Supreme Ct. and a pattern emerges. I am told there is an openly stated state party goal of unseating all the trial bench Dems. regardless of qualifications. (No surprise that the State Dems have not response and haven't' even had a meeting about it.)

I had two email exchanges with Pridemore. they were inconsequential, but this was the more interesting:

Dear Betty,

Your sources are incorrect. I have never said anything of the sort. I have no idea what your source is using for the basis for that claim. As for your second question I'm not avoiding talking to anyone. I still have a full time law practice along with my county-wide campaign to run and I have to prioritize. I can't neglect my clients because of the campaign.

Best Regards,

Clarence E. Pridemore Jr.
Attorney-at-Law

On Thu, May 22, 2014 at 11:27 PM, wrote:

Corresponding via email doesn't make for a decent interview, but I'll ask you this question:

The buzz about you this week is that you recently told a group of Republican women, "We need Republican law, not Democrat law."

Are my sources correct? If so, what is "Republican law?" And, for that matter, what is "Democrat law"? If my sources are incorrect, what did you actually mean to say?

Is your strategy not to talk to the media or debate your opponent?

Thanks in advance

Betty Bean

I wondered if the KNS would weigh in on this (for the record, they gave Fansler a strong endorsement). They did, in this morning's editorial.

How much does a Chancellor make, anyway?

Some of the most prominent REPUBLICAN attorneys and judges in town were begging for coverage of this guy. If they were talking to me, they were talking to everybody. I'm a pretty small fish.

I doubt that an indignent editorial two days after the election was what they hoped for.

Thinking about this is seriously making me nuts.

The deed's been done, so what's the process for removal before too much damage is done?

people were just too scared to say anything."

Where have we heard that before?

While damaging to the citizens that will have to deal with it, maybe one day, the members that make up the Knox judicial system will figure out their silence in the face real issues is most damaging to themselves.

It sounds like voters did something kind of, uh, what's the word--? Oh yeah: stupid.

I'd suggest the local bar association get over it, none of their crowd would step up and run in the Republican primary or the general, there is reputational risk, but hopefully this is a wake up call to the local bar association and to the local political parties that you should run and field a competent candidate in every election, the primary and the general election, to avoid what they perceive as unqualified candidates being elected. There are no more Democratic judges in Knox County, period.

Lawyers don't like unknowns, they like a degree of familiarity and predictability, hell they stand up and ask judges to decide a case the way a dispute was decided as precedent in a case 20 years ago rather that decide cases on how they ought to be decided in reality rather than legality. Pridemore may end up being a decent judge over time, most judges in Knox County are better judges than they were lawyers, that's why they ended up having time to run for a judgeship and ended up as judges anyway.

I get the impression that the community is flat out embarrassed that our politics and process could elect a guy almost 3 years out of the Nashville Night Law School (not UT, not Vanderbilt, not Georgetown, Yale, or Harvard, but a part time program) over a well respected incumbent Chancellor who has presided over a number of important and very difficult legal disputes. But nobody else wanted to take a shot at it and in that regard, I'm prone to give Mr. Pridemore the opportunity to do what he can to prepare himself for his new role.

The KNS did a quick attempt at a hatchet job on a number of judicial candidates that had IRS obligations well documented or had judgments down against them. Not exactly the indepth analysis that you would want to do if you were a competent and professional journalistic property. Tax problems, financial problems, judgments or liens are like hemrroids, sooner or later every arse whole will get one or two. Rather than doing a drive by, the KNS should have done their job and written articles (not editorials or endorsements)looked at the background, practice, or recent cases about the candidates and include basic detail regarding the candidates, their qualifications, their record, not just point out the low hanging fruit and consider it a done deal. The first amendment privilege expects more from a journalist. Here is where a newspaper was quite asleep at the switch, much more focused on shaping the news and the political debate rather than concerned about doing their job.

The election of Ailor over Wimberly is only slightly different than the election of Pridemore. Ailor does have considerably more experience, but Wimberly was an early Ned Ray McWhorter appointee to replace longtime Circuit Court Judge T. Edward Cole in the late 80's. But for the party affiliation, Ailor would not ordinarily be expected to win over a 27 year veteran of the legal combat and warfare commonly called circuit court. In my opinion, Wimberly probably should have retired with Workman and Rosenbalm, but he didn't and the slapped togather hitched up campaign he quickly slung togather once he saw Republican avalanche coming out in the Briggs - Campfield contest probably kept him from getting beat by 20,000 votes, but he did get popped by 10,000 votes by another Nashville Night Law School alumni. Ailor has been around the courthouse and around the legal profession a long time, and should have the temperment, talent, but not the immediate experience to become a very successful and competent trial judge here in Knox County.

Wimberly and Fansler should both retire this month, take senior status and help Kerry Blackwood with the tough cases and the unpopular roles deciding case that other judges in and around East Tennessee don't want to decide.

Appointment of judges usually gets a more experienced person into the role as a judge, perhaps a person with more familiarity and predictability, maybe a better disposition to decide legal disputes, but if it involves a pay cut, a number of competent and very qualified candidates will not apply.

So blame the KNS, they didn't do their job, by as the lawyers say, KNS being asleep at the switch wasn't the proximate cause of Pridemore's election, Pridemore somehow garnered 7,000 more votes that a very well respected jurist and all around good guy, the local bar association and parties didn't ensure qualified candidates were fielded and actively campaining in the primary and general elections.

I'm inclined to give these new judges (including those elected in the primary and appointed by the governor) and opportunity to get up to speed and provide solid and well reasoned decision making to the legal disputes they are asked to decide.

I get the impression that the community is flat out embarrassed that our politics and process could elect a guy almost 3 years out of the Nashville Night Law School (not UT, not Vanderbilt, not Georgetown, Yale, or Harvard, but a part time program) over a well respected incumbent Chancellor who has presided over a number of important and very difficult legal disputes. But nobody else wanted to take a shot at it and in that regard, I'm prone to give Mr. Pridemore the opportunity to do what he can to prepare himself for his new role.

No. The community is flat out embarrassed that a guy who didn't bother to tell people outside of a couple of Republican clubs who he is or what he's about, who didn't attend a single forum, debate or public event could get elected. There's a reason you're not hearing the same outcry about Ailor as Pridemore. And whatever you are "prone" to "give" Mr. Pridemore matters no more than my wish that somebody'd drop him in the Sargasso Sea. He's there, thumbing his nose at all the dumbasses who voted for him without knowing one thing about him except his political affiliation, and there's nothing anybody can do about it until he does damage that cannot be undone.
And the fact that he looks like a groundhog has nothing to do with my objections.

There are concerns about Ailor, for sure.
But nowhere near the consternation that Pridemore stirs.

Fansler's opening line from his standard stump speech (“I know a lot of you’d really like to see me get re-elected,” Chancellor Daryl Fansler told the guests at his campaign reception in the upstairs room at Calhoun’s on the River. “And some of you are afraid I won’t.") was no exaggeration. Lawyers are scared of this guy.

I've talked to a bunch of them who are desperately trying to figure out how to get their cases out of Division II.

A very snarky, but brilliant attorney friend of mine once said "Lawyers become judges so they can make the other 90% of their law school class look good." Clearly, that's not always true, and certainly isn't in Fansler's and Wimberly's cases, but it sounds like it might apply to our two judges-elect.

On another note, Fansler heard a case in December in which I have a kern interest and which he has yet to issue an opinion on. Does anyone know if he'll do so before he leaves office? The terrible news is that if he doesn't rule for dismissal it will fall in Pridemore's hands.

Yes, I'd say it's very likely they did.

Concerning the opportunity we have starting today to finally get rid of Eddie Pridemore, the advice I'm getting from local attorneys on *both* sides of the political aisle (there is no Democrat in this race) is to vote R. Deno Cole, background here:

(link...)

P.S.--As you may be aware, *neither* of Cole's opponents in this race--not Eddie Pridemore and not Bud Armstrong--even graduated from an ABA-accredited law school.

Both Pridemore and Armstrong are alums of the Nashville School of Law (formerly known as the YMCA Night School of Law). That wasn't mentioned in the above convo dating back to 2014.

I voted with my wife and nephew in the Democratic primary. We will continue to pray for all the decent misguided Republican voters and pray they will some day see the light. Until the Republican Party changes its mindless, evil, and racist agenda and Republican voters and candidates soundly reject Trump and the Proud Boys and Qanon and all the hate and lies that they push, none of their candidates deserve a vote from any voter.

Well, not a lot of surprises Tuesday. Spangler wins easily. Hunley's boy Armstrong wins over Pridemore and Cole. Seems Steve Hunley's influence in local politics is still very noticeable. Since his one term on the School Board Humley's role in local elections has been impressive.