Thursday, November 6, 2014
Leaders Chosen By The People In Tuesday’s Election
A number of familiar faces emerged as victors when the polls closed Tuesday evening in state, federal, and local elections.
In the Lawrenceburg city election voters opted to elect incumbent Mayor Keith Durham and incumbent Councilmen Robin Williams and Chad Moore to new terms on the city's Board of Mayor and Council. Moore was unopposed while Durham was challenged by Richard Lynn Grimes and Williams by Barry R. Gobble. Durham received 81.48% of votes with a total of 1,843. Williams garnered 59.40% of votes cast in his race with 1,280. Moore received 1,914 complimentary votes.
Of Tuesday's win Chad Moore said, "I am so honored and grateful for the opportunity to continue to serve Lawrenceburg. I believe we live in the greatest community in America. I can't think of any other place any greater to raise a family than in Lawrenceburg.
The days ahead for our city will not be easy, as we must continue to make the tough choices while building our future in a way that our grandchildren do not have to pay for it."
Council Member Robin Williams expressed his gratitude to the voters saying, “I’d like to say thank you to all the people of Lawrenceburg for putting their trust and confidence in me and allowing me to be on the city council for four more years. I’ve enjoyed being part of this team and look forward to continuing our work. Hopefully we’ll keep everything moving forward.”
In the City of Saint Joseph election, voters selected persons to fill two seats on their Board of Commissioners. The two top vote-getters from a field of five were Bubba Carter with 163 votes (28.8%) and David L. Green with 157 votes (27.74%).
On the state level incumbent Barry R. Doss, who ran unopposed, was elected to a second term as 70th District Representative. David "Coach" Byrd was also unopposed in seeking election to the 71st District seat. They received 10,361 and 9,463 complimentary votes, respectively.
Byrd said that he was pleased with the voter turnout Tuesday. He wished to express his appreciation to his supporters, saying, “I am really excited and honored to be selected as the 71st District State Representative, and I’m looking forward to serving. I’m just really going to work to be the best State Representative they’ve had.”
Voters re-elected Marsha Blackburn to the 7th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. She received 70% of the votes (110,498). Challenger Daniel Cramer received 42,260 votes while Leonard D. Ladner garnered 5,092 votes.
Incumbent U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander was re-elected with 849,629 votes (61.89%) from a field of twelve competitors.
In the governor's race incumbent Bill Haslam was elected to another term, garnering 951,215 votes (70.28% of votes cast). Haslam prevailed over six challengers.
Voters approved all four constitutional amendments brought to a vote on Tuesday's ballot. A total of 52.61% of voters voted "yes" on Amendment 1. Total yes votes cast were 728,751 while 656,427 individuals cast "no" votes.
Amendment 2 was approved with 60.92% of voters voting "yes." Amendment 3 garnered 882,259 affirmative votes and Amendment 4 received 902,673.
Brian Harris, president of the Tennessee Right to Life and a coordinator with the “Yes on 1” campaign issued the following statement about the passage of the amendment:
"We are grateful to God and to the good people of Tennessee for this victory. Despite millions of abortion dollars flooding our airwaves with deceptive ads, the people of Tennessee saw through the falsehoods and made their voices
heard.
“Yes on 1 coordinated a statewide grassroots campaign heavy on volunteers and smaller financial contributions from individuals, churches and pro-life organizations. We recognized that we would never have the financial resources of the abortion industry so began planning long ago to build a team of advocates who could educate and organize their local communities.
“That effort paid off, especially in rural regions of the state where volunteers raised funds and awareness of both the amendment and the 2000 court ruling in Planned Parenthood of Middle Tennessee v. Sundquist, a decision which claimed a fundamental right to abortion.
“Special credit goes to our clergy and religious leaders throughout the state who made support for the amendment a priority. In the end this could be characterized as pastors and pulpits in opposition to Planned Parenthood's abortion-profiteering. We owe a debt of gratitude to men and women of faith who refused to accept Tennessee's designation as an abortion destination and who actively used their influence to promote the protection of innocent human life."
