Atomictumor

Heres the situation as we have it: (Numbers updated 8:44 - Probably final)
Bond Referendum:

Yes: 2917

No: 3367

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Judge race:

Robert McNees III - 4855 (OK, I’m not updating this one anymore. I think its safe to say Bob won…)

They’re not saying how many write in votes that I have, I think its a cover up…

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City Council Throwdown:

Childress: 2215

Dubose: 806

Evans: 2308

Hayes: 3644

Hensley: 3074

Marrow: 1080

Smith: 3177

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School Board Race

Agle: 3910

Fillauer: 4436

Wells: 2366

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More to come once I get a drink (not that anybody’s reading this thing right now…)

7:44 PM - Inspiration Point, Oak Ridge

Coming in live from the mighty candidate free-for-all down at Inspiration Point here today, to document the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat.

Or something like that.

Right now, on the big ticker, we’re seeing the results coming in, except that people that front are blocking the serious numbers, requiring me to move around, which is never the liveblogger’s best friend.

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8:06 -

Oddly, proving that this town’s a crackerjack, we’re seeing Hayes, Hensley and Ellen Smith as the front runners by a good chunk in the candidate race. The horses haven’t all come in, but theres a hefty lead.

The referendum thing is going down. I’m going to be bleeding from the kneecaps from the bookies over that one, but hell, thats politics for you. I have tough knees.

The school board race, frankly, is going exactly as it needs to, and I doubt there’s going to be much commentary there.

Theres an interesting crowd over here right now, all milling about in various permutations facing the general direction of the big screen, where Mayor Bradshaw is talking to some BBB head about something that eludes us all, as Inspiration Point, while having wicked awesome wi-fi, is lacking the general sound situation that makes TV commentary so helpful.

Thats why I’m here, people.

I’m going to mill about, maybe steal a drink, and I’ll be back.

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8:18 PM

One point that I noticed just underneath the massive on screen head of David Bradshaw was that the Roane County numbers haven’t come in yet. This could change everything vis a vis the referendum. We’ll just have to see. I still think that there’s going to be wailing and gnashing of teeth up at FOR headquarters tonight. Heads will roll, the sun will burn down blood red, and mighty drums will shake the earth.

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8:26 PM

Still no word from Roane County. We had a burst of static, causing the folks here to pause and look up in wonder, while the mighty head of Bradshaw receeded into a grey powerpoint presentation, but thats about all the excitement. Numbers still progressing evenly. I think I’m sitting in somebody’s seat…

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8:47 PM

I think its time to put this thing to bed. I managed to score what are probably the final numbers from a nice gal running around here, and I doubt we’ll see much change out of this thing tonight.

No time for reflections now, I’m afraid. No rest for the wicked.

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9:15 PM

I enjoyed a celebratory cigar with Angi Agle, upon winning the school board race, and discussed the election results with Daco, who came in from the FOR dealy at the civic center. The mood among the FOR crowd is one of reserved, but genial acceptance. I had a nice chat with Ray Evans, who shared the accepting viewpoint, as we discussed Bonnaroo and the New Orleans Jazz Festival.

Good people.

I managed to have a couple of words with Tom Hayes and Keys Fillauer, but didn’t see Charlie Hensley here (a voice over my shoulder just told me he was here…). He may well have been around, tho. The TV has moved from the election results to what appears to be a Arizona/Tennessee baseball game, which probably is a good move.

An interesting night, and as Jacket said, the numbers tend to speak for themselves. Oak Ridge rejected, pretty roundly, the school board challenger, voted against public funds in private enterprise, and elected the city council completely counter to the main talking point, which was the bond referendum. In fact, it looks like we’ll have a Schools guy in there, an anti-establishmentarian in there, and Hensley, whom I really still haven’t figured out yet. I like his talk, of cautious but forward moving business, while his background on the planning commission helps.

Actually, this is pretty much exactly, but for the referendum, what I was talking about originally, and if Evans lost, I’m glad its to Ellen. I hope we don’t have a divisive city council, because we’ll have the possibility of having a pretty deep thinking one with this crowd.

Hell, who knows.

Things are winding down here at Inspiration Point, but the mood is still friendly. I’m certain that we’ll see rioting further in town, but that shouldn’t be a problem, I’ll just take the backroads home.

On a final note, I’d like to part with just a few thoughts:

At this point, we’ve counted votes, toasted winners, and thanked non-winners. Time to take the freaking signs down now. Every damn one. This thing needs to be put to bed, in such an amazingly big way, and woe be to he that utters a breath of elections, candidates, and bond issues for a while.

Or at least tonight.

Signing off.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 7:52 pm and is filed under Local, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.