Mayor Madeline Rogero was arguably the biggest winner on Tuesday, as five Democrats won election to Knoxville City Council. That leaves George Wallace as the only vocal Republican on the council after the newcomers are sworn in 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 16, main assembly room City County Building.
Rogero hosted the winners for breakfast this morning in her conference room. Stephanie Welch (District 1, replacing Nick Pavlis), Andrew Roberto (District 2, replacing Duane Grieve), Seema Singh-Perez (District 3, replacing Brenda Palmer), Lauren Rider (District 4, replacing Nick Della Volpe) and Gwen McKenzie (District 6, replacing Daniel Brown) will join hold-overs Wallace, Marshall Stair, Finbarr Saunders and Mark Campen.
Rogero toasted the winners and bragged about the 11,735 votes cast in yesterday’s election – “one of the biggest voter turnouts in the past quarter century.”
According to a city-written press release, turnout in Tuesday’s election was up by 47 percent from the 2009 General Election, the last time these same races were on the ballot and there were no incumbents running.
Turnout in August was the biggest in a non-mayoral primary election since term limits took effect in 2001. Before that, you’d have to go back to 1989 to find a city primary without candidates for mayor on the ballot in which more votes were cast.
Rogero has two years remaining on her term, when she and the remaining council members are term-limited.
Our friend and fellow columnist Victor Ashe often jabbed Rogero for political failures to re-elect state Rep. Gloria Johnson. We await his analysis of the Nov. 7 results.