In Sumner County, voters overwhelmingly approved conservative ballot measures and chose Republicans in the November 8 state-level elections as well as many municipal general elections, even though the latter are nonpartisan.
With a total of 52,879 votes cast of 130,654 registered voters, the turnout was 40 percent, according to the unofficial results posted by the Sumner County Election Commission.
Democrats made what ended up being a wholly unsuccessful run at several seats during the 2022 election cycle, vying for eight of the four dozen total seats electors voted on, including four county commission seats and two school board seats in the August elections as well as a state House seat a U.S. House seat in the November general election.
In the newly-drawn District 35 covering parts of Sumner and Trousdale counties, Republican William Slater ran unopposed in the general election after fending off a former registered Democrat and an out-of-district candidate who lobbies the state legislature in support of pro-hemp and pro-cannabis legislation in the three-way August Republican primary with nearly 55 percent of the vote.
In District 44, 10-year incumbent State Representative William Lamberth (R-Cottontown), who is the Republican leader in the state House and ran unopposed in the August Republican primary, won the seat with 78 percent of the vote against Democrat newcomer Kesa Fowler.
Incumbent Republican State Representative Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville) for District 45 ran unopposed in the general election and the August primary.
Governor Bill Lee captured 71 percent of the vote against a Democrat and a field of independents, while Congressman John Rose (R-TN-06) received 72 percent against a Democrat rival.
All four constitutional amendments passed by wide margins, the lowest of which was 65 percent for Amendment 4, while the highest was just over 80 percent for Amendment 3. Amendments 1 and 2 passed with just over 75 percent of the vote.
Municipal elections were held in the eight cities that lie partially or entirely within Sumner County’s borders, resulting in some noteworthy outcomes.
The municipalities of Gallatin, Goodlettsville, Hendersonville, Millersville, Mitchellville, Portland, Westmoreland and White House all had elections for members of the respective legislative body. There were also several mayoral elections as well as a charter amendment and a sales tax referendum.
Gallatin
There was an alderman-at-large and three alderman districts of the seven council seats on the ballot.
One of the council seats was open due to 16-year incumbent Jimmy Overton opting to run for the newly-established District 9 County Commission seat, and losing in the May Republican primary for that seat to political newcomer Mary Genung.
Vying for the open council seat was Rick Murphy, financial advisor, veteran and past president of the Gallatin Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce, and Pascal Jouvence, commercial airline pilot and also a veteran who ran unsuccessfully for an at-large seat during the last municipal election cycle.
Recently, Jouvence and his wife were the target of a proposed de-annexation from the city by the council member Jouvence ran against in 2020 on the day that he submitted his paperwork to run for the open council seat.
Jouvence was endorsed by action-based, God-fearing Sumner County Constitutional Republicans (SCCR), while Murphy was endorsed by, among others, Democrat Brenda Dotson, who ran for the County Commission District 13 seat in the August election.
Jouvence went on to win the district seat with nearly 54 percent of the vote to Murphy’s 45 percent.
Twenty-four-year incumbent John D. Alexander Sr. was bested in a three-way race by political newcomer Steven Carter, who won with 45 percent of the total vote in District 5.
Incumbent Republican Mayor Paige Brown, who has served two terms, cruised to victory over newcomer businessman Brad Jolly with nearly 67 percent of the vote.
One-term Alderman at-Large Steven Fann, who recently purchased property with a fellow city alderman that the municipality needs for a street-widening project, and six-term District 4 Alderman Craig Hayes won their respective races fairly easily against two other SCCR-endorsed candidates.
Hendersonville
One of two legislative seats from each of the six aldermanic districts appeared on the ballot, five of which were open seats. Of the total six seats, five were won by candidates endorsed by the SCCR, even though the races are nonpartisan.
Also on the ballot for Hendersonville voters was an amendment to the city’s charter that limits the four-year terms of future alderman and mayors to three consecutive terms, while the current alderman and mayor would be limited to two additional consecutive terms.
The measure passed with an overwhelming majority of nearly 88 percent in favor of term limits and just over 12 percent against.
The clearly popular term-limits amendment to the city’s charter was initially blocked by five members of Hendersonville’s Board of Mayor and Alderman, four of whom were up for re-election this year but opted not to run.
Millersville
One of the commissioner races to fill an unexpired term had two candidates, Milton Dorris and Caitlin Duke. Demonstrating that every vote counts, the race is separated by just one vote with 397 for Dorris and 396 for Duke. There were also five write-in votes cast, according to Sumner County Elections unofficial results.
Portland
On the ballot for Portland was a “Sales and Use Tax Referendum,” where city voters were asked if a uniform local option sales tax rate of 2.75 percent should be established, so that the additional funds from the sales tax increase could be used for public safety and street paving.
What the referendum didn’t state is that the sales tax rate within Portland city limits is currently 2.25 percent, so a vote in favor of the referendum would increase the city’s sales tax by 22 percent. It would also put the local option sales tax rate higher than other Sumner County cities of Gallatin, Hendersonville, Millersville and Westmoreland. White House is the only city that has a local sales tax rate of 2.75 percent.
In the background, City of Portland spending went from $11.6 million in fiscal year 2020-2021 – after dipping a bit to $10.4 million in 2021-2022 – to $15.6 million in the current 2022-2023 fiscal year, representing a 34 percent increase in two years, according to the city’s budget document.
The measure failed with just over 60 percent of voters against the tax increase while nearly 40 percent voted for it.
Meanwhile, incumbent Mayor Mike Callis breezed to victory with nearly 75 percent of the vote against Charles Cole with 17 percent and write-in candidate Thomas Dillard, who managed to get 8 percent of the vote.
In a six-way race for three alderman seats, incumbents Drew Jennings, Mike Hall and Megan Thompson were the successful candidates.
Westmoreland
Incumbent one-term Mayor James Brian Smalling lost with less than 24 percent of the vote to challenger and current Alderman David Leath, who received nearly 57 percent of the vote in a three-way race against Billy “Marty” Cothron, Jr. who garnered less than 20 percent of the vote.
In an Alderman race with two names on the ballot and voters able to choose two candidates, Sumner County election results show that both Adam Borders and Doug Brown had identical results with a total of 390 votes, consisting of 246 cast on Election Day, 24 by absentee and 120 in early voting.
White House
Current Aldermen John Corbitt and Clif Hutson were on the ballot to replace Mayor Farris Bibb Jr., who filled the remainder of Mayor Mike Arnold’s term throughout most of 2022. Corbitt won with 68 percent to Hutson’s 32 percent.
Sumner County currently has only Republicans in office in any seat that runs in partisan races, and in many that are nonpartisan.
That is due, in part, to the newly-elected county commission, which cast a tie-breaking vote in the Commission District 13 race between Republican Terri Boyt and Democrat Brenda Dotson. The two emerged with 398 votes each in the post-2020-census, newly-drawn district.
The commission, the majority of whom were supported by the Democrat-led Strong Schools PAC in the 2018 election but lost in 2022, initially sought to put the tiebreaker to a vote three months later in the November elections, but voted to defer until a future meeting when they would already be out of office.
The new all-Republican commission, which didn’t include Boyt at the time of the tiebreaker, voted to break the tie for the Republican with 20 for and 1 against.
That new commission included political newcomer Jamie Teachenor in District 14. Teachenor, whose bona fides were challenged by former County Mayor Anthony Holt, was eliminated by the state party from the Republican primary. In a write-in campaign for the general election, Teachenor went on to win the seat from two-term, two-time tax-increasing, Strong-Schools-supported Leslie Schell, with nearly 68 percent of the vote to Schell’s 32 percent.
– – –
Laura Baigert is a senior reporter at The Star News Network, where she covers stories for The Tennessee Star.
Photo “Sumner County Tennessee Courthouse” by Ichabod. CC BY-SA 3.0.
