Andy Berke gets more than 72 percent of vote to win race for Chattanooga mayor

Newly elected mayor of Chattanooga Andy Berke gives a speech to his supporters Tuesday at the Waterhouse Pavillion in Miller Plaza.

Photo by Doug Strickland.

Former state Sen. Andy Berke received more than 72 percent of the vote or 12,906 votes to be elected mayor of Chattanooga in today’s city elections.

Former city employee Guy Satterfield received 4,224 votes and R. Chester Heathington, also a former city employee, got 659 votes. There were 67 write-in votes.

Berke is set to take office on April 15.

Berke told a crowd of more than 200 that "the time for renewal is now."

The new mayor will succeed Mayor Ron Littlefield, who served two terms as mayor. Littlefield’s 8-year term followed two mayors who served one term each — Bob Corker, who now is the junior U.S. senator from Tennessee, and Jon Kinsey, a leading Chattanooga developer. They were preceded by Gene Roberts, who was mayor of Chattanooga from the early 1980s to 1997. Roberts died earlier this year.