When Hamilton County Commissioner Bill Hullander toppled incumbent county Trustee Carl Levi Tuesday, it was the first time in recent memory a sitting trustee lost re-election.
But, according to one political observer, it also was the first time Mr. Levi faced a party establishment that never really saw him as one of its own.
Mr. Levi said he ran as a Democrat for trustee about 40 years ago. Dr. Richard Wilson, a political science professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, said that prior affiliation hurt him when faced with his first Republican primary opposition since taking office in 2002.
“I’ve been convinced from the beginning the Republican regulars thought of Levi as an old-line Democrat who switched to a Republican, and they promoted one of their own,” he said.
A breakdown of the race across various neighborhoods shows a clear preference for Mr. Hullander throughout the county. In the commission’s District 5 — which covers the Bonny Oaks, Woodmore, Summit and Dalewood areas — 68.42 percent of Republican voters picked Mr. Hullander at the Bonny Oaks voting precinct.