The anti-incumbency mood of Chattanooga voters showed itself for a second straight municipal election Tuesday, but it wasn't strong enough to sweep Mayor Andy Berke out of office.
The Chattanooga City Council could see as many as four new faces for the next term, but the city's chief executive will remain the same. In 2013, the council had six new members and one who regained a seat he'd held before.
Berke didn't come close to the 72 percent of the vote he picked up in 2013 against two little known opponents, but the nearly 63 percent of the ballots he got this time against three opponents may have been more impressive. Two of his opponents, current Councilman Larry Grohn and former Councilman David Crockett, were well known and claimed to have solid support.
Yet his three opponents together mustered just over 36 percent of the vote.
Certainly, the electorate had a solid dose of anti-Berke feeling. After all, he was the candidate with the record.
Despite a significant investment in the Violence Reduction Initiative, shootings and homicides are up in the city. He has installed unpopular bike lanes downtown. Despite a doubling of paving money, many Chattanooga roads are like washboards. His stormwater stridency has rankled developers. And, in the last year, he has had to deny an affair with his top adviser.
But Berke's embrace of the city as one ripe for entrepreneurial growth, and his support for all things downtown appealed to voters who have seen the city's nightlife go from a dead zone 25 years ago to a thriving area today. And his relative youth - 48 - apparently was seen as a positive, especially with younger downtown residents, compared to the 69-year-old Grohn and the 71-year-old Crockett.
His campaign coffers also were significant to overcome. The attorney and former Democratic state senator had nearly $275,000 before the beginning of the campaign reporting period last July 1 and collected more than $250,000 since then. Grohn's and Crockett's contributions paled in the lower five-figure amounts, and those of third challenger Chris Long were even less.
We hope in a second term Berke will widen his sights from the more downtown-centric focus his critics have harped on, will find yet more money for paving and will more heartily embrace workforce development.
On April 11, just prior to the mayor's inauguration, two City Council races will have a runoff. In District 7, first-term Councilman Chris Anderson will face businessman Erskine Oglesby, and in District 9, incumbent Yusuf Hakeem, who has been elected six times by voters (including in 2013 after a stint on the state Board of Probation and Parole), faces Demetrus Coonrod, vice chairwoman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party.
In District 7, where the incumbent received 47 percent of the vote, the difference will be what the voters for the third candidate in the race, Manny Rico, do. Rico is a former two-term councilman and Anderson's predecessor. Anderson, now, must convince at least some of the supporters of the man he beat in 2013 to vote for him in the runoff. Oglesby has to persuade more of the voters to come to his side, but he has no public record - good or bad - to defend.
In District 9, Hakeem polled 41 percent of the vote and Coonrod 26 percent. Both black candidates now will be vying for the voters of the election's two white candidates, John Kerns and Pat Benson Jr., who together drew a third of the total vote. What those voters decide will determine if Hakeem gets a seventh term in office.
The surprise of the election may have been the strength of newcomer Anthony Byrd in defeating first-term Councilman Moses Freeman in District 8. Only 41 but a longtime employee of the Hamilton County Criminal Court clerk's office, he avoided a runoff in a three-man race by receiving 53 percent of the vote. Voters apparently bought the arguments that Freeman, 78, was out of touch with his district, had been in and around city government too long, and was not interested in saving Lincoln Park from a through road to Amnicola Highway.
Byrd will become his district's fourth representative in four terms, following Leamon Pierce, André McGary and Freeman.
The council is assured of having two new members in Darrin Ledford, who was unopposed in District 4 (Grohn's current seat), and Byrd. If Oglesby and Coonrod win, the body will have four new members. And if Oglesby wins, it will be the first time the City Council has had four blacks among its nine representatives since 2005.
Chip Henderson in District 1, Jerry Mitchell in District 2 and Russell Gilbert in District 5 also were re-elected Tuesday, and Ken Smith in District 3 and Carol Berz in District 6 were re-elected with no opposition.