-- Big Winner: Bill Haslam, duh. Not a surprise, but the apparent size of the margin shows what a lot of money and a lot of feel-good TV spots can do for you. Big Loser: Zach Wamp. Ron Ramsey gets to stay in Nashville and almost certainly gets to stay lieutenant governor. Wamp, on the other hand, is unemployed as of January. And his fiery concession speech -- in which he blamed his loss on Haslam money and anti-Washington sentiment and other things beyond his control -- suggested that he's going to take it all pretty hard.
-- Local surprise: Finnbarr Saunders losing his 4th District County Commission seat to Republican Jeff Ownby. The most likely explanation is that the governor's race drew a lot of Republicans to the polls who don't generally pay attention to County Commission and just voted for any R they saw. Saunders is well liked and respected by people who do pay attention to Commission, and his command of local issues seemed to far outstrip the unpolished Ownby's. Ownby casts himself as a very conservative, talk-radio type of Republican. How that will play out on County Commission is an interesting question.
-- Not as much of a surprise is Pam Trainor's win over Robert Bratton in the 9th District school board race. She outpolled him in the May primary, too, and Bratton may have never shed the baggage from that sexual harassment settlement a few years back. Combined with Kim Sepesi's election in the 7th District, and the uncontested elections of Gloria Deathridge in the 1st and Lynn Fugate in the 4th, that means seven of the nine school board seats will be held by women. Meanwhile, Amy Broyles, who easily held onto her 2nd District Commission seat over Democrat-turned-Independent Don Daugherty, will be the only woman on the newly constituted 11-member Commission. The historically fraught relationship between the school board and Commission might be about to get even more interesting.
-- The only passably interesting question in the Knox County mayor's race was whether Democratic no-hoper Ezra Maize could at least draw a larger share of the vote against Tim Burchett than former Sheriff Tim Hutchison did in the Republican primary in May. No such luck. Burchett actually increased his share of ballots from 85 percent in the primary to 88 percent in the general. Maize picked up just 8 percent, with the rest split between independents Lewis Cosby (who dropped out of the race in May) and Robert Bedwell (who never campaigned at all).
-- And, oh yeah: We will still have Stacey Campfield to kick around. Somebody up there is looking out for local political writers and satirists.
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