On a night during which many voters expressed disapproval for the Obama administration and the Democrats, Tennessee became one of many states from around the country to elect a Republican governor.
And voters in the Volunteer State didn’t have to wait long to find out all the pre-election prognostications were correct: By 7:28 p.m. the Associated Press declared Bill Haslam the winner.
Republican Haslam, mayor of Knoxville, and Democrat Mike McWherter, a Jackson businessman and the son of former Gov. Ned McWherter, sought to succeed outgoing Gov. Phil Bredesen.
With nearly half of the precincts having reported, Haslam controlled about 70 percent of the vote.
During his victory speech Haslam — who had spent a part of the evening chairing the Knoxville City Council, one of his mayoral duties — expressed excitement about the tasks at hand.
“I am looking forward to working with Gov. Bredesen–we are starting as early as (Wednesday),” Haslam said. “It is my duty to make certain that Tennessee continues to move forward. While it’s time to celebrate the victory, we must not forget that we face some major social issues.”
It also appears that Tennessee has approved a constitutional guarantee to hunt and fish.
Much like what other Southern states have done — South Carolina, Alabama and Arkansas — Tennessee will now have the right to hunt and fish implanted into the state’s constitution. While it does not change the law, it prevents from hunting and fishing from being outlawed without changing the constitution.
Several participants from COMMA volunteered at the News Channel 4 studios Tuesday night.
The COMMA students (members of the Communication Majors and Minors Association) answered phone calls from all around the state to retrieve poll results from the day’s elections. The COMMA members were given the opportunity to learn about the news process as well as the election process.
The big story comes nationally, though.
For the first time in four year the Republicans will have control of the House of Representatives.
According to Yahoo! News the Republicans picked up at least 58 House seats, the biggest party turnover in 70 years.
“The American people’s voice was heard at the ballot box,” said Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who is positioned to become the next speaker of the House. “We have real work to do, and this is not the time for celebration.”
Boehner will become the next speaker — taking over for Democrat Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — in January when the new GOP majority takes over.
Republicans took over all but two of Tennessee’s seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The only incumbent Democrats to hang on were Reps. Jim Cooper of Nashville and Steve Cohen of Memphis.
The Democrats did hold on to the Senate.
Throughout the country, the feeling among voters was as much that of abandonment of President Obama and the Democratic Congress as that of approval of House Republicans. Exit polling around the country showed that just over half of voters at the polls disapproved of how Obama is handling his job, and a majority said his policies will likely hurt the country in the long run.
More than a third of voters considered their vote on Tuesday to be an expression of opposition to Obama. About a quarter said their vote was meant to voice support for the president.
This was evident at Lipscomb, too.
During Tuesday night’s Pizza and Politics, students and faculty were were asked several questions about the election. When the results were tallied, about two-thirds of students said that they were not happy with President Obama’s performance.
The panel, made up of Marc Schwerdt, Linda Peek Schacht and Dwight Tays.l agreed the results of the Tuesday’s election was a referendum of the president’s implementation of policies.
Don’t live in Tennessee? Check Politico.com for all the latest updates in your state.