Sunday, August 10, 2008
By Robert Wilson
Originally published by the Knoxville News Sentinel

MARYVILLE – If the total vote in the state Senate, 8th District race Thursday were the length of Shields-Watkins Field, the margin of challenger Doug Overbey’s win would be only about 2 feet from the orange and white checkerboard end zone.

How close? The difference was 139 votes out of a total of 21,188 cast.

And just as in 2004 when Sen. Raymond Finney, R-Maryville, unseated an incumbent of his own party, Finney carried Blount County and lost Sevier County. This time, however, the Sevier victory by Rep. Overbey, R-Maryville, was enough to overcome Finney’s lead in Blount.

Published reports immediately after the voting indicated Finney might ask for a recount. But by Friday he was saying he is “not ready to issue a statement.”

His opponent and others say that his election loss after only one term in the Senate is probably attributable to his vote in favor of a change in the funding formula of the governor’s Basic Education Program, which resulted in school systems in both counties seeing their state revenue reduced.

It was an issue that Overbey kept before the voters during the campaign.

Ashley Johnson, chairman of the Republican Party in Sevier County, is among those who say Finney’s vote damaged his re-election prospects.

“Finney voted for it,” Johnson said, “to our detriment.” It was, he said, the action “most people had an issue with” and it “dissatisfied people in Sevier.”

Overbey, in a post-election interview, said the BEP formula may have been felt more deeply in Sevier County because there is only one school system there. The funding loss in Blount County, he said, was spread among the Blount, Maryville and Alcoa systems.

He said the funding loss in Sevier was at the core of a hefty 20-cent increase in the Sevier County property tax rate in 2007.

He said he feels Finney was “held accountable” by the voters.

Even Republican Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey agreed, noting that voter turnout in District 8 was higher than in any other Senate contest in the state Thursday.

“Obviously, that stuck,” he said. “These races usually come down to a local issue.” Ramsey added that Overbey’s margin of victory might have been even greater had he not supported Democrat Jimmy Naifeh for House speaker. That support was a main campaign criticism that Finney leveled at Overbey.

In 2004, Finney attacked then-Sen. Bill Clabough of Maryville for not coming out categorically against a state income tax, and he ran on a stronger anti-abortion platform than Clabough. Finney drew support from the anti-abortion organization Tennessee Right to Life.

That year, Finney also carried Blount County with a significant enough margin to overcome his loss to Clabough in Sevier.

Johnson said he “knew Finney runs well in Blount” and that it would be “a very tight race.”

Overbey said he is not worried by the prospect of a recount.

“These days and times,” he said, “with electronic voting and results all on computer chips, you can read that chip 100 times and you will get the same answer. It’s an answer he doesn’t like. I wouldn’t either.

“But we need to come together. This was a family squabble in the Republican Party that was settled by the voters. We need to come together, unify the party and move forward.”

The GOP winner will face Independent Ira Lapides of Gatlinburg in the November election.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 10:29 pm and is filed under In The News.
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