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After a long, sometimes contentious race, the Blount County Circuit Court Division II judge seat was settled by the voters tonight, with sitting General Sessions Judge David R. Duggan taking the election by nearly 20 percentage points.

Current Circuit Judge Michael H. Meares was appointed to the post by Gov. Phil Bredesen after previous judge D. Kelly Thomas was appointed to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, Eastern Division, in Knoxville.

With all 52 precincts reporting, Duggan, a Republican, received 9,575 votes to his Democratic opponent’s 6,435.

Duggan set up to wait for the voting results at a Republican gathering at the Greenbelt pavilion behind the Blount County Courthouse, while Meares gathered with his supporters at his campaign headquarters a short distance away on High Street in Maryville.

Speaking from his packed headquarters a few minutes after the polls closed at 8 tonight, Meares said he was feeling the stress of the race. When asked how he was feeling while waiting for the voting results to be announced, he said “tired” with a smile.

“It’s been a long campaign process and I’m glad to have it behind me,” he said.

Early on, Meares was behind in the race as the absentee ballots had him trailing Duggan by about 1,000 votes. Even with that, he was “still cautiously optimistic,” Meares said.

Duggan was part of a large crowd of Republicans gathered at the pavilion near the courthouse and when asked about his feelings while the early totals started rolling in, Duggan was in high spirits.

“Right now, I’m feeling great,” he said.

Voting levels throughout Blount County were reported to be slow during the day, and Duggan was surprised that was the case considering the number of contested races up for grabs today.

“It’s a mystery to me why that would be with as much interest as there has been,” he said.

Votes are in

Just a few minutes after 9 p.m. the announcement was made that the voting totals were in and Duggan had taken the highly contested judgeship. Addressing the crowd after the announcement, Duggan said he was prepared for the challenge of the position.

“I’m not going to promise you that I won’t make mistakes,” he said. “Because I will.

“But I will tell you that I will never intentionally make a mistake, and if someone points it out to me it won’t happen twice.”

His first item of the day for Friday — a day he had taken off from work — was going to be to head down to the Blount County Justice Center and work out the remaining days of presiding over his General Sessions Court, and to start talking with attorneys and judges about the Circuit Court and ways to improve through a “cooperative effort.”

Sitting at his campaign headquarters on High Street, Meares was reflective on the outcome of the race.

“Right now, for some odd reason, I don’t feel particularly disappointed for myself,” he said. “I do feel disappointed for the people who worked to get me elected.”

And as for the his future once Duggan takes over the Circuit Judge seat, Meares said the idea of returning to work as an attorney in Blount County would be “a fair assumption.”

And while the race had moments of contention, Meares had nothing but positive things to say Thursday night about his opponent, adding he had already called Duggan’s home to leave a congratulatory message.

“I’m sure David will make a very good Circuit Court Judge,” Meares said. “And I hope the (Blount) County Commission will wisely choose his replacement (for Blount County General Sessions Court).”

And Meares said his plans for Friday were the same as every Friday: “I have court at 9 a.m. in the morning,” he said.