After a  huge election turnout in Knox County, the Republican Party declared victory for County Clerk nominee, Foster Arnett, Jr., Tuesday night at the Crowne Plaza in Downtown Knoxville.

"I want to thrown the doors wide open. I want to turn the office back to the citizen. I want to talk about honor, honesty, honor above lese, dignity and respect," Arnett said in a January interview with WBIR.

I want to throw the doors wide open. I want to turn the office back to the citizen. Foster Arnett Jr.

Arnett was running against Bryan Bates, Mick McMillan and Scott Moore for the Republican nomination. Moore is the current Chairman of the Knox County Commission and was seeking a second elected office as County Clerk.

"I like to vote out incumbents or people who have been in the public eye for a long time. Fresh blood in the system is vital to keep out corruption," said Nick Vence, Graduate Student at the University of Tennessee.

Vence also believes complacency comes over time and was impressed by Arnett's blue and white signs posted around Knoxville.

"The effort you put into campaigning should be indicative of how much work you will put into your job," said Vence.

More than 100,000 voters participated in this year's election due in part to the Sunshine law violation earlier this year and the highly contested Presidential election.

Arnett won the Republican Primary with 61 percent of the votes, followed by Scott Moore with 17 percent; Mike McMillan with 13 percent and Bryan Bates with 10 percent.

Amy Henley Vandergriff received 60 percent of the Democratic vote and incumbant George Stooksbury finished with 40 percent.    

Arnett and his wife, Dottie, live in West Knoxville. He is a graduate of Bearden High School and a 1979 graduate of the University of Tennessee. He left the Knox County Police Department after 15 years as Public Information Officer in 2000 and works as Director of Business Development for a local contracting firm.

Arnett will face Vandergriff on August 7 in the general election.