Patricia Hall Long, an assistant Knox County district attorney, was chosen as General Sessions Court judge in a 10-8 vote of Knox County Commission.

The decision came in the third round of voting on Monday Sep. 22 when she beat out Knoxville Vice Mayor Mark Brown, a private-practice attorney, for the position.

"I am just confident about my credentials, but I wasn't sure what was going to happen. My heart was bumping." Patricia Hall Long, General Sessions Court judge

Commissioners Tony Norman, 3rd District, and Scott Moore, 7th District, were the deciding votes after a tied 8-8 second round between Long and Brown. Norman cast his support for Long in the third round after his nominee, Randy Reagan, was dropped from the race. Moore passed in the first two rounds, than voted for Long in the third. The moves pushed the 8-8 tie to a 10-8 vote in favor of Long.

Commissioner Ed Shouse nominated Long, and Brad Anders, 6th District commissioner,  supported the nomination.

Anders said there were plenty of qualified candidates vying for the position, but he was voting for the person he felt would bring the widest array of experience to the position. 

"That's why I support Patricia Long for this nomination, because I know she has worked hard in all her facets of law, and I think that ... she's the only one that has all of the credentials, like I said, as public defender, district attorney and private practice and civil (law)," Anders said.

Commissioner Thomas Strickland, 1st District, nominated Brown while acknowledging all eyes were on him because he was supporting one of his best friends for the judgeship.

"That's not the reason I'm nominating him," Strickland said of the friendship. "I'm nominating him because he has the temperament to be a judge."

Commissioner Greg Lambert, 6th District, also supported Brown for the position. He pleaded with the commission to keep race and partisan politics out of the nomination and vote from their hearts. 

When the final tally showed Long as the winner, nearly 50 Brown supporters cleared the room, visibly disappointed in the outcome.

When the final tally showed Long as the winner, nearly 50 Brown supporters cleared the room, visibly disappointed in the outcome. Keira Ann White, a Brown supporter from Corryton, said the vote was a shame and a disgrace.  

"This is not a good day," she said. "Mark Brown had adamant support, not only from his constituents, but from his community, as well." She blamed the vote on commission politicking.

"(It's) politics, in it's purest sense, and we witnessed it," White said. 

Other nominees for the general sessions were: Glenna Overton, civil and criminal lawyer, who was dropped in the first round of voting; and Randy Reagan, criminal defense and personal injury case lawyer, who lost his bid after the second round.

Long has spent 13 years in private practice with Hagood, Tarpy and Cox, concentrating on criminal defense and civil personal injury. She served as the Assistant Knox County Public Defender under Mark Stephens and is a member of the Knox County Bar Association, the Blount County Bar Association, and the Tennessee Bar Association.

Long was sworn in with her husband, Andy Long, and her daughter by her side. She said she knew the vote would be very close.

"I felt pretty good about the republican vote," Long said. "But I knew there (was) going to be cross over. I am just confident about my credentials, but I wasn't sure what was going to happen. My heart was bumping."

Long said she would "hit the ground running" Tuesday morning. "I have to serve the citizens in Knox County."

Regarding her opponent, Brown, Long said, "I think he was very qualified, as I was, and (I was) just fortunate."