What exactly are these positions? Who elected these positions, and when? I’m sorry if I sound ignorant (I am).
OK, I’ll give you the rundown. Tennessee is very unusual for its byzantine way with which its statewide offices are elected. We the voters only elect one office statewide and the rest are chosen by different manners as follows:
Governor: Popular Election Every 4 Years
Lieutenant Governor (also known as Speaker of the Senate): Elected by the Senate at Organizational Session Every 2 Years
Secretary of State: Elected by Joint Session of the Legislature at the Organizational Session in January every 2 years
Comptroller: Elected same as Sec of State & Treasurer
Treasurer: Elected same as Sec of State & Comptroller
Attorney General: Elected by the State Supreme Court
Adjutant General: Statewide Office Appointed by Governor
The manner with which these offices were chosen usually assured near-total Democrat dominance. In Jan 2003, when our current Dem Governor assumed office, only the Adjutant General appointed by his GOP successor was retained and the only Republican in statewide office. In 2007, the GOP elected a GOP Senate Speaker/Lt Governor for the first time since the late 1860s (not a typo), and he was reelected on Tuesday (while a RINO puppet Speaker was elected by the Democrat minority in the House that same day). Yesterday, the joint session of the legislature met (where the GOP has a majority of 69-63) and elected those 3 other offices, flipping all 3 to Republicans (again, none of which had Republicans in them since either the 1860s or 1870s).
As of now, 5 of 7 statewide officeholders are Republican, which again, is the first time since about 1868 (not a typo) that we have a majority of them. Because the manner with which the Attorney General is chosen, by the Supreme Court (which is also not chosen by the people, but by an elite liberal trial lawyers group that forwards their preferred choices to the Governor, usually always liberal Democrats, and if the Governor doesn’t choose them, the trial lawyers can install them), so until we can move to having the Justices directly elected on partisan ballots (as they once used to be), it will be nearly impossible to get a Republican Attorney General.