Jason Holleman accepts congratulations from supporters after his District 24 win.

The sun hadn’t yet set last night when Metro Council member Jason Holleman’s front yard erupted into cheers.

Holleman successfully defended his West Nashville seat against Sarah Lodge Talley. She’s one of a handful of candidates Mayor Karl Dean backed in races against incumbents who’d butted heads with him.

Antioch councilmen Robert Duvall and Duane Dominy are outspoken conservatives who differ with the mayor on most issues. Holleman has often voted with the mayor but questioned Dean’s plans for two major developments: the new convention center and a revamp of the fairgrounds property.

The wins weren’t all pretty or decisive — Duvall finished just 5 percent ahead of his Dean-backed opponent and now faces a runoff in September.

One former councilman says the mayor’s involvement was an over reach. David Briley is one of the men Dean ran against four years ago.

“I think he learned a lesson that lots of mayors learn. People trust you to be their mayor, they love you as their mayor, but they don’t necessarily want you to be involved in the selection of their council member, it’s just a different decision.”

Outgoing councilman Mike Jameson-who has sometimes played the role of skeptic during his time in office-says the results show that voters value a system of checks and balances.

“While they can appreciate their mayor they can also appreciate that the council and council members are independent thinkers, and if you have an occasional difference with the mayor, it’s not a sign of disloyalty or arrogance or refusal to compromise, it’s doing your job.”

Of course, the Dean camp has said all along that the mayor values independent thinkers. That’s the term they used to describe the challengers he backed.

And those candidates did perform relatively well. In her race against Holleman, Tally drew about 40% of the total.

“For taking on an incumbent, I’m pretty proud of what we did in eleven weeks.”

Paige Turner also drew 40% in her the race with Duvall, *which now moves to a runoff, and Tanaka Vercher had 39% of the vote against Dominy.

Dean had a better track record in the races where he backed incumbents. All six of those won.

*WPLN mistakenly reported Turner lost to Duvall. Since neither candidate got 50% of the vote, the two move on to a runoff in September.