If you’re among the boxing fans already counting the days to the June 17th showdown between Jermain Taylor and Winky Wright at FedExForum, you’ll be happy to see where SI.com’s Richard O’Brien has Wright on his list of the top 10 fighters, pound-for-pound,
Elvis’ former home isn’t the only kingly purchase you can make on e-bay. Item #8410316830 is a vintage gold lame jacket that’s almost identical to the one designed as part of Elvis’ famous $10,000 suit. Like Elvis’ jacket, which was cut into thousands of pieces and given away with his four-record box set Elvis: The Other Sides, Nudie’s Rodeo Tailors, who were famous for outfitting the Western movie stars and honky-tonk heroes of the 1950s and ’60s, created this metallic beauty.
Inspired by time spent at the National Ornamental Metal Museum, choreographers for ProjectMotion’s Metallurgy: The Properties of Dance have used movement to explore the ideas of alchemy, strength, desire, forging, mining, blasting and — in whimsical honor of the Metal Museum’s annual repair days — bent spoons.
For the particulars (when, where, and how much), check out the Flyer’s new searchable online calendar listings here.
Rotan Lee, who became something of a household word in Memphis in 1998 as a consultant on MLGW, died this week of heart failure in Philadelphia. He was 57.
Lee came to Memphis at the invitation of Mayor Willie Herenton, who wanted to explore the possibility of selling publicly-owned MLGW. The study never went anywhere, and Lee soon became a lightning rod for criticism. He was paid $150,000 plus expenses.
Lee was a well-known figure in Philadelphia. He was school board president, newspaper columnist, and radio talk-show host among other things.
“It wasn’t just Lee’s imposing 6-foot-4 stature that made him hard to ignore,” wrote the Philadelphia Inquirer in an editorial Wednesday. “He was one of the most articulate champions of educational achievement for all children that Philadelphia has ever had.”
This election year could turn out to be something like last year’s hurricane season — extended, unpredictable, and conceivably stormier than anybody expected. Or maybe the correct comparison is to one of those contestant-elimination shows on TV like American Idol — superficially bland but challenging enough if you lend yourself to it and get interested enough to start picking favorites.
In any case, one thing is guaranteed. Of the 13 positions on the County Commission, Shelby County’s chief legislative body, at least seven will be in new hands after the general election on August 3rd. And most of that change will be accomplished in one fell swoop — on Tuesday, May 2nd, when voters in Shelby County have the option of going to the polls and casting votes for the 13 commission positions either as Democrats or as Republicans.
The party nominees they select on Tuesday will compete with a few independents on the August ballot — which, as it happens, will also be the primary round for candidates running for state and federal positions in November. Also being decided on August 3rd will be a full complement of nonpartisan judicial races.
Before it winds its way to a close in November, Election Year 2006 will have asked Shelby County voters to make their way through a veritable blizzard of election offices — city, county, state, and federal. On May 2nd, 23 positions will be on the ballot. In August, there will be a staggering 144 offices at stake. By the November 7th general election, that number will be winnowed to 38.
And by the time it’s all over, those voters will have availed themselves of new machines and new technologies for voting.
But Tuesday’s first-round primaries for countywide office will still use the same-old/same-old Shuptronic machines. By August, newly acquired Diebold machines will be in place — along with VPAT (verified paper audit trail) attachments if the legislature acts in the next few weeks to authorize them. (VPAT has already been approved by the county Election Commission.)
As is usually the case, various groups, for varying reasons, self-interested or otherwise, have conferred endorsements on certain candidates. Some of these are mentioned here.
The Commission Races
Delays in new technology aside, there will be some interesting innovations. As one example: In two of Tuesday’s races — for positions on the Shelby County Commission — candidates are running who are prohibited by law from serving if elected. Quirky as that may seem, it’s somewhat less irregular than the still unresolved matter of those two voters who rose from the dead to vote in last year’s special election for state Senate District 29. (See Politics, page 16.)
Sidney Chism (r) has the support of Mayor Herenton.
But there they are: commission incumbents Walter Bailey and Cleo Kirk, on the ballot for Democratic primary voters in District 2, Position 1 and District 3, Position 2, respectively.
The situation is partly understandable, in that Bailey and Kirk were two of the commission veterans (the other was Julian Bolton, now a congressional candidate) who sued to keep from being term-limited according to the terms of a 1994 countywide referendum. The terms of that referendum limit commissioners (and the county mayor) to two elective four-year terms after that point.
Trouble was, by the time the state Supreme Court got around to upholding the referendum (which had the approval of four out of five Shelby County voters 12 years ago), the May 2nd primary ballots had already been made, and they bore the names of both Bailey and Kirk.
J.W. Gibson has been targeted as a closet Republican.
What’s odd is that both Bailey and Kirk are actively campaigning. Kirk is “running” against Sidney Chism, who has been a Teamster leader, local Democratic chairman, and an interim state senator and who, as one might expect, is something of a political broker in local party ranks.
Bailey is one of three candidates in his race. One of the others, J.W. Gibson, who has a lengthy recent record of Republican political activity, saw his bona fides as a Democrat formally denied by an ex post facto vote of the Shelby County Democratic committee. But he, like Bailey and Kirk, remains on the primary ballot. The other candidate in that primary race, Darrick Harris, is a party activist.
If either Bailey or Kirk should “win,” the local party executive committee would have the opportunity to name an eligible nominee of the committee’s own choosing.
No telling who that might be in Kirk’s case. In that of Bailey, it would evidently be the commissioner’s son Jay, who doubles as his father’s lawyer and campaign manager. Though under-financed, Harris has done a fair job of making himself acceptable to the party faithful and could end up foiling the Bailey-family plan by winning for real on May 2nd.
Here’s the outlook for the 13 County Commission races:
DISTRICT 1, POSITION 1: This heavily white and Republican district comprises Cordova and a good hunk of East Memphis. For the last eight years, Position 1 has been held by Marilyn Loeffel, the onetime leader of the conservative Christian organization FLARE who, like Bailey, Kirk, Bolton, and Michael Hooks, was term-limited out this year.
Mike Rude campaigns for District 1, Position 1.
With no Democrats running for Position 1, the three Republicans in the race span the breadth of the district’s concerns.
Retired bank executive and former county planning official Mike Ritz has probably been running the longest. For almost two years, he has been in attendance at virtually every meeting of the commission. Ritz once served as director of the joint city/county Office of Planning and Development, and his chief claim to office rests on his experience with the zoning and fiscal issues that are the commission’s chief stock-in-trade. He has proposed a sweeping new ethics policy.
Mike Rude, a portfolio manager at FedEx, has styled himself as a new broom and made a point of spurning all campaign contributions from developers and arguing for strict limitations on PILOT (payment-in-lieu-of-tax) incentives. Rude’s appeal to right-of-center conservatives was balanced late in the campaign with an endorsement from New Path, a predominantly African-American (and Democratic) youth group.
Mike Ritz (l), candidate in 1, 1, is greeted by veteran operative Bobby Lanier.
Charles Fineberg, a process server who ran for General Sessions clerk two years ago has, like the others, proclaimed a resistance to new taxes and a revision of the current ADA (average daily attendance) formula which requires a 1:3 share with city schools of all capital construction funding for schools. He has also emphasized crime control.
LIKELY WINNER: Most observers see the main race as between Ritz and Rude, with the former given the edge on the basis of the aforesaid experience and his impressive across-the-board backing.
DISTRICT 1, POSITION 2: The unopposed incumbent is broadcast executive/physician George Flinn, the appointed successor in 2004 to Linda Rendtorff, who left to become county human services director.
DISTRICT 1, POSITION 3: Held for the last four years by the commission’s outstanding maverick John Willingham, now a candidate for county mayor, the position is being fought over by the incumbent’s daughter, Karla Willingham Templeton, an educator who almost upset Rendtorff in Position 2 four years ago, and Mike Carpenter, the executive director of the West Tennessee Associated Builders and Contractors.
Carpenter is a strict opponent of the several alternative tax proposals made in recent years that would impact the homebuilding and development communities, arguing that the expense of them would be passed directly onto consumers. He is also open to privatization of county corrections facilities and other cost-cutting measures. In advocating a variety of ethics reforms, Carpenter has taken several swipes at what he has called the nepotism involved in Templeton’s candidacy.
Commission chairman Tom Moss has a battle on his hands in 4, 2.
Like her father, Templeton advocates comprehensive tax reform, the linchpin of which could be the payroll tax option favored by the senior Willingham. (At one recent forum, however, she declared herself flexible on tax options.) Also like her father, Templeton appeals to conservative populists and is outspoken about what she sees as the sins and derelictions of the current county administration.
LIKELY WINNER: The smart money is on Carpenter, but Templeton has legitimate hopes for an upset on the scale of her father’s four years ago against the late Morris Fair, a pillar of traditionalism on the commission.
DISTRICT 2, POSITION 1: In many ways, the concerns of District 2, which hugs the river line, are the obverse of those in District 1. As one example, Bailey was the commission’s foremost advocate for the interests of city schools as opposed to those in the outlying county. He has also been a steadfast advocate of social-services spending and opponent of privatizing corrections facilities.
J.W. Gibson, a proponent of “smart growth” initiatives to control sprawl, proposes to bring “the perspectives of a businessman” to the commission. The charge against him in the recent Democratic committee meeting which declared him not to be a “bona fide” Democrat was led by the current commissioner’s son Jay Bailey, a potential successor. But activist Darrick Harris is making headway among voters and has the endorsement of Mid-South Democrats for Action (MSDIA), one of the two new groups that came to power in party circles last summer.
LIKELY WINNER: This one looks like a possible three-way tossup, with Gibson’s best chances hinging on a split between the other two.
DISTRICT 2, POSITION 2: Uniquely among the predominantly Democratic, inner-city races, this one actually features a well-known Republican, Novella Smith Arnold, a former broadcaster and record executive whose activities on behalf of prisoners and AIDS patients are locally legendary. She is unopposed in her primary.
Chief interest is in the Democratic race, however, which features several candidates with legitimate claims (and constituencies). Among them are: state representative Henri Brooks, city school administrator Melvin Burgess II, educator Reginald Fentress, and grocer Teddy King.
LIKELY WINNER: Sheer name recognition would favor Brooks, but Fentress has gained a foothold with endorsements from both MSDIA and Democracy for Memphis, the other newly influential Democratic group, while Burgess has strong name recognition from his father’s former service as police director. King, for that matter, has the backing of activist Jerry Hall, no small matter. All the principals on this electoral roulette wheel are advocates for economic development programs and education funding.
DISTRICT 2, POSITION 3: Incumbent Deidre Malone, owner of a public relations agency and something of a swing vote on the commission, is unopposed. (She is also endorsed by MSDIA.)
DISTRICT 3, POSITION 1: This race is a smorgasbord of promising new faces. The would-be successors, all Democrats, to outgoing Commissioner Hooks, are Dell Gill, James Harvey, Johnny Hatcher, Bob Hatton, Adrian Killebrew, Georgia Malone, and Paul Springer.
Like Gibson, accountant Hatcher has something of a Republican background, but he passed muster with the Democratic committee as a returning prodigal son. Consultant Gill is, well, famous as an outspoken advocate of numerous internal Democratic issues, including, most recently, party fidelity. Businessman Hatton is a likeable longtime activist campaigning on the slogan “Yesirree Bob.” His advocacy of staggered commission terms has been picked up by various other candidates.
Mortgage banker Harvey, a well-known performer in local Gridiron shows, brings fiscal perspectives and name recognition from his second-place finish to Kathryn Bowers in last year’s state Senate special election in District 33. Social worker Georgia Malone and attorney Paul Springer have each articulated developed perspectives at forums, and Killebrew, too, has done some serious campaigning.
LIKELY WINNER: Harvey may have an edge, but several of the others are within striking distance. Springer has the MSDIA nod.
DISTRICT 3, POSITION 2: Longtime political broker Sidney Chism has enough Get-Out-the-Vote experience on behalf of other candidates. He should be able to muster it for himself — especially running, as he put it at a weekend forum, against a “ghost,” even a revered one like Kirk. And the MSDIA backs him.
DISTRICT 3, POSITION 3: Incumbent Joe Ford, operator of the family funeral home, is unopposed.
DISTRICT 4, POSITION 1: GOP incumbent Joyce Avery is unopposed in this sprawling outer-county district, which includes all of Shelby County’s “other” municipalities and some unincorporated turf as well. We’re talking serious conservatism in these parts, by the way — though opinions are not as monolithic as echt Memphians might assume.
DISTRICT 4, POSITION 2: A case in point is this hotly contested race, pitting incumbent Tom Moss against challengers Jim Bomprezzi and Wyatt Bunker. Homebuilder Moss survived a similar three-way in 2002, largely because former Lakeland mayor Bomprezzi, who ran then as well, was beset with a fellow townsman and archenemy, one Mark Hartz, whose stated purpose was the limited one of foiling Bomprezzi’s effort but who got The Commercial Appeal‘s endorsement anyhow!
This year the third party is archconservative county school board member Bunker, whose main pitch is that Moss represents the county establishment. Meanwhile, Bomprezzi, assisted by economist Linda Witherspoon, is concentrating on spreading the gospel (articulated by several others, notably including county trustee Bob Patterson) that the county’s real debt is $2.1 billion, not the $1.7 billion claimed by the administration of county mayor A C Wharton.
LIKELY WINNER: The race is considered touch-and-go, anybody’s race. Moss has earned credit with former critics for his evenhanded conduct as commission chairman this year and has even facilitated some significant compromises between pro-development and anti-sprawl factions. But the evidence of yard signs is that Bomprezzi and Bunker have been campaigning hard, and there’s not a lot of catch-up time left.
DISTRICT 4, POSITION 3: Incumbent David Lillard, an attorney and one of the commission’s fiscal mavens, is unopposed.
DISTRICT 5: This one-seat-only urban district, located on the seam of city and county, is the commission’s swing district and was frankly designed as such — with a rough balance of Democrats and Republicans, blacks and whites. Of course, it, like the county as a whole, has tilted somewhat black and Democratic in the last four years — one reason why incumbent Republican Bruce Thompson may have thought better of a second try this year.
Alone of all the commission districts, therefore, District 5 is the arena for pitched battles in both parties. On the Democratic side, the contenders are the perennial veteran Joe Cooper, now a consultant; newcomer Steve Mulroy, a University of Memphis law professor with multiple involvements in issues of the day; and travel agent Sherman Perkins Kilimanjaro, another perennial whose newly adopted last name makes him, well, old wine in a new bottle.
The real showdown is between Cooper, who has made an effort to back off from his disastrous proposal of four years ago to sell off portions of Shelby Farms to developers, and Mulroy, an advocate of voting-machine reform and of saving Libertyland, among other causes, who has become a symbol of sorts for the new Democratic groups, DFM and MSDIA. Cooper is a political oddity, a lone wolf with support, sometimes unacknowledged, in various high places. Mulroy has backing from a colloidal mix of the two new Democratic groups and one old one, the Ford organization (which owes him for his stout performance in court on behalf of Ophelia Ford’s efforts to maintain her District 29 seat).
Both major Democrats, arguably, have handicaps. Cooper’s is his reputation, for better and for worse, as an experienced wheeler-dealer. Mulroy’s is the more limited one of a late change of address into District 5, one which Cooper continues to challenge in court.
Among Republicans, the race is between entrepreneur Jane Pierotti and lawyer Joe Townsend. Both are political newcomers, but Pierotti has the imprimatur of the GOP establishment, plus the benefits of a famous local last name.
LIKELY WINNER: It’s touch-and-go among the Democrats, with Mulroy counting on the effect of some additional high-powered late endorsements and Cooper trusting to name recognition. Among Republicans, Pierotti should prevail.
Whoever wins in either party, this district will have the only real contest in the August general election, and whichever party wins it will dominate the commission for the next four years.
And regardless of whoever wins that race or whichever major party ends up with a technical majority on the commission, the majority of the commission is guaranteed to be brand-new as of late this year, with consequences that are hard to foresee.
Except for this? The vexing problems of the recent past — urban/suburban sprawl, school funding, new revenue sources, capital construction, the PILOT program, the won’t-go-away issue of privatizing various public facilities — plus some new ones yet to be imagined will get a new look. Guaranteed.
And maybe the benefit of a new broom as well.
ELSEWHERE ON THE MAY 2ND
PRIMARY BALLOT
In addition to the Shelby County Commission races,
there are contests on the primary ballots for several other offices.
SHELBY COUNTY MAYOR:
On the Democratic side, incumbent mayor A C Wharton is heavily favored
over county jailers’ advocate Jeffrey Woodard, who is running a protest
campaign against what he sees as Wharton’s cautiousness.
As it happens, Woodard is also
giving verbal support to the campaign of outgoing county commissioner John
Willingham, a longtime Wharton antagonist, who is pushing an ambitious
program of reforms, including a proposed payroll tax. Opposing both the tax and
Willingham in the Republican primary is political newcomer Brent Todd.
SHERIFF: Incumbent Mark Luttrell had the
Republican ballot all to himself after Roland ally John Harvey thought
better of a race, but several Democrats are vying for the right to challenge him
on August 3rd. The field includes businessman and Alcohol Commission
head Reginald French, educator Jesse Jeff, sheriff’s deputy
Bennie Cobb, and police captain Elton Hyman. French is favored.
CIRCUIT COURT CLERK: Democrats Roderic Ford
and Johnnie Ruth Williams are vying for the right to oppose incumbent
Jimmy Moore in August. Both Democrats are relative unknowns;
CRIMINAL COURT CLERK: Democrats Kevin Gallagher and Vernon
Johnson compete for the right to take on incumbent Bill Key of the
GOP. Gallagher, a former aide to county mayor Wharton, has campaigned
aggressively and has support from key Democrats of both races who covet diversity on what is otherwise a predominantly African-American ticket; bail bondsman
Johnson is a veteran activist;
JUVENILE COURT CLERK: In the Democratic primary,
school board member Wanda Halbert and former clerk Shep Wilbun are
competing for the seat now held by unopposed Republican incumbent Steve
Stamson. The showdown is regarded as a tossup, though some regard Wilbun as
the favorite because of a general feeling that his former tenure as clerk was
unfairly maligned in the media and in the courts (where a misconduct charge
against him was dismissed). The hard-working Halbert’s tenacious campaigning is
respected, however.
PROBATE COURT CLERK: On the Democratic side
Sondra Becton takes on Leon Dishmon. GOP incumbent Chris Thomas
is unopposed. Becton, a consistent antagonist of former boss Thomas over the
years, is favored in her primary race.
SHELBY COUNTY CLERK: This clerkship, vacated this
year by outgoing Republican incumbent Jayne Creson, has races going on in
both parties. On the Democratic side, the contestants are Charlotte Draper,
Otis Jackson, Zoltan T. Scales, and Joe Young.
Draper and Scales are currently employed in the clerk’s office, while Jackson, a
FedEx employee, and Young, a mental health administrator and former state
Democratic official, have more political experience per se. This race, like
that between Republicans Debbie Stamson and Marilyn Loeffel, is
considered too close to call.
Stamson, currently an administrator in the clerk’s office
and wife of Juvenile Court clerk Steve Stamson, has been endorsed by Creson and
has considerable support among party regulars, while two-term county
commissioner Loeffel has a strong base in her home base of Cordova and among
social conservatives.
There are no primary races for DISTRICT ATTORNEY GENERAL,
where GOP incumbent Bill Gibbons and Democrat Gail Mates are
unopposed; for TRUSTEE, where incumbent Republican Bob Patterson
and Democrat Becky Clark lack opposition; and REGISTER, where the
August candidates will be GOP incumbent Tom Leatherwood and Democrat
Coleman Thompson.
Tonight, the University of Memphis hosts mathematician and philosopher William Dembski, who will give a lecture titled “The Scientific Status of Intelligent Design.” Dembski’s support of Intelligent Design and affiliation with the Discovery Institute has made him a controversial figure. The lecture will be at 7 p.m. in the Michael Rose Theatre.
In more evolution news, is it just happenstance that Dembski’s visit coincides with the opening of Theatre Memphis’ run of Inherit the Wind? Read Flyer staff writer Chris Davis’ take here.
The residents of state Senate District 29, which runs from top to bottom of the Shelby County riverfront, will just have to wait a while for representation in the Tennessee General Assembly.
After a dramatic week in which both of last year’s major-party contenders ceased to be immediate prospects for holding the office — one voluntarily, one involuntarily — and in which the Shelby County Commission decided to put off deciding on the matter, the seat seemed likely to go unfilled for the duration of this year’s legislative session.
First, in a dramatic and long postponed session of the state Senate in Nashville last Wednesday, Democrat Ophelia Ford, who was sworn in as the apparent 13-vote winner of a special election last September, became an ex-senator Wednesday afternoon when her colleagues voted 26-6 to void that election result as “incurably uncertain.” Next, Terry Roland, the Republican contender in that election, took himself out of the running as a possible interim replacement at a Monday-morning press conference. Roland, who had been in the Senate gallery when the historic vote occurred last week, had hinted of his intentions then, suggesting that public hearings be held before the Shelby County Commission declared a successor to Ford.
And finally, later on Monday, the commission concluded intermittent debate on the matter by shelving plans for a vote on May 8th and scheduling one for May 22nd instead. A date that late could actually occur after the completion of the current legislative session — a point recognized by Republican Bruce Thompson and Democrat Walter Bailey, each of whom pushed for the earlier voting date.
Bailey, who wanted assurances from his colleagues that the historical “ethnic” and political character of the predominantly black and Democratic district would be respected in naming an interim senator, was nevertheless willing to take his chances without such guarantees.
Ultimately, though, the commission adopted the position of Democrat Julian Bolton, who said there should be no “rush to judgment.” At a fund-raiser for his 9th District congressional campaign later Monday, Bolton acknowledged his own concern that the commission, which has a 7-6 Republican majority, might name a Republican to cast the last few votes for what has been a traditionally Democratic district.
Thompson saw the issue differently, maintaining that the closeness of the disputed election called for a fresh look on the part of all commissioners. Asked after Monday’s commission meeting about persistent rumors that his refusal to commit his vote in advance had prompted Roland’s decision to withdraw, Thompson said only, “I made it clear to everyone that I was keeping an open mind.”
Under the circumstances, whoever gets appointed on May 22nd is likely to be regarded as an honorary senator. Among those who have expressed interest to commissioners about the interim position is Belz Enterprises head Ron Belz, who has also nursed thoughts of running for city mayor.
Roland and the now-deposed Ford are both on the ballot again this year, though Ford must first defeat Steve Haley in the Democratic primary for a reprise of last year’s race to occur.
Ophelia Ford’s final appearance in the Senate, it was generally conceded, was dignified and capped by a graceful farewell speech to her colleagues. Before she got to that point, she had waited out a preliminary period in which she, like other Shelby Countians, was called upon to be a celebrant as University of Memphis president Shirley Raines, head Tiger football coach Tommy West, and members of the team were recognized in the chamber.
While others, including longtime U of M booster Steve Cohen, Tennessee Waltz indictee Kathryn Bowers, and venerable Senate speaker John Wilder all sported the blue-and-gray Tiger jerseys that were handed out, Ford chose to drape hers around her neck for a prolonged spell as a gesture of solidarity. Under the circumstances, it was the kind of thing the British call a nice distinction.
Ultimately, all of that was over, people were back in their workaday garb, and Wilder was banging his gavel to usher in the real business. Republican Micheal Williams, chairman of the special Senate investigating committee that had been digging into the District 29 matter from way back in January, announced that the committee had duly made a determination — by a vote of 5-1, including two Democrats, one of them the Senate’s Democratic leader, Jim Kyle of Memphis.
The upshot was that last year’s special election — dogged by irregularities both suspected and real (e.g., two dead voters) — was found to have been “incurably uncertain.” U.S. district judge Bernice Donald, who back in January had stayed Senate action on due-process grounds, had declined to issue a follow-up injunction earlier last week, and Williams thereupon asked for a favorable vote on the panel’s findings to void the election.
Lt. Governor Wilder dutifully called for a vote, and that was when Cohen had his moment as the lone and last stay against getting the process over with. “Is there not going to be a debate?” he asked. The senator would say later that he hadn’t premeditated anything other than to explain his reasons for voting against voiding the election.
In the end he did more, sounding like the lawyer he is as he recapped (or spontaneously re-created)) some of the arguments that Ford’s attorneys David Cocke and Steve Mulroy had made on her behalf before Judge Donald on Tuesday.
In the course of his remarks, Cohen asked assistant state attorney general Janet Kleinfelter and former judge Ben Cantrell, the special Senate committee’s lawyer, onto the floor of the chamber to explain — awkwardly, as it turned out — the reasons for voiding the election.
It all came back to that issue of incurable uncertainty, though as Cohen pointed out, neither Kleinfelter nor Cantrell was able to make the case for more than 12 suspect votes, one less than the margin by which Ford was certified the winner by the Shelby County Election Commission last year.
All in all, it was a spirited performance by the senator, at least as effective as the one made in court Tuesday by Cocke and Mulroy and one, incidentally, that will do Cohen no harm politically in his current campaign for Congress in the majority-black 9th District — in which two of a numerous field of opponents happen to have the last name of Ford.
(At a South Memphis forum for 9th District congressional candidates Sunday night, Cohen recalled his feeling that Ford had been “like a lamb led to slaughter” on the day of the Senate vote.)
But in the end only six Democrats voted no against the resolution. Besides Cohen and Ford herself, the nay-voters were Bowers, Ward Crutchfield, the Chattanooga Democrat who himself faces trial in the Tennessee Waltz scandal, Democrat Thelma Harper of Nashville, and Joe Haynes, also of Nashville, the Senate Democratic caucus leader.
Kyle later made a point of saying his vote was not intended as any kind of criticism of Ford herself.
“I expect to see her back after November,” the Democrats’ Senate leader said. “She’s been an effective senator.” Kyle was careful to make one distinction. “A lot of the media has referred to this as an ‘ouster,'” he noted. “It’s anything but. Ophelia’s done nothing wrong.”
Who had? he was asked. “The whole election system,” he said. “The election commission and county government both have something to answer for. And why haven’t [district attorney] Bill Gibbons and the T.B.I. [Tennessee Bureau of Investigation] come up with legal recommendations. Somebody has done something wrong, and they need to be identified and dealt with.”
As if the Republican Party’s conservatives were not divided enough by the dual presence of former congressmen Van Hilleary and Ed Bryant in this year’s Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, another fissure has developed in the ranks. Angelo Cobrasci, head of the Shelby County Conservative Republican Club, said last week he had decided to endorse former Chattanooga mayor Bob Corker, widely perceived as something of a moderate.
Apprised of this last Wednesday after a Nashville forum appearance alongside Bryant, Corker, and Democrat Harold Ford Jr., Hilleary shrugged and said the reason was probably his quick endorsement of the GOP gubernatorial candidacy of state senator Jim Bryson of Franklin. (Cobrasci has served as campaign manager for Carl “Two Feathers” Whitaker, the state Minuteman head who switched his own bid from the Republican primary to independent status when Bryson announced.)
“You will notice I’m the only Senate candidate who has endorsed Bryson. Corker and Bryant haven’t,” Hilleary contended, maintaining that all his GOP rivals had done was welcome the entry of Bryson, who was strongly urged to run by ranking state Republicans.
Several observers at last week’s forum, held at Nashville’s Hermitage Hotel, noted that Ford, whom they credited with an effective and somewhat aggressive performance, delivered his own closing remarks and then upstaged Hilleary’s, either intentionally or otherwise, by exiting early, conspicuously shaking hands and making conversation with various attendees as he left during the former 4th District congressman’s attempts to sum up.
A day or so after the long-expecting unveiling of two statewide television spots by Corker, Hilleary rushed a couple of his own into circulation, one of them attacking both Corker and Ford as lacking conservative credentials.
ON THE MAY 2nd PRIMARY BALLOT
In addition to the Shelby County Commission races chronicled in this week’s cover story, there are contests on the primary ballots for several other offices.
SHELBY COUNTY MAYOR:
On the Democratic side, incumbent mayor A C Wharton is heavily favored
over county jailers’ advocate Jeffrey Woodard, who is running a protest
campaign against what he sees as Wharton’s cautiousness.
As it happens, Woodard is also
giving verbal support to the campaign of outgoing county commissioner John
Willingham, a longtime Wharton antagonist, who is pushing an ambitious
program of reforms, including a proposed payroll tax. Opposing both the tax and
Willingham in the Republican primary is political newcomer Brent Todd.
SHERIFF: Incumbent Mark Luttrell had the
Republican ballot all to himself after Roland ally John Harvey thought
better of a race, but several Democrats are vying for the right to challenge him
on August 3rd. The field includes businessman and Alcohol Commission
head Reginald French, educator Jesse Jeff, sheriff’s deputy
Bennie Cobb, and police captain Elton Hyman. French is favored.
CIRCUIT COURT CLERK: Democrats Roderic Ford
and Johnnie Ruth Williams are vying for the right to oppose incumbent
Jimmy Moore in August. Both Democrats are relative unknowns;
CRIMINAL COURT CLERK: Democrats Kevin Gallagher and Vernon
Johnson compete for the right to take on incumbent Bill Key of the
GOP. Gallagher, a former aide to county mayor Wharton, has campaigned
aggressively and has support from key Democrats of both races who covet diversity on what is otherwise a predominantly African-American ticket; bail bondsman
Johnson is a veteran activist;
JUVENILE COURT CLERK: In the Democratic primary,
school board member Wanda Halbert and former clerk Shep Wilbun are
competing for the seat now held by unopposed Republican incumbent Steve
Stamson. The showdown is regarded as a tossup, though some regard Wilbun as
the favorite because of a general feeling that his former tenure as clerk was
unfairly maligned in the media and in the courts (where a misconduct charge
against him was dismissed). The hard-working Halbert’s tenacious campaigning is
respected, however.
PROBATE COURT CLERK: On the Democratic side
Sondra Becton takes on Leon Dishmon. GOP incumbent Chris Thomas
is unopposed. Becton, a consistent antagonist of former boss Thomas over the
years, is favored in her primary race.
SHELBY COUNTY CLERK: This clerkship, vacated this
year by outgoing Republican incumbent Jayne Creson, has races going on in
both parties. On the Democratic side, the contestants are Charlotte Draper,
Otis Jackson, Zoltan T. Scales, and Joe Young.
Draper and Scales are currently employed in the clerk’s office, while Jackson, a
FedEx employee, and Young, a mental health administrator and former state
Democratic official, have more political experience per se. This race, like
that between Republicans Debbie Stamson and Marilyn Loeffel, is
considered too close to call.
Stamson, currently an administrator in the clerk’s office
and wife of Juvenile Court clerk Steve Stamson, has been endorsed by Creson and
has considerable support among party regulars, while two-term county
commissioner Loeffel has a strong base in her home base of Cordova and among
social conservatives.
There are no primary races for DISTRICT ATTORNEY GENERAL,
where GOP incumbent Bill Gibbons and Democrat Gail Mates are
unopposed; for TRUSTEE, where incumbent Republican Bob Patterson
and Democrat Becky Clark lack opposition; and REGISTER, where the
August candidates will be GOP incumbent Tom Leatherwood and Democrat
Coleman Thompson. — JB
Because Memphis needs more late-night, early-morning, post-party breakfast places, the International House of Pancakes franchise plans
to open three more of the restaurants in the Memphis area. We welcome more IHOPs, but no matter how many Rooty Tooty Fresh ‘N Fruities we have, nothing can replace Howard’s donuts. Read more about it here.
Memphis ranked last in a study by the Tenneseee Center for Policy Research in comparing the state’s 50 largest cities in four areas: community allure, minimal/local business tax burden, workforce skill/value, and strategic location business amenities. At or near the top in all categories were such metropoli as Farragut, Mount Juliet, Maryville, and Franklin. Nashville finished at 15th, Knoxville 34th, and Chattanooga 38th. Read more about it
Forty-five million Americans are without health insurance, and the number keeps rising. Recently, the state of Massachusetts unveiled a plan for reversing this trend. It would provide nearly every Massachusetts resident with health insurance — and the plan won’t require any additional state spending.
There’s no free lunch and no free health care. So how does Massachusetts plan to insure its half-million non-insured residents? By doing three simple things that every other state could do just as well.
First, it’s using the money it now pays hospitals for giving free emergency care to the uninsured. As it is now, most people without health insurance don’t see a doctor. They wait until whatever problem they have is so severe it becomes a health emergency. Then they go to the hospital emergency rooms that take in anyone needing emergency care. But by this time the health problem is hugely expensive to cure.
So Massachusetts says, sensibly, let’s use this money instead to insure poor and working-class people (who aren’t poor enough to qualify for Medicaid) so they can see a doctor before their health problem becomes an expensive emergency.
Second, Massachusetts is bundling health insurance policies together so individuals and small businesses can buy health insurance as if they were parts of a large company. It’s called economies of scale. It’s roughly the same technique Wal-Mart uses to get great deals from its thousands of suppliers. As a result, health insurance will get cheaper in Massachusetts. This is also just good common sense.
Third — and here’s the most controversial step — Massachusetts is requiring middle- and upper-middle-class people who don’t now have health insurance to buy it for themselves. Many of these people are young — in their 20s and 30s. They don’t have insurance because they know their risk of having a serious health problem is very low. Like most young people, they think they’re indestructible.
Of course they’re not indestructible. Some of them will need health care. But when they’re required to buy health insurance, they not only insure themselves. They also add their money to an insurance pool that will be drawn on by everyone — including those who are older, poorer, and likely to be sicker. Libertarians may holler about this, but it seems sensible and fair.
Mandatory insurance is not an invasion of our independence. We’ve got to buy car insurance if we want to drive. We have to buy home insurance if we want to get a mortgage. When we pay our local taxes we pay for fire fighters and police officers, even if we never use them — and even if people who live in more run-down parts of town end up using more of them than we do. So what’s wrong with requiring that everyone who can afford it to buy health insurance, even if some people who are needier may get a bit more of the benefits?
The real gamble in the plan is whether the economies of scale Massachusetts gets by bundling policies cuts costs enough so that every middle-class resident who will have to buy a policy can afford to. I’d prefer a single-payer plan that would get rid of all the advertising and marketing costs that insurers and providers now spend to attract customers. That would surely make health care far more affordable. But the Massachusetts plan is a good start, nonetheless.
And it may work elsewhere. I’m not saying that as Massachusetts goes, so goes the nation. Massachusetts is a bit, well, shall I say, to the left of Kansas. But even Kansas might be attracted by a plan that insures nearly everyone without spending a taxpayer dime.
