If there’s any further evidence needed that Three 6 Mafia is well on its way to world domination, here it is: Pimp clothes for kids. Yep, “baby-beater” tank tops, “Jr. Pimp Squad” jerseys, and “My Mom is a MILF” T-shirts. Just the thing to get your little ones into thug culture at the earliest possible age. Next up: Baby Grills. Yo, check it here.
Prayer and football. How much more American can it get? If that’s your cup of tea (er…um…glass of iced sweet tea), join retired pro football player John “Bull” Bramlett as he leads the 54th National Day of Prayer at Lakeland City Hall Thursday, May 4th, from noon to 1 p.m. Sheriff Mark Lutrell, Thomas Lindberg of First Assembly of God, and other religious and/or political types will also be on hand. Bring your own apple pie. For more, go here:
Members of the Tennessee Titans football team, as well as its coaches, cheerleaders, and mascot T-Rac, will be in Memphis today [Tuesday, May 2] at Cummings Elementary School. The visit is part of a 12-day, 4,000-mile trek across Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama by the Titans Caravan IX to kick-off the 2006 season. The caravan will arrive at Cummings for a school assembly — entitled “Titans Rule: Awesome Choices” — then stay for a “Join the Teamwork Party” open to the public.
Awesome choices, huh? Maybe Adam “Pacman” Jones will be there
Devotees of The Whole Hog Café won’t need to make the two-hour trek to Little Rock anymore. Through a licensing agreement, a location of the barbecue restaurant will open here in June.The Whole Hog regularly competes at Memphis In May and won first place for Whole Hog and second for ribs in 2002.
You know what they say: You can never have too much barbecue, especially if it’s a pulled pork sandwich with a heavy molasses sauce. Read more here.
The top scorer in University of Memphis football history, Stephen Gostkowski, was one of only two placekickers selected in the 2006 NFL draft. His challenge now? Merely to replace Adam Vinitieri, a man who won two Super Bowls with his foot for the New England Patriots. Read all about it here.
The weather’s nice, so what better way to zip around the city on a Vespa scooter. But why stop at one? After all, they come in so many cool colors. So why don’t you buy a whole fleet of scooters? In fact, why don’t you just buy a whole Vespa scooter STORE?
You can now. The Memphis Scooters Vespa dealership on Poplar at Humes is now for sale on eBay, and the price is a bargain — just $159,000. “With gas prices at all-time highs, the business can’t help but expand,” claims the seller, who is relocating.
The buyer gets the building, scooters, parts, displays, clothing, TV monitors, and more.
Check it out, and bid now, on eBay here.
The Monkey Wrench. The Alpha Dog. The Stomach Punch. All are names for ways to lose. Chris Herrington, the Flyer’s Grizzlies writer, takes a scenic trip down Loser Boulevard at the Grizzlies Blog, here.
Unfortunately, it’s the B.B.’s in New York City in November. Can’t get to The Big Apple? You can see the Rev. at the Hollywood Bowl, should California be on your destination list this summer. If you do, pass along a message: Al, come back and entertain your homies! Check out Green’s official site for more tour dates.
YYo, yo, yo. Dig it. Britney Spears’ latest soon-to-be-ex-husband Kevin Federline went on an LA hip-hop station and said he could whip Memphis homeboy (and former Britney love object) Justin Timberlake. No word yet from JT, but we’re expecting a throwdown any day now. Listen to the inanity here.
What hath Shelby Countians wrought? Well, a brand-new county commission, for one thing, with eight of the 13 commissioners to be newcomers.
Question: Can Henri Brooks and Wyatt Bunker co-exist? What will he do if she won’t stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? (The question could be moot if Republican Novella Smith Arnold pulls an upset over Democrat Brooks in the August general election.)
SHELBY COUNTY COMMISSION RACES
Whatever happens in the August general election, there will
be a wholesale changeover –of faces, names, profiles, and missions – on the
Shelby County Commission. The defeat of District 4 incumbent Tom Moss
(and third-place finisher Jim Bomprezzi) by county school board member
Wyatt Bunker means that eight of the 13 positions will be filled by
newcomers.
Six of those are known; a bit of mystery
remains in District 5, where Democratic winner Steve Mulroy (who will be
favored for demographic reasons, if nothing else) will take on the GOP’s Jane
Pierotti. Both are novice candidates. And District 2, Position 2 has the Brooks-Arnold matchup.
The district-by-district breakdown:
District 1, Position 1:
REPUBLICANS – As expected, retired bank
executive/county planner Mike Ritz won easily with 63 percent of the vote
over FedEx administrator Mike Rude (25 percent) and process server
Charles Fineberg (12 percent).
Ritz, one of the most experienced newcomers
ever to be elected to the commission, ran a well-funded race and had diverse and
influential support.
No DEMOCRATS ran in 1, 1.
District 1, Position 2:
REPUBLICANS – Incumbent George Flinn was
unopposed.
No DEMOCRATS ran in 1, 2.
District 1, Position 3:
REPUBLICANS – Mike Carpenter, an
experienced political operative and local head of the Associated Builders and
Contractors, easily beat educator Karla Willingham Templeton, 72
percent to 28 percent.
Like her father – outgoing commissioner John
Willingham, who won the Republican nomination for mayor in an unexpectedly close
race – Templeton espoused “tax reform,” a terminology that , rightly or wrongly,
spelled out new taxes to voters. But Carpenter had solid support in any case.
No DEMOCRATS ran in 1, 3.
District 2, Position 1:
DEMOCRATS – Businessman J.W.
Gibson, with 41 percent, won a three-way over Walter Bailey (a
term-limited incumbent who could not have served, in any case), with 33
percent, and Democratic operative Darrick Harris, with 26 percent..
Gibson had good and diverse support but had
been formally repudiated by the Shelby County Democratic executive committee on
account of his long-term and close Republican associations. But an
ill-considered scheme to “elect” Bailey so as to give the party naming rights to
a successor (probably his son Jay Bailey) deprived the underfunded
Harris of enough regular-party support to overcome.
No REPUBLICANS ran in 2, 1.
District 2, Position 2:
DEMOCRATS – State representative
Henri Brooks came close to getting an absolute majority, with 47 percent in
a field that also included Melvin Burgess II (35 percent), Reginald
Fentress (12 percent), and Teddy King (6 percent).
This was a case of name recognition plus established organization
for controversial political veteran Brooks.
REPUBLICANS – Social activist and former
broadcaster Novella Smith Arnold was unopposed.
District 2, Position 3:
DEMOCRATS – Incumbent Deidre Malone
was unopposed.
No REPUBLICANS ran in 2, 3.
District 3, Position 1:
DEMOCRATS – Businessman James Harvey
won easily with 42 percent of the vote in a seven-candidate field that also
included Adrian Killebrew (18 percent); Georgia Malone (15
percent); Del Gill (13 percent); Johnny Hatcher (5 percent);
Bob Hatton (4 percent); and Paul Springer (3 percent).
Harvey, a veteran performer in local Gridiron
shows, had some experienced support and started earliest.
No REPUBLICANS ran in 3, 1.
District 3, Position 2:
DEMOCRATS – Veteran political broker Sidney
Chism won easily with 85 percent of the vote to 15 percent for term-limited
incumbent Cleo Kirk, who followed longtime colleague/ally Bailey’s
example in allowing a campaign to be run in his name. The difference lay in the
fact of their opponents. Chism, a confidant of Mayor Willie Herenton’s, has
helped organize campaigns for many a local candidate to office; he used the same expertise and
network on his own behalf.
No REPUBLICANS ran in 3, 2.
District 3, Position 3:
DEMOCRATS — Incumbent Joe Ford was unopposed.
No REPUBLICANS ran in 3, 3.
District 4, Position 1:
REPUBLICANS — Incumbent Joyce Avery
was unopposed.
No DEMOCRATS ran in 4, 1.
District 4, Position 2:
REPUBLICANS — Incumbent Tom Moss,
a homebuilder who survived a three-way outcome in 2002 that included former
Lakeland mayor Jim Bomprezzi, out-polled Bomprezzi again, 33 percent to
28 percent — but not county school board member Wyatt Bunker, who ran
hard and pulled 39 percent of the votes to win.
Bunker, who was probably the most conservative
member of the county school board, at least on social issues, may own that
distinction on the commission as well.
No DEMOCRATS ran in 4, 2.
District 4, Position 3:
REPUBLICANS – Incumbent David Lillard
was unopposed.
No DEMOCRATS ran in 4, 3.
District 5:
DEMOCRATS – High-powered newcomer
Steve Mulroy, a respected man of many causes, won with a convincing 60
percent of the vote against political veteran Joe Cooper‘s 34 percent and
Sherman Perkins Kilimanjaro’s 6 percent.
Kilimanjaro never figured, and Cooper’s dogged
one-man show was no match for a well-organized Mulroy campaign that united
Democratic reformers with their Ford-organization opponents in last year’s party
battles.
REPUBLICANS – Jane Pierotti, a newcomer
with a well-known last name, easily beat novice Joe Townsend with 86 percent to 14 percent for the
right to take on Mulroy in the commission’s only genuine swing district (one
designed as such).
OTHER COUNTYWIDE PRIMARY RESULTS
“Just goes to show you the power of a name.” That was
Shelby County mayor A C Wharton, as he watched some televised election
returns at his Park Place headquarters Tuesday night and saw the unknown
Roderic Ford, who happens to have the same last name as a famous local
political family, pull ahead of opponent Johnnie Ruth Williams in the
Democratic primary for Circuit Court clerk.
When Wharton, who was easily renominated himself, took the
dais to thank a crowd of supporters, he had another thought. “I think people are
trusting government more now,” he opined.
Maybe so, but there was an awful lot of flux in the major
parties’ primaries for other countywide offices, just as in the commission
races.
THE RESULTS:
Shelby County Mayor:
DEMOCRATS — The aforesaid incumbent A C Wharton,
probably the most invincible politician in Shelby County, defeated opponent
Jeffrey Woodard, a jailers’ advocate and frequent mayoral critic, by 95
percent to 5 percent .
REPUBLICANS – Retiring commissioner John Willingham
with 58 percent had a tougher time than expected with political newcomer Brent
Todd with 42 percent, the apparent reason being voter wariness of Willingham’s
proposed “tax reform” package, which features a payroll tax.
District Attorney General:
DEMOCRATS – Lawyer Gail Mathes was unopposed.
REPUBLICANS – So was incumbent Bill Gibbons.
Sheriff:
DEMOCRATS – With 49 percent of the vote, Reginald
French, a businessman and former aide to Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton
dominated three opponents: Bennie Cobb (23 percent); Elton Hymon
(19 percent); and Jesse Jeff (9 percent).
REPUBLICANS – Incumbent sheriff Mark Luttrell was
unopposed.
Trustee:
DEMOCRATS — Becky Clark was unopposed.
REPUBLICANS – So was four-term incumbent Bob Patterson.
Circuit Court Clerk:
DEMOCRATS – The aforesaid Roderic Ford beat the
aforesaid Johnnie Ruth Williams, 53 percent to 47 percent.
REPUBLICANS – Incumbent Jimmy Moore was unopposed.
Criminal Court Clerk:
DEMOCRATS – Veteran bail bondsman Vernon Johnson
beat lawyer Kevin Gallagher by an unexpectedly large margin of 58 percent
to 42 percent – perhaps a testament to the simple demographics favoring Johnson,
an African American.
REPUBLICANS – Incumbent Bill Key was unopposed.
Juvenile Court Clerk:
DEMOCRATS – Former clerk Shep Wilbun beat city
school board member Wanda Halbert 56 percent to 44 percent – an outcome
that owed much to a sympathy vote for Wilbun, who was widely regarded as having
been done wrong when put in legal jeopardy during his brief term of service from
2000 to 2002.
REPUBLICANS – Incumbent Steve Stamson was unopposed.
Probate Court Clerk:
DEMOCRATS – Former assistant clerk Sondra Becton
beat Leon Dishmon, by the whopping margin of 82 percent to 18 percent,
for the right to take one more shot at her former boss, whom she has opposed
both on the ballot and in court.
REPUBLICANS – Republican incumbent Chris Thomas is
that former boss and was unopposed.
County Clerk:
DEMOCRATS – Otis Jackson edged out
Charlotte Draper, 10,829 to 10, 695, 37 percent to 36 percent Others were Joe Young,
with 22 percent, and Zoltan Scales, with 5 percent.
REPUBLICANS – Debbie Stamson, husband of the
Juvenile Court clerk and endorsee of outgoing clerk Jayne Creson, turned back
outgoing county commissioner Marilyn Loeffel by a surprising margin of
55 percent to 45 percent. In retrospect, it would appear that Loeffel peaked a
month ago when her first signs went up. But name recognition in this case proved
less valuable than the good funding and establishment support possessed by
Stamson.
Register:
DEMOCRATS — Coleman Thompson was unopposed.
REPUBLICANS – So was incumbent Tom Leatherwood.