Month: July 2007

UPDATE OF PREVIOUS POST: According to NashvillePost.com, State Senator Paul Stanley has withdrawn his name from consideration to become chair of the Tennessee Republican Party,throwing his support behind the party’s current vice chair, Robin Smith of Hixson.

PREVIOUS POST: State Senator Paul Stanley
(District 31, Germantown, Cordova) has launched a bid to succeed state
Republican chairman Bob Davis, who intends to join former U.S. Senator Fred
Thompson’s presidential campaign. In an email to members of the state GOP
executive committee, Stanley promised to resign his Senate seat if picked for
the job by the committee.

Such a move would free Stanley’s
hands to raise money has party chairman while the legislature, whose members are
prohibited from doing fundraising while in session, is meeting.

Other Republicans interested are
former Memphian Larry Kidwell, now a Nashville investment banker, and former state Senator
Jim Bryson of Williamson County. The GOP executive committee will meet to select
Davis’ replacement on August 4th.

This is a copy of Stanley’s email
to committee members:

From: (State Senator Paul
Stanley)
To: XXXXXXXXXX
Subject: State Republican Party Chairmanship
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2007

Dear XXXXXXX,

Happy 4th of July! Our nation
and state have much to be thankful for as we celebrate our nation’s
independence. Without question, the freedoms most of us take for granted will be
challenged as we move toward the 2008 election cycle.

Tennessee Republican Party
Chairman Bob Davis announced on Tuesday his impending resignation. Bob has been
a friend for many years and his experience, political instinct, and
communication and management skills will be greatly missed. I wish Bob and his
family the best as they embark upon an exciting opportunity.

As a former member of the
Executive Committee, I realize the important task yo u have in evaluating
candidates and electing a chairman for the party.

I would like to be the next
Chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party.

The top priority of our
chairman should be electing a majority in the State House and electing more
Republican Senators to support Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey. I believe Fred
Thompson’s entrance into the Presidential race gives Tennessee Republicans a
unique opportunity to obtain this majority in the legislature.

The chairman’s position is a
full time job. If elected, I will resign from the Senate to serve full time as
TRP Chairman.

Having served seven years in
the legislature, I developed relationships with nearly every Republican member
of the General Assembly. These relationships give me a unique insight into what
it takes to serve in the legislature, and I believe we assist me in recruiting
candidates. I have a proven track record as a fundraiser in the House and Senate
that will serve me well when raising money for our party.

Over the next several days I
will call you to discuss how we can best move our party to the majority at every
level.

Thank you for your
consideration and, again, have a wonderful 4th.

Best regards,
Senator Paul Stanley

–j.b.

Mayor Herenton filed his reelection papers Tuesday. He could still drop out, and more candidates can get in the race until July 19th. But assuming that he doesn’t and even if they do, here’s why Flyer Senior Editor John Branston thinks he will win.

Winner Take All. Even if the polls are right and at least two-thirds of the voters don’t like him, Herenton only needs one more vote than the second-place finisher. Mathematically, he could win with 32 percent of the vote, like Steve Cohen did last year in the congressional Democratic primary. A Herenton hater who lives outside the city or stays home on Election Day doesn’t hurt him. The more challengers he has, the better he does. I don’t see a 2007 version of the 1991 convention that chose Herenton as the consensus black candidate. Polls that show Herenton losing in a head-to-head race with so-and-so are misleading because he probably won’t be running against one person.

The Numbers. Democrats from Harold Ford to Bill Clinton to Herenton win elections in Memphis by rolling up huge margins in scores of black precincts. Clinton actually won every vote in some precincts in 1996. If Herenton gets 80 or 90 percent of the vote in several precincts, he can beat a challenger whose best showing is 50 or 60 percent. Where are Herman Morris or Carol Chumney going to win 80 percent?

The Record and the Rhetoric. The mayor’s recent rhetoric about racial solidarity was a nice try, but his record doesn’t live down to it. He’s been a supporter of optional schools, downtown development, and occasional Republican political candidates. He has appointed way too many white division directors and police directors. As a black racist, he simply doesn’t cut it. Absent a consensus candidate and public repudiation by key business leaders, he’ll hold his own in East Memphis.

Snakes. As Herenton knew they would, members of the media took the bait and are acting like Nick Clark and Richard Fields are the ones running for mayor, not the four-term incumbent. Clark and Fields are not running for anything. Fields is an attorney. Clark is a businessman and member of the MLGW board. They don’t work for the city of Memphis. They don’t make a single appointment to a public board or government job. They can’t award a single no-bid contract. But Herenton, who has done all those things hundreds of times for 16 years, called them snakes and the chase was on. The mayor’s hint that unnamed snakes are still out there was so much more useful than confronting them head-on — as Fields, whatever you may think of him, did with Herenton in a three-hour meeting in March when he suggested he look for another line of work. How old-fashioned! The way to slur someone these days, as everyone knows, is anonymously.

Machine Politics. Taking a page from Boss Crump’s book, Herenton has appointed or assisted scores of friends and even some former rivals to city jobs. People like former school board member Sara Lewis, former City Council members Janet Hooks and Tajuan Stout Mitchell, and former mayoral spokeswoman Gale Jones Carson know how to campaign and win elections. Ordinary incumbency is an advantage, but 16 years of control over power, access, contracts, and jobs is an overwhelming advantage.

The City Charter reads: “No full-time employee shall engage in political activity, directly concerned with city government or any candidate for political office thereunder.”

That means no political phone calls, e-mails, letters, or strategy meetings on city time. But the ban is a paper tiger, more toothless than an ethics ordinance. “Uncovering” politics in a government office would be like finding mud in the Mississippi River.

Money. The mayor has more than $500,000 in his campaign fund even if he did only raise $1,650 in the first reporting period this year. By August, if he makes a few phone calls, he should have more than all his challengers put together. Chumney, at last report, had under $30,000. But Herenton managed to turn even that to his advantage by accusing the media of giving her free publicity.

Crime and MLGW. There is no simple solution to crime, and the latest numbers are running Herenton’s way. What do you propose to do differently if you’re Herman Morris or Carol Chumney or even, say, FBI special agent My Harrison? On MLGW and Memphis Networx, Morris was running the show for seven years, and there is plenty of blame to go around.

BY
JACKSON BAKER |
JULY 3, 2007

Willie Herenton made it official Tuesday. At the stroke of noon — surrounded by a medley of supporters, reporters, and the curious throngs that only a longtime office-holder of his stature (and none of his opponents so far) can command —a smiling mayor showed up at the Election Commission, wrote out his check, turned in his reelection petition, acknowledged his supporters, and named his adversaries.

In no particular order, they were the media, the power establishment, assorted plotters and schemers, and — almost as an afterthought, his declared ballot adversaries. Herenton was asked if he thought that any opponents were yet to declare (that was code for his longtime friend and governmental counterpart, Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton). “It doesn’t matter,” he boomed out, as a surrounding crowd cheered his confident declaration.

And it may not matter. But there is a general feeling now– with two weeks to go before the July 19th filing deadline, that the best bet — some think the only bet — to turn the mayor back from gaining a fifth four-year term is Wharton, and that the county mayor is running out of temporizing time.

It seems clear that he must — in very short order — either declare his candidacy, risking an old friendship with the man whose campaigns he has more than once been the titular manager of, or make an unambiguous statement (a “Shermanesque” one, as the old-time pols say, after a famously recalcitrant Civil War general facing a presidential draft) renouncing any possible shadow of ambition to move his mayoral chair across the downtown government mall to City Hall.

What is known is that Wharton has been tempted to run, but that, besides his native reluctance and his loyalty to Herenton, he fears a bitter campaign in which he ends up being mauled by his old friend, a former pugilist who has never been prone to pull any punches– in the ring or out.

It is further known that Wharton —or someone acting on his behalf —has researched various questions of governmental protocol —notably including the key one of whether he could run for one mayorship while occupying the other, or even hold both offices at once.

Meanwhile, the rest of the field went on doing its collective thing:

Earlier in the week, former MLGW head Herman Morris had perceptibly stepped up his schedule, appearing at a meet-and-greet on Wednesday, followed by a fundraiser before an audience of lawyers on Thursday.

At the latter event, held at the University of Memphis area Holiday Inn on Central, Morris pointedly condemned political appeals to “racial divisiveness”; —an apparent reference to what many observers saw as a central element of Herenton’s now famous “blackmail plot” press conference.

It is now clear that Morris and his supporters are staking their hopes on his prospects of appealing to both black and white voters and thereby becoming the legitimate default candidate for those seeking an alternative to a continuation of Herenton’s tenure.

As the leader in early mayoral polling, city council member Carol Chumney, of course, wasn’t conceding anything. She, too, accelerated her campaigning over the last week, following up a Monday night appearance before the Germantown Democrats with some extended shmoozing at Thursday night’s weekly “Drinking Liberally”; event, held at the Cooper & Young bistro Dish.

Finally, on Saturday night, Chumney invited supporters to the Memphis Showboat for what she called a “kickoff”; of her campaign (for once, given the venue, the term “launch”;might have been more appropriate).

Chumney read a lengthy statement in which she noted the panoply of reformist positions and independent stances that have gained her a substantial following. Especially prominent in her audience Saturday night were a group of environmental activists.

Nor was former Shelby County Commissioner John Willingham inactive. Appearing at Tuesday night’s meeting of the East Shelby Republican Club at the Pickering Center in Germantown, Willingham made the most of a brief cameo appearance before the main address by state Rep. Brian Kelsey, espousing a disdain for the city’s “power elite”; that may have transcended even Herenton’s in its intensity..

Of James Perkins, the retired FedEx executive who is reputed to have a million dollars to load into a campaign, not much is yet known. His campaign so far remains invisible, and, to the electorate at large, so does he.

The fact remains: In the field as constituted so far, only Willie Herenton is a creature of genuine sturm und drang. Only he has demonstrated the dramatic potency that, beyond all issues and for better or for worse, can motivate a mass electorate.

What happens if Wharton does get in? Chumney insists that she will remain in the race and eschew a return to the District 5 city council position and which three candidates — Jim Strickland, Dee Parkinson, and Bob Schreiber —now seek. Morris maintains that he raised enough money and support to go the distance, and no one doubts that Willingham will stay the course.

What the other candidates —or their representatives —all say is that they have all displayed a resourcefulness that the county mayor has not. “It’s easy enough for him to just say no. why doesn’t he?” is a common refrain. The answer to that, of course, is that he may yet give the alternative answer.

BY

CHRIS DAVIS | JULY 3, 2007

The clock is ticking. On Thursday, July 5th, MLGW’s Board of Governors will vote whether to sell Memphis Networx to a Colorado-based holding company, Communications Infrastructure Investments (CII), for $11.5 million — a loss for MLGW exceeding $28 million. Networx representatives have cautioned that any significant delay could negatively impact a deal that, for MLGW ratepayers, is already negative.

Before the vote, however, some serious questions should be asked regarding potential conflicts of interest and the business practices that led MLGW to this juncture.

First, if MLGW is already prepared to eat almost all of its $29 million investment, what do the ratepayers stand to lose by delaying this decision long enough to ensure that the sale is on the up and up?

Question two: Who exactly is Tom Swanson, the McLean Group consultant who assembled the list of Networx potential buyers and helped facilitate the deal? Last week, when City Council chairman Tom Marshall asked that same question, Networx board member Nick Clark responded by quoting Swanson’s McLean Group Web bio, which leaves out an interesting piece of information. Swanson’s bio for his own private consulting business (TJSwansonCo) lists his involvement with a now-shuttered company called Intira, where, according to SEC records, he served as vice president of sales. Intira was co-founded in 1998 by former Networx CEO Mark Ivie and employed former Networx controller Jeff Rice as well as current Networx CEO Dan Platko. Given his background, should Swanson have been the broker for the deal?

An official contract signed by Platko and obtained by the Flyer suggests, and other sources verify, that late last year, Platko offered Swanson $2,000 a day to consult with Networx’ sales division through his private firm. Swanson’s compensation may have dropped by about one-third when he took on the job of assisting with the sale of Networx through the McLean Group in December 2006.

More questions: Who stands to profit from the sale of Networx? Certainly not MLGW ratepayers, currently taking a $28 million bath. Will any Networx executives have employment opportunities with the new ownership or with companies related to the new ownership? Have there been any arrangements made behind the scenes that may have tilted the scales in CII’s favor?

This isn’t the first time Memphis Networx has been positioned for sale. American Fiber Systems (AFS), the New York communications infrastructure company that submitted a bid for Networx valued at $13 million, has been trying to acquire the company since 2004. AFS’ initial bids involved no cash, but Networx execs and at least one board member showed substantial interest.

More recently, AFS placed a higher combined cash-and-stock bid for Memphis Networx than CII, but it wasn’t the highest. Ohio-based BTI Corporate, a communications firm looking to partner with Memphis Bioworks and strike a deal with MLGW that could allow the local utility to recoup some of its losses, submitted a bid valued at $20 million.

Whose best interests have been served in the rush to unload Memphis Networx? The ratepayers? The private investors? Or someone else? Ultimately, selling Networx — even at a loss — may be in MLGW’s best interests. But given the history, it’s important that MLGW’s ratepayers know who profits from the botched $29 million investment and why.

–Chris Davis