Atlanta’s version of the 1993 Harold Ford trial and the
ongoing Operation Tennessee Waltz investigation got under way this week as
former Mayor Bill Campbell went on trial on federal corruption charges.
This
one bears watching in Memphis for several reasons.
Campbell, 52, was a black mayor in a Southern city that once called itself “too
busy to hate” and which has had a black mayor since 1973. A janitor’s son who
graduated from Vanderbilt University, he was mayor of Atlanta from 1994 to 2002
and spokesman for the city during the 1996 Olympics. He was indicted in 2004 on
11 counts of bribery, racketeering, and fraud after a seven-year investigation
that has convicted 12 city officials and city contractors.
National news coverage of the trial has noted that, with some notable
exceptions, it has divided the city along racial lines. The
Los Angeles Times
quoted Democratic state representative Bob Holmes, who said, “White people think
he was an awful, corrupt mayor. African Americans see him as a champion of the
poor.”
There are similarities to the trial of former U.S. representative Harold Ford
Sr., who was investigated for several years and tried twice before being
acquitted in 1993. Ford was a legendary Memphis congressman who fought to keep
his trial in Memphis instead of Knoxville, where federal prosecutors wanted to
try him. Ford won with a mostly white jury but not until both sides had played
the race card.
Now
it is former state senator John Ford who is under indictment in Operation
Tennessee Waltz, along with two other current and former state legislators and
Shelby County commissioner Michael Hooks. All of the Memphis defendants are
black, and all have pleaded not guilty and, so far, have indicated they will go
to trial.
Memphis mayor Willie Herenton and John Ford will be following the Campbell trial
closely, and Herenton may be called to testify as a witness along with former
Herenton aide Reginald French.
Herenton was a political friend and occasional host and companion of Campbell
when the former Atlanta mayor visited Memphis and Tunica. In 2003, Herenton
testified for the federal government in Atlanta against Herbert McCall, one of
the Atlanta city officials who has been convicted. McCall and former Atlanta
chief operating officer Larry Wallace pitched a contractor, Johnson Controls, to
Herenton in 2000. Herenton smelled a rat and rejected them. On several
occasions, including a press conference this month, he has called proposals by
bogus contractors and their consultants “crazy stuff.”
The
middleman for the meeting in 2000 was French, a sometimes consultant and current
candidate for Shelby County sheriff, who has been with Herenton in various
capacities since the mayor was elected in 1991. French, who was not charged,
gave $10,000 to the Atlanta hand-out crew and testified for the government at
the trial in 2003.
Consultants, of course, are central players in Tennessee Waltz. Memphian Tim
Willis worked undercover for the FBI to net John Ford and paid the former
senator $10,000 in cash. Ford was a consultant for Johnson Controls to help them
get a state contract with a medical facility in Chattanooga. Ford was also a
consultant to TennCare contractors.
Another Memphis connection to Campbell
is Dewey Clark, a Memphis native who worked in Campbell’s campaign in 1993 and
lived in Campbell’s basement apartment for six years while working as a mayoral
“special assistant,” according to
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Clark fell out with Campbell and has accused him of taking bribes.
The seven-year duration of the Campbell
investigation suggests Tennessee Waltz is far from over. After some Atlanta
defendants were sentenced in 2003, the
Journal-Constitution,
citing defense attorneys, published a story saying the City Hall investigation
was about to wrap up and Campbell was “seemingly in the clear.” He wasn’t. The
feds take their time in high-profile, racially charged cases. It ain’t over
until it’s over.