The practice of deception — perhaps one should say, the “art” of deception — is an ingrained aspect of how politics is practiced in Shelby County. Over the years, and even quite recently, much attention has been lavished in this space on the phenomenon of “bogus ballots” — glossy printed sheets bearing the likenesses and names of various candidates “endorsed” by shell companies purporting to be high-minded civic organizations.
In reality, the “endorsees” on such ballots have paid, sometimes dearly, to have themselves so advertised.
Sometimes the operators of these for-profit shell companies have clothed their enterprises with names suggestive of established political parties — like the “Greater Memphis Democratic Club.”
As a result of legal action brought by the actual Shelby County Democratic Party, special Judge William Acree has put the ballot vendors on injunction to cease and desist such deceptions on pain of criminal prosecution.
It remains to be seen if a similar fate will befall whoever it was that recently texted out several copies of an “endorsement” list of candidates under the auspices of “Republicans of Shelby County.” Recipients of the text will discover, after clicking on a provided link, that they are looking at a polished-appearing document listing preferred candidates for the judicial and governmental positions on the forthcoming August county election ballot. Another link leads to a page on the website of the Tennessee Secretary of State containing instructions on how to find one’s legal polling place.
In something of a disclaimer, the document includes a brief section saying “Who Are We? Republicans of Shelby County is a group of indviduals [sic] that give you the information on candidates that judge / vote conservatively.”
Elsewhere the document features several artistic variations on the elephant iconography of the actual Republican Party, and the link provided in the initial text lists the sponsoring organization’s website as republicanpartyofshelbycounty.com.
Apprised of the document, Cary Vaughn, current chairman of the actual Shelby County Republican Party, pronounced it a “rogue effort” and “bogus.” Vaughn said the party has decided on a list of its actual endorsees, which it intends to distribute widely later this month.
As for the “endorsees” on the “Republicans of Shelby County” list, most of them appear reasonable for a GOP endorsee list. The one exception is in the list of endorsees for countywide office. Everybody on it is the official nominee of the Republican Party, except for assessor candidate Melvin Burgess, who is the Democratic nominee for that position.
Asked about his inclusion on such a list, Burgess said he had no knowledge of the sponsoring organization or the list or how his name got there.
The person most likely to be affected by the list, of course, is Steve Cross, the official Republican nominee for the post and Burgess’ opponent. As Vaughn had previously, Cross described both the “Republicans of Shelby County” and its alleged list of endorsees as “bogus.”
Bogus it undoubtedly is, and the aforesaid art of deception is well evidenced in a note attached to the text copy received by the Flyer. The note read, “Judges recommended include Stewart [sic] Breakstone and Joe Ozment who marched in the pride parade. Wow!” This disingenuous bit — regarding the purported participation in Pride Week activities, along with numerous other public figures, of judicial candidates Stuart Breakstone and Joe Ozment — can be regarded as a misdirection of sorts, intended to obscure the question of legitimacy of the list and the sender.
For the record, the sender of the text is represented solely by a phone number: (901) 860-5640. Good luck trying to get an answer on that line.
