Note: in a prior article, the campaigns of four presumably mainline mayoral candidates were discussed — those of Floyd Bonner, Paul Young, Van Turner, and Willie Herenton.
J.W. Gibson: The businessman/developer is something of a wild card in the Mayor’s race. He is a former County Commissioner whose high-matter mark, politically, was a hard-fought but losing in-camera contest for a chairmanship vacancy with then Commission colleague Joe Ford.
Gibson is well known in developmental circles and to a certain extent in political ones, as well. At the moment, he still hopes to be involved in a pending, long-maturing TIF that would cover the Soulsville area of South Memphis.
Of all the declared candidates, Gibson has the most direct access to independent wealth, and that puts him, to start with, at an even keel financially with Bonner and Young, the standout fundraisers so far.
His financial means could be important, especially in a protracted race, but Gibson, however familiar to insiders, has a long way to go to achieve widespread name recognition in the community at large.
Frank Colvett: This city councilman, a former Council chair, took pains when he announced to insist that he was not a partisan candidate and would appeal to all sectors of the Memphis population in what is, of course, a formally non-partisan race.
Even so, Colvett’s image as a well-known Republican stirred speculation that the councilman intended to corner the local GOP electorate as at least a base for his further efforts.
As last year’s county general election made clear, though, Republicans are a distinct minority in Shelby County, and that disparity is even more pronounced within Memphis city limits, where the GOP-voting population is estimated to be between 15 and 20 percent.
Colvett is doggedly showing up at many of the mayoral forums, often ill-attended, that are so far being held. And he is a fixture at any bona fide Republican event, handing out his lapel stickers at the gate.
James Harvey: Another former County Commissioner, another Republican (as of recent years, anyhow), and a true long shot, Harvey is an African-American who hopes to get his share of widely disparate voting populations.
He has a tendency to talk too long when asked to speak at events (a holdover from his erstwhile Commission habits), but, as he demonstrated at a recent GOP meeting (in Germantown, not the most obvious place to find Memphis voters), he was off-and-on riveting when he talked Law and Order themes to the faithful.
Still, he probably shouldn’t hold his breath. (Or, to invert that metaphor, maybe he should.)
Karen Camper: As the minority leader of the state House Democrats, Camper is an influential figure, and in her campaign announcement, she made a good try of casting herself as a spokesperson for Memphis’ inner-city neighborhoods.
And her legislative experience has given her a good grasp of the state-local interface she would need to work as the city’s chief executive.
One thing that has held her back is the moratorium that’s been imposed on fundraising of General Assembly members for the duration of the current legislative session.
Another thing that holds her back is the simple fact that, however important she is as a pubic official, she has been working at a 225-mile distance from Memphis and, consequently, outside Nashville and her legislative district, she remains something of an unknown in Memphis at large.
Michelle McKissack: There surely is a political market for such a highly presentable and well-spoken female candidate as this former local TV personality who has lately served as chair of the Shelby County Schools board.
But McKissack has been stumbling somewhat in making her entry into the race an established fact. She made an unusual public announcement early on that she was thinking of running, but has never amplified on that in any tangible way since. (She has been, however, a presence at several local low-key forums.)
Another drawback to McKissack’s candidacy is that she is subject to fallout from the embarrassing implosion of the now departed and disgraced schools superintendent Joris Ray, whom she had a hand in selecting.
Judge Joe Brown: You kidding me? Is he really running — this former actual Shelby County jurist and, somewhat famously later, a pretend one on syndicated national TV?
Well, he evidently really is. He’s showed up at a couple of local mayoral forums, anyway, where he has continued demonstrating a serious case of foot-in-mouth disease (e.g., saying out loud that a female Mayor would be subject to being raped if she kept a too public profile).
Brown’s name recognition was thought to be an advantage when he ran for D.A. back in 2014, and it may well continue to be, given that former Councilman and current Shelby County Clerk Joe Brown (no relation) probably owes his various elections to the name similarity.
But Judge Brown’s 2014 campaign dramatically dissolved as a result of his many behavioral and verbal indiscretions, and he had no money to run on, anyhow. He still doesn’t have any.
(This concludes Part Two of a brief survey of Memphis mayoral candidates. Almost surely I’ve overlooked somebody, in which case I’ll realize that at some point and add them on. In any case, petitions can’t even be drawn until May 22, so nobody is really official just yet.)
