Being a top dog in a political party often means having to herd cats. And it means, in an election year, doing what it takes to make sure the party’s tent spreads wide. Here”s Justin Joy (left), chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party, making nice with a couple of the GOP’s outliers —Woody Degan and Zach Poskevich, primary challengers to a pair of the Republican Party’s main men, state Senator Majority Leader Mark Norris and U.S. Senator Bob Corker, respectively.
(You can bet Joy will go out of his way to be all smiles to Norris and Corker the next time he encounters them.)
The conversation shown above took place Wednesday night at the opening of the Shelby County Republican Headquarters at the Kirby Woods Shopping Center in Germantown.
Next, a day later, here’s Mike Turner of Nashville (center), caucus chair of the Democrats in the state House, making his rounds in Memphis on Thursday and stopping by the Mesquite Steak House in downtown Memphis with state Representative Joe Towns (right) of Whitehaven, to give lodge brother Antonio “Two Shay” Parkinson (left), a first-term state representative from Raleigh-Frayser, a hand at Parkinson’s fundraiser.
As they say, all in a day ‘s work.
