As the special election involving 10 candidates seeking to succeed the late Barbara Cooper in state House District 86 speeds to a finish on Tuesday, most attention is focused on two presumed frontrunners: activist Justin Pearson and longtime political figure Julian Bolton.
Pearson is best known for his leadership in the successful campaign to block the building of an oil pipeline through South Memphis. Politically speaking, he is a new face. Bolton, to say the least, has been around. He served 24 years on the Shelby County Commission and has kept his hand in politics since, serving as a major aide in the recent campaign of City Councilman JB Smiley for the Democratic nomination for governor.
Both candidates have name supporters. Pearson can boast 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, City Councilman Jeff Warren, and the AFL-CIO, among others. Bolton, too, is well spoken for, with Smiley, longtime fellow Commissioner Walter Bailey, County Trustee Regina Morrison Newman, Councilman Martavius Jones, and others, including,, most significantly perhaps, former Congressman and longtime local political broker Harold Ford Sr.
Though concentrating most attention on his Serenity Funeral Home, Ford keeps an eye on political developments. Though he no longer publishes sample ballots at election time, he bestows occasional candidate endorsements, that of Bolton being his most recent.
Other District 86 candidates are Rod Blunt, Tamnya Cooper (the late Rep. Cooper’s daughter), Juliette Eskridge, Dominique Frost, Clifford Lewis, Will Richardson, Rebecca Robinson, and Andrew “Rome” Withers.
The late Representative Cooper died between last year’s Democratic primary, which she won, and the November general election, where enough votes were tallied to have re-elected her. The upcoming special election was called as a result.
