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State Democratic Chair Removes SCDP Chair Carter

Tennessee Democratic Party chair Hendrell Remus (Photo: Courtesy TN Democratic Party)

In a surprise action that recalls a similar circumstance eight years ago, state Democratic Party chair Hendrell Remus has removed local Shelby County party chair Lexie Carter from power.

The action took place Thursday following a Zoom call between Carter, Remus, and others. Invoking what the state chair said was the absolute authority of the state party over local parties, Remus said Carter had not measured up to the needs of a coordinated Democratic campaign for the fall election.

He mentioned specifically the campaigns for District 98 state representative of Jesse Juseth, who opposes Republican incumbent John Gillespie, and that of Gloria Johnson of Knoxville against GOP US Senator Marsha Blackburn.

Remus said he had sent a questionnaire to Carter asking for details of the local party’s readiness for election activity and received insufficient information in response.

Carter professed to be taken by surprise, having just, as she maintained, presided over the local party’s annual Kennedy Day banquet last weekend and raised upwards of $40,000 for party coffers. She alleged that a number of disagreements and confrontations had occurred between herself and Remus at the recently concluded Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Former local party chair and ex-County Commissioner Van Turner, who had assisted Carter in answering Remus’ questionnaire, raised concerns about due process in Carter’s removal and likened his action to the state Republican Party supermajority’s attempt to dominate over the actions of local government.

Remus said he would be appointing four ad hoc co-chairs to guide the SCDP until December, when a local party election will be held.

The new developments recalled the situation of 2016 when then state Democratic chair Mary Mancini disbanded the Shelby County party following years of local controversy, including charges of embezzlement.

The local party was reconstituted in 2017 with Corey Strong as chair.

More details to come as they are learned.

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Still on Call

Alisa Haushalter (Photo: Jackson Baker)

Some readers might wonder: Whatever happened to Alisa Haushalter? The former director of the Shelby County Health Department, Haushalter was, not so long ago, one of the most visible people in the public eye as department head at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

By one measure — the fact that she was publicly accountable and on call on a daily, even hourly basis — she may have been for a time the single most visible of all local officials. Not only was she at the helm of the health department and having to cope directly with the scourge of Covid, managing local responses to it as best as she could; she had the responsibility of communicating every aspect of the disease’s progress and every important piece of data relating to its impact on the community. It was 24/7 and then some.

It is certainly arguable that Haushalter herself was one of the chief victims in Shelby County of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her work as the director was hailed as exemplary then and later by her associates in the department and in county government at large.

But, simply because of the prominence of her position, she was caught up in various controversies that owed more to the inherent disruptiveness wrought by the pandemic than to any actions she was responsible for.

Consider this a tease for a forthcoming lengthier, and possibly eye-opening, treatment of Haushalter’s pivotal and arguably heroic service on behalf of Shelby County in a time of crisis. Suffice it to say for the moment that political pressures relating to state vs. local issues played a large role in her decision, in February 2021, to step down as health department director.

But her service to Shelby County has continued. When she came here in 2016, after years of health service, first in Nashville and later at the renowned Nemours health complex in Delaware, she had a request of then-County Mayor Mark Luttrell, who hired her.

For three years, while working in Nashville, she had gone back and forth between the state’s two largest cities working on her doctorate, which she got from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

“When I was in Nashville,” she recalls, “I had dual appointments. I taught at Vanderbilt, and I was at the health department there. So when I came here, part of my discussion with Mayor Luttrell was, ‘Can I have a dual appointment so that I’m still teaching?’” The answer was yes, and, while serving as health department director she taught health policy at UT. 

Her thinking was eminently commonsensible. “That really was sort of how I came back to Tennessee. You learn along with the students, and the students get to learn from someone who has experience, not just what they’re getting from reading the book. And so it has always been a good match.”

Upon leaving the department, Haushalter would expand her teaching load to include, currently, healthcare economics and population health.

She has never departed from the idea of service. She’s still very much here and on the case, keeping her hand in — learning, doing, and teaching. Aside from her regular students, she says, she’s still on call at the department. “There are team members over there that still reach out to me that I coach or mentor.”

Her bottom line: “I’m committed to public health, I’m committed to nursing and have spent decades doing that. And I’m committed to Shelby County.”

More about Alisa Haushalter to come. Stay tuned.

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Cohen, Sawyer, Salinas, Johnson Among Election Winners

Tami Sawyer (Photo: Courtesy Tami Sawyer)

There were no major — or even minor — surprises in the August 1st round of elections in Shelby County.

In the only county general race on the ballot, Democratic nominee Tami Sawyer defeated Republican nominee Lisa Arnold by 40,383 votes to 34,563 for the position of General Sessions clerk.

In the tightest race on the state and federal portion of the ballot, for the Democratic nomination for the open District 96 state representative seat, Gabby Salinas eked out a close win over runner-up Telisa Franklin, 2,168 votes to 2,036.

Others, with their vote totals, were Eric Dunn, 397; David Winston, 281; and Orrden Williams Jr., 52. 

There being no Republican candidate on the November 5th ballot, Salinas becomes, ipso facto, the state Representative-elect.

In the Democratic primary for United States Senate, Gloria Johnson, state representative of Knoxville, overcame runner-up Marquita Bradshaw, a Memphian who had been an upset winner of a previous Senate primary four years ago.

Votes statewide were: Johnson, 22,255; Bradshaw, 16,857; Lola Denise Brown, 3,585; and Civil Millder-Watkins, 1,875.

In November, Johnson will oppose incumbent Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, who won her primary with ease over Tres Wittum. The margin in Shelby was 25,2001 to 2,566.

In the Democratic primary for the 9th District U.S. representative seat, incumbent Steve Cohen easily won renomination. Votes were: Cohen, 29,818; Corey Strong, 7,115; M. Latroy A-Williams, 1,928; Kassandra L. Smith, 1,507.

Cohen will be opposed in November by Republican Charlotte Berman, who was unopposed in her primary.

In the Democratic primary for the 8th District congressional seat, Sarah Freeman won nomination with 2,661 votes. Others were: LunetteWilliams with 905 votes; Brenda Woods, 824; Leonard Perkins, 538; and Lawrence A. Pivnick, 762.

In November, Freeman will oppose incumbent Republican Rep. David Kustoff, who was unopposed in his primary.

In the Republican primary for state representative, District 97, incumbent John Gillespie defeated Christina Oppenhuizen, 4,910 votes to 236. He will be opposed in November by Democrat Jesse Huseth, who was unopposed in his primary.

In the Democratic primary for state representative, District 84, incumbent Joe Towns defeated Vernell Williams, 2,321 votes to 461.

In the Democratic primary for state representative, District 93, incumbent Rep. G.A. Hardaway defeated LaShanta Rudd, 2,209 votes to 730.

More results to come, including Shelby County School Board races. 

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Tami Sawyer Gets Backup

Tami Sawyer and friends. Photo by Jackson Baker.

As the August 1st phase of the 2024 election turned into its final week, Tami Sawyer, the Democratic nominee for General Sessions Court Clerk, did not enter it by herself.

At a press conference held on the grounds of Anointed Temple of Praise on Riverdale Road, Sawyer was joined by an impressive roster of leading Democratic Party figures — including state party chair Hendrell Remus from Nashville, Shelby County Democratic chair Lexie Carter, State Representative Justin J. Pearson, Germantown Democrats president Jeff Ethridge, and numerous others.

The clerk’s race, on the county general part of the ballot, is basically the only direct test of party candidates on August 1st, and members of the group Wednesday — along with Sawyer herself  — were at pains to make the point that it was not a matter of indifference who gets elected to what is not generally thought as a policy position. The Republican nominee for clerk is Lisa Arnold.

Sawyer noted that the presidential hopes of Kamala Harris, who would be the first woman of color to be elected president, carried important symbolic impact. So, she suggested, would the election of herself, as a well-known activist and as a black woman and a Democrat, to a local post of more than usual import and visibility.

Sawyer and her supporters had worried all morning about a forecast of possible rain, and they had erected a tent on the grounds just in case, As things turned out, it wasn’t needed. The first drop, and it was a light one at that, didn’t fall until the press conference was concluded.

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Cohen Announces Money for New I-55 Bridge

I-55 Bridge. Photo by Jon W. Sparks

Ninth District Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Memphis), a senior member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, announced Friday that the Tennessee and Arkansas Departments of Transportation were successful in securing $393,750,000 for a new Interstate 55 Bridge over the Mississippi River at Memphis to be known as America’s River Crossing.

Cohen has worked with the Biden-Harris Administration to secure funding for this project, inviting Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to Memphis when the Hernando DeSoto Bridge was out of commission in May of 2021 to see how critical the Mid-South transportation corridor is to interstate commerce. Cohen also joined Administrator Shailen Bhatt of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) during his trip to Memphis in May to talk about the need to replace the I-55 Bridge and his concerns that it would be vulnerable to serious damage in an earthquake and is far out of date.

In addition to writing a letter of support, Cohen has discussed the regional and national significance of this project in Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearings, most recently with Buttigieg on June 28. See his recent committee hearing exchanges with Buttigieg here and with Bhatt in May here. 

Cohen was the only member of the current Tennessee and Arkansas Congressional delegations to vote for the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the source of major funding for the project.

Cohen made the following statement:

“I’m proud to have worked with the President, the U.S. Department of Transportation, as well as the outstanding team in Memphis and the governor’s office in successfully getting this extremely large and necessary grant for the construction of the new bridge. As President Biden would say, ‘This is a big … deal!’ And it sure is: Probably the biggest investment made in Memphis by the federal government ever. 

“I was proud to vote for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that created this Bridge Program and allow these funds to be available for Memphis. Mine was the only vote for the bill in either the Tennessee or the Arkansas Congressional delegations. We are two red states. This shows how President Biden works for the best interest of the country. It is important to America and not politically good for a red or a blue state. It’s the United States of America and that’s what this bridge is for. Transportation across America creates jobs and improves our economy — America’s River Crossing.”

Memphis Mayor Paul Young made the following statement:

“This historic investment in Memphis will help further connect our community with the region and the world. Memphis’ prominence as a logistics hub is made stronger by the investment in this key piece of infrastructure and we are honored by the grant.”

Greater Memphis Chamber President and CEO Ted Townsend made the following statement:

“For over two decades, the Greater Memphis Chamber has led local efforts to ensure a new bridge would be built further solidifying Memphis as a global logistics leader. Over those 20 years, Congressman Steve Cohen has remained a constant advocate with us. We want to appreciate the leadership of the Tennessee Department of Transportation for helping to initiate and convene this most recent effort, the Mayor’s office — both Jim Strickland and Paul Young — for being local advocates, and the Chamber’s Transportation Committee for being persistent and never taking their eye off of the ball.”

The Tennessee and Arkansas Departments of Transportation submitted a joint application through the Bridge Investment Program (BIP) Large Bridge Projects Program. The Federal Highway Administration announced today that the project will move forward.

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New State Laws In Effect for Child Rape, Chemtrails, and More

State Capitol (Photo: Tennessee State Government)

From chemtrails to immigration, several new state laws took effect at the beginning of the month. Let’s have a look at a few examples of how state lawmakers changed the rules here this year. 

Death for child rapists — Adults over the age of 18 now face the death penalty if they rape a child under the age of 12. The legislation was sponsored by two powerful lawmakers: House Majority Leader Rep. William Lamberth (R-Cottontown) and Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jack Johnson (R-Franklin). 

However, in 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court said a similar idea from Louisiana was “not proportional punishment for the crime of child rape.” Johnson said he sponsored the legislation “in an effort to challenge the 2008 Supreme Court ruling.” 

The Bible — The Bible — specifically the Aitken Bible — is a new state book. That version was the first published in the U.S. 

State lawmakers have long flirted with the notion to make the Bible a state book but the bills to do it never passed. Conservatives bypassed much of the controversy to get it done this year by adding the Bible to a list of 10 other new, state books. That list included Alex Haley’s “Roots,” and Robert Penn Warren’s “All the President’s Men.”     

Immigration — All law enforcement agencies and officials must now report “the immigration status of any individual” to the federal government. This includes the “knowledge that a particular alien is not lawfully present in the United States.”

“Chemtrails” — “It is documented that the federal government or other entities acting on the federal government’s behalf or at the federal government’s request may conduct geoengineering experiments by intentionally dispersing chemicals into the atmosphere, and those activities may occur within the State of Tennessee,” reads Senate Bill 2691. 

It says geoengineering is is not “well understood.” So as of last week in Tennessee, “the intentional injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of chemicals, chemical compounds, substances, or apparatus within the borders of this state into the atmosphere with the express purpose of affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of the sunlight is prohibited.” 

“Abortion trafficking” — A new law makes it illegal for an adult to recruit, harbor, or transport a pregnant “unemancipated minor” to conceal an abortion from their parents, helping them get an abortion no matter where it is performed, or getting an abortion-inducing drug for them. Those caught now face a Class A misdemeanor and “must be punished by imprisonment for 11 months and 29 days.”

The ELVIS Act — Gov. Bill Lee described the Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act (ELVIS Act) as “a bill updating Tennessee’s Protection of Personal Rights Act to include protections for songwriters, performers, and music industry professionals’ voice[s] from the misuse of artificial intelligence.” 

“From Beale Street to Broadway, to Bristol and beyond, Tennessee is known for our rich artistic heritage that tells the story of our great state,” said Lee. “As the technology landscape evolves with artificial intelligence, I thank the General Assembly for its partnership in creating legal protection for our best-in-class artists and songwriters.”

Parent protections — The “Families’ Rights and Responsibilities Act” says no government agency or official can substantially burden “the fundamental rights of a parent as provided under this bill,” unless the government can prove it needs to step in. 

These rights include “the upbringing of the child,” the “moral or religious training of the child,” all healthcare decisions, school choice (public, private, religious, or home school), excused absences from school attendance for religious purposes, consent before the collection of “any individual biometric data” like analysis of facial expressions, brain wave patterns, heart-rate, pulse, blood volume, blood, DNA, and more.

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Sen. Taylor Reveals Plan for Ousting DA Mulroy

Brent Taylor exiting the SCEC (Credit: Jackson Baker)

State Senator Brent Taylor confided to the Memphis Flyer on Sunday the basic outlines of the procedure he intends to set in motion to remove Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy  from office. 

The plan, as the senator indicated,  will depend on legislative action in a coming session of the General Assembly, either a regular session or a specially called one. 

Taylor, a persistent  critic of Mulroy for what the senator considers laxity in local law enforcement, says his plan is based on Article VI, Section 6, of the state constitution and would call for a removal  resolution to be passed by both chambers of the legislature, to be followed by gubernatorial action to appoint a successor as Shelby  DA.

State House Speaker Cameron Sexton has also acknowledged discussing the idea of ousting Mulroy with state Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. Taylor promised to elaborate on details of his thinking and Sexton’s at a press conference at 2 p.m. Monday at the headquarters of the Memphis Police Association on Jefferson Avenue.

Both Taylor and Sexton fired off condemnations last week of Mulroy’s announcement of a diversionary program for non-violent previous offenders charged with illegal possession of firearms.

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“Bogus Ballots” Continued

Never say die — particularly if you’re talking about that unkillable scourge of local elections, the bogus ballot.

That’s the term of art for those privately prepared and printed broadsheets containing the mugs of assorted candidates that various entrepreneurs pass out to voters at election time.

The balloteers charge the favored candidates a pretty penny — actually, several thousand dollars apiece — for the honor of appearing on these sample ballots as “endorsees.” 

It’s all a matter of commerce. Not much actual evaluation is involved, with the exception, perhaps, of a few — a very few — candidates who get included gratis, perhaps to salve the consciences of the money-making balloteers.

In recent years, critics of the process — ranging from occasional candidate John Marek to the Shelby County Democratic Party itself —  have gone to court in an effort to bring things to a halt, mainly because several of the ballot-mongering entrepreneurs have included misleading imagery and language making it appear that their profit-making sheets are actually the legitimate handiwork of the Democratic Party.

The plaintiffs had considerable difficulty getting hearings on the matter because so many local judges were customers of the ballot makers.

But at length, a special judge, William Acree, was brought in from Jackson and issued a permanent injunction against further publication of  bogus ballots that simulated Democratic Party efforts.

Such constraints as resulted, including still-pending action against  balloteer Greg Grant, have slowed to a halt, however, for several reasons: Judge Acree has retired, and the litigants who sought the injunction are now hors de combat.

Plaintiff Marek, a lawyer whose efforts have been pro bono, is seeking to withdraw, and his partner in litigation, Jake Brown, has already done so as of last week, having been cut loose by the local Democratic Party, which has opted under current party chair Lexie Carter to pay for no more litigation.

Meanwhile, with elections approaching in August and November, privately printed sample ballots are out there again in force, some of them heeding the injunction against feigning Democratic Party involvement, and some not. (See image of ballot from entrepreneur M. Latroy Alexandria-Williams, whose “Memphis Democratic Club” and “Shelby County Democratic Club” are shell organization with no real existence.)

And the old saw that “you get what you pay for” still reigns among local  candidates for office.

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Woof! The Shelby County GOP is Serving Up Kristi Noem, No Less


Shelby County Republicans,  who normally hold their annual Lincoln Day banquet reasonably close to the birthday of their eminent founder, Abraham Lincoln, in February, are running late this year. The celebratory event is scheduled for the night of Sunday, June 23rd, at the Hilton Hotel on Ridge Lake Boulevard.

Perhaps as compensation, they’re doubling up on the number of keynote speakers, offering not only state Senator Brent Taylor of Memphis, the dinner’s official sponsor and financial backer, but also  — local dog lovers, take note — Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota.

Both principals have made more than their share of headlines this year — Taylor as a would-be crimefighter and sponsor of numerous bills to impose greater state authority on Memphis law enforcement, and Noem  as the currently most famous (or notorious) adversary of uppity canines.

There is a well-known saying that goes, “If you want a friend in  Washington, get a dog.” That piece of advice is not a good fit for Noem, who purportedly aspires to serve in the nation’s capital as vice president for a reelected President Donald J. Trump and, perhaps to enhance her credentials,  published a memoir this year, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward. 

In most estimates, Noem’s strategy misfired badly — mainly due to her candor about having shot to death a dog  that she deemed too feisty and not skillful enough as  a hunting dog. To make things worse, the execution — for such it was in the eyes of Noem’s critics — was carried out in a gravel pit, under the watchful eyes of some construction workers.

Photo by Michelle Tresemer on Unsplash

Public reaction to Noem’s disclosure has been almost unanimously negative, but what’s done is done. There is, in the words of her title, no going back. And, to give Noem her due, she persists in trying to move forward, if not America, then her own future prospects.

Local Republicans will have an opportunity to judge for themselves on June 23.

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Cohen Introduces Resolution Censuring Alito

Steve Cohen | Photo: U.S. House of Representatives

More than a few flutters of reaction have resulted from recent news of Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito’s  having flown an upside-down American flag at his residence in apparent support of the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the nation’s Capitol.

And if Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen has his way, a truly stiff wind could be blowing Alito’s way via an official congressional reprimand.

Cohen has introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives a resolution of censure, charging  the arch-conservative Alito with bias, improper political activity, and a “breach of judicial ethics” for flying the upside-down flag, widely recognized as a symbol of the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” movement, in the aftermath of the insurrection.

The resolution would censure Alito “for knowingly violating the federal recusal statute and binding ethics standards and calling the impartiality of the Supreme Court of the United States into question by continuing to participate in cases in which his prior public conduct could be reasonably interpreted to demonstrate bias.” It also demands that Alito  recuse himself from all litigation related to the 2020 election or the January insurrection.

Accusing Justice Alito of “poor judgment,” Cohen, a member of the house Judiciary Committee, said, “There must be accountability to protect the integrity and impartiality of the High Court. We must protect the Constitutional rights to fair and impartial proceedings.”

Responding to the high volume of criticism he has received, Alito has attempted to blame his wife for flying the upside-down flag in reaction to a neighbor’s yard signs criticizing the justice.

Among the many favorable reactions to the Cohen resolution was this one from Alex Aronson, executive director of  Court Accountability: “We commend Representative Cohen for introducing this resolution censuring Justice Alito and calling for his recusal. It is good to see members of the House Judiciary Committee taking a leadership role in holding out-of-control Supreme Court justices accountable, and this resolution is an excellent first step.”