Category: Politics Beat Blog

Okay, okay, it begins to look like Shelby County’s version of the old (1975-vintage) Saturday Night Live running joke which featured ever more outrageous weekly updates on the condition of a Generalissimo Francisco Franco who lay in his sickbed and took forever to die. Our local version has to do with the county Republican Party’s never-ending struggle to find a mainstream candidate willing to run for Shelby County mayor. Ready for the newest name?: Clair VanderSchaaf! So at first you smiled, then as you thought about it, it got more and more serious, right? Join the club.

The long-term Shelby County Commissioner, who is somewhere around the age of 60 but looks maybe 15 years younger (check out that new spiked hairdo of his), has name recognition, for one thing. And never mind if part of it has to do with some madcap interludes (we all remember that endlessly run Chanel 24 video of VanderSchaaf standing by a roadside while a sheriff’s deputy checked him for intoxication).

VanderSchaaf, a mega-developer, has had his serious moments, too. And owns the kind of charm that makes it difficult to stay mad at him. Just ask his ex-wife, Memphis city council member Pat VanderSchaaf, a consistent supporter. (And vice versa, thank you.) Don’t necessarily ask outgoing county mayor Jim Rout, though, who’s had X number of policy run-ins with VanderSchaaf. And especially don’t ask the mainstream GOP faction which is supporting former deputy Juvenile Court clerk Steve Stamson against incumbent Democrat Shep Wilbun next year.

There are a lot of Republicans in Shelby County who hold it against VanderSchaaf bigtime that he voted with the commission’s Democrats at the tag end of 2000 to elect fellow developer Tom Moss (instead of lawyer David Lillard) to fill a commission vacancy. Immediately thereafter Moss joined with the Democrats to put Wilbun over to fill another vacancy, that for Juvenile Court clerk.

VanderSchaaf himself voted with the rest of the Republicans for Stamson, who finished one vote short. Stamson’s supporters were not mollified by the gesture, and Lillard’s backers– many of whom were the same people as Stamson’s– were even less pleased. Hence, the current candidacy of Joyce Avery in the GOP primary to oppose VanderSchaaf for reelection to his commission seat.

Of course, if he runs for mayor, he won’t be defending the commission seat. And, perversely enough, he might even have the support of some of the folks who have a mad on at him now but who are such true-blue Republicans that they’d be grateful to VanderSchaaf for making the party look at least nominally competitive against whichever candidate — Harold Byrd, A C Wharton, or Carol Chumney emerges from the Democratic primary.

“The numbers are there,” insists VanderSchaaf, who gives himself until the end of the year to make a decision about running. He knows, presumably, that there is a streak in humankind that warms to the regenerated self in public affairs. Call if The Henry IV Syndrome, after the redoubtable English monarch who transformed himself from the wastrel Prince Hal, who — as Shakespeare demonstrated dramatically — chose to “redeem time when men least think I will.”

Meanwhile, two other Republicans, State Representative Larry Scroggs of Germantown and Memphis radiologist/radio magnate George Flinn haven’t formally renounced a mayor’s race.

So for a little while anyway, the GOP can pretend it has an embarrassment of riches and not merely an embarrassment as the party which called itself the county’s majority party after an electoral landslide in 1994 tries to decide if it’s even up to competing with the Democrats in the demographically altered 21st Century.

State Rep.Henri Brooks (D-Memphis), whose earnestly pursued legislative crusades have made her an isolated figure in the General Assembly, will have some company in her reelection race next year if a Memphis-area member of the Tennessee Firearms Association has anything to say about it.

David Waldrip, along with a colleague from the Association, attended Thursday night’s meeting of the executive committee of the Shelby County Democratic Party at the IBEW union building on Madison Avenue, to plead the case against Brooks, whom he described as an opponent of “the right to keep and bear arms.”

Waldrip then said he hopes to be able to recruit an opponent for Brooks from among the ranks of local Democrats.

To the mounting amusement of other committee members, the following dialogue then ensued between Waldrip and Bill Larsha, an executive committee member:

Larsha: “You folks are Republicans, aren’t you?”

Waldrip: “We’re bipartisan.”

Larsha: “You give a lot of money in the way of contributions, don’t you?”

Waldrip: “We do make a lot of contributions, yes.”

Larhsa: “Well, we’re open.”

In fact, Democrats as a rule have not been as open to appeals from Second Amendment groups as have Republicans, but that may change Ð especially as some Democrats are quite aware (as former state party chairman Doug Horne pointed out in his farewell message earlier this year) that active or passive support for gun control hurt party candidates in Tennessee from Al Gore on down.

In fact, also, an opponent for Brooks may already exist in the person of one Damita Swearengen, member of a locally prominent African-American family, though Brooks’ position on firearms has not figured as a reason.

Brooks won her seat in 1992 from former Representative Alvin King, who had alienated some of his base by his support of former Mayor Dick Hackett against then challenger (and now mayor) Willie Herenton in the 1991 Memphis mayor’s race.

From the time Brooks entered the legislature, she seemed oblivious to the go-along-to-get-along protocols that have long governed relationships in the General Assembly. She took revisionist positions on a number of matters, ranging from policy questions to the way in which female members should be addressed. (Almost unnoticed during her tenure, the form of address has metamorphosized from “Lady.So-and-so” to “Representative So-and-So.”) Last spring, she got on the wrong side of House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh (and much of the public) when she conspicuously declined to rise during the chamber’s daily morning recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

And she may now have run afoul of the head of the other legislative body, Lt. Governor John Wilder (D-Somerville), who presides over the Senate. A witness on behalf of her resolution to study compensation for victims of slavery made accusations this week against Wilder’s family, alleging to a House committee that the Wilders of Fayette County had stolen land from blacks well over a century ago, a circumstance allegedly resulting in the Senate Speaker’s wealth today.

In all fairness, there is no evidence yet that Brooks has associated herself with such accusations, but frontal assaults of that sort are characteristic of her. As one local wag has put it, “Henri was so dedicated to being a legislator and making sweeping changes that she skipped charm school altogether.”

What has failed to endear her to the gun lobby, of course, is her continued sponsorship of a measure to mandate the equipping of handguns with safety devices and lock combinations that would prevent anyone but the firearm’s owner from using it.

“Obviously, if you have to deal with an unexpected intruder, you would see a crucial delay in your reaction time,” says Waldrip, who now waits to see what the reaction is to his invitation for someone to become a challenger to Rep. Brooks.

State Rep.Henri Brooks (D-Memphis), whose earnestly pursued legislative crusades have made her an isolated figure in the General Assembly, will have some company in her reelection race next year if a Memphis-area member of the Tennessee Firearms Association has anything to say about it.

David Waldrip, along with a colleague from the Association, attended Thursday night’s meeting of the executive committee of the Shelby County Democratic Party at the IBEW union building on Madison Avenue, to plead the case against Brooks, whom he described as an opponent of “the right to keep and bear arms.”

Waldrip then said he hopes to be able to recruit an opponent for Brooks from among the ranks of local Democrats.

To the mounting amusement of other committee members, the following dialogue then ensued between Waldrip and Bill Larsha, an executive committee member:

Larsha: “You folks are Republicans, aren’t you?”

Waldrip: “We’re bipartisan.”

Larsha: “You give a lot of money in the way of contributions, don’t you?”

Waldrip: “We do make a lot of contributions, yes.”

Larhsa: “Well, we’re open.”

In fact, Democrats as a rule have not been as open to appeals from Second Amendment groups as have Republicans, but that may change Ð especially as some Democrats are quite aware (as former state party chairman Doug Horne pointed out in his farewell message earlier this year) that active or passive support for gun control hurt party candidates in Tennessee from Al Gore on down.

In fact, also, an opponent for Brooks may already exist in the person of one Damita Swearengen, member of a locally prominent African-American family, though Brooks’ position on firearms has not figured as a reason.

Brooks won her seat in 1992 from former Representative Alvin King, who had alienated some of his base by his support of former Mayor Dick Hackett against then challenger (and now mayor) Willie Herenton in the 1991 Memphis mayor’s race.

From the time Brooks entered the legislature, she seemed oblivious to the go-along-to-get-along protocols that have long governed relationships in the General Assembly. She took revisionist positions on a number of matters, ranging from policy questions to the way in which female members should be addressed. (Almost unnoticed during her tenure, the form of address has metamorphosized from “Lady.So-and-so” to “Representative So-and-So.”) Last spring, she got on the wrong side of House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh (and much of the public) when she conspicuously declined to rise during the chamber’s daily morning recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

And she may now have run afoul of the head of the other legislative body, Lt. Governor John Wilder (D-Somerville), who presides over the Senate. A witness on behalf of her resolution to study compensation for victims of slavery made accusations this week against Wilder’s family, alleging to a House committee that the Wilders of Fayette County had stolen land from blacks well over a century ago, a circumstance allegedly resulting in the Senate Speaker’s wealth today.

In all fairness, there is no evidence yet that Brooks has associated herself with such accusations, but frontal assaults of that sort are characteristic of her. As one local wag has put it, “Henri was so dedicated to being a legislator and making sweeping changes that she skipped charm school altogether.”

What has failed to endear her to the gun lobby, of course, is her continued sponsorship of a measure to mandate the equipping of handguns with safety devices and lock combinations that would prevent anyone but the firearm’s owner from using it.

“Obviously, if you have to deal with an unexpected intruder, you would see a crucial delay in your reaction time,” says Waldrip, who now waits to see what the reaction is to his invitation for someone to become a challenger to Rep. Brooks.

Former state Education Commissioner Jane Walters, who may be remembered by some Tennesseans for shedding tears while testifying to the legislature about the perils awaiting a financially starved educational infrastructure, felt some more vicarious pain Thursday night at a meet-and-greet which she hosted at her Memphis townhouse for gubernatorial candidate Andy Womack.

Recalling the difficulties which her former boss, Governor Don Sundquist, has experienced with the General Assembly. Walters recalled, shaking her head mournfully, “I saw what that did to him. He didn’t know how to deal with that legislature.” She went on to declare that the members of the legislature had become “so distrustful” in these fractious, fiscally challenged times that “only someone with legislative experience” is capable of reaching them.

The someone she had in mind, of course, was Womack, the former state senator from Murfreesboro, who hails from a family of educators and was known in the General Assembly as an advocate for educational causes. Womack gladly embraces the support of educators in his current campaign for governor and said at Walters’ event that he’d be happy to be represented to the public by the people gathered in her cramped living room.

The fact is, however, that the genial Vietnam War vet lacks either the judgmentalism that is so often the occupational vice of professional educators (and their detractors) or the desire, on this or other issues, to be confined to the narrow precincts of the permanently wise.

On the former score, Womack has declined to follow the lead of two other Democratic candidates in their attacks on the perceived party frontrunner, former Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen; on the latter, he made it clear in Memphis, as he has elsewhere, that his outlook is increasingly moving beyond purely educational issues to encompass larger economic ones.

Womack is especially concerned, as he had said earlier at a luncheon meeting held in the working-class Frayser area of Memphis, that the state is not only losing quality jobs but that the “replacement jobs,” when and if these come, are less well-paying and have a more meager economic impact on the host community.

“We don’t have time for a vision that’s three or five years long,” Womack said at Walter’s townhouse concerning the need for action on the economic front. He stressed the need to provide support for “existing industry and small business” in addition to the standard preoccupations of attracting large new industries to Tennessee.

Similarly, he had noted at the luncheon meeting that, pending the development of sweeping new approaches to revenue at a time when the legislature is “resistant” to tax reform, there are ways of achieving results within existing formats. Teacher pay raises, for example, could be partly achieved in a de facto way by exempting teachers from contributions to their own pension funds– a consideration already granted state employees.

As for Womack’s own financial future, he professed optimism Thursday that, when the first candidate financial disclosures are called for in January, the record will show his receipts to be far and above those of Knoxville District Attorney Randy Nichols and former Education Commissioner Charles Smith. He expects to be the survivor of an informal round robin among the three candidates to determine who will become the foremost primary challenger to Bredesen.

How much will that take in the primary? “Two million dollars,” Andy Womack says, and he promises to have it.

He has put his money where his mouth is in at least one visible way, establishing the first gubernatorial field office in Shelby County with a paid staffer, the energetic and capable Jeff Sullivan, who had previously toiled in the now abandoned campaign for Shelby County mayor of Womack’s former colleague, State Senator Jim Kyle of Memphis. When Kyle, facing strong opposition and the annual General Assembly curtailment of fundraising, dropped out, Sullivan shopped himself around. Womack was the only candidate able (or willing) to punch his ticket.

Is radio magnate/radiologist George Flinn the Republican nominee-presumptive for the office of Shelby County mayor? It’s beginning to look that way.

Dr. Flinn — who owns a host of local radio stations and, as a radiologist, pioneered in (and got rich from) the now-widespread art of ultrasound technology — hankered to run for mayor of Memphis in 1999 but decided that the number and variety of possible candidates made that race a potential three-ring circus for a political neophyte like himself and opted out.

Back then he foresaw himself being matched against the likes of Willie Herenton (the eventual winner), then city councilman Joe Ford, and wrestling eminence Jerry Lawler, among numerous others. As a potential candidate for the GOP nomination for county mayor, Flinn is all by himself. Nobody else seems to want the honor.

“I’m ready to go. I can put together the money, I believe, and if they’ll help me with the essentials of running a major campaign, I think I can mount one,” said the good doctor this week. The “they” of his commentary was the local GOP leadership, who have been running down the list of potential Republican heavyweights and seen them all deign not to run. The latest to say no was Allie Prescott, the recently retired president of the Memphis Redbirds.

Prescott was a new political face who would have been making his maiden race — a fact that emboldens Flinn to believe that GOP eyes should now be turning to him.

Local Republican chairman Alan Crone, who has been heading the party’s increasingly desperate efforts to find a standard-bearer, may be ready for a session with the doctor. “I think that a successful candidate has to be both politically viable and financially viable,” Crone said. “I think that George is the latter, and it’s possible he could be the former, too.”

Any doubts Crone has on the matter are due to Flinn’s relative inexperience in the GOP wars. He doesn’t consider it an obstacle that Flinn’s son Shea Flinn, a brand-new lawyer who is about to become a brand-new husband, ran unsuccessfully as a Democratic candidate for the legislature last year.

“George has been fairly convincing that he is a life-long Republican himself and I doubt that many people would be concerned about the fact that his son may have different personal politics. That happens a good bit,” Crone said.

Crone does not buy into the widely accepted theory that name Republicans have ducked the race because recent demographic change has made it unwinnable for a Republican. “Not one of the people we talked to was of that persuasion,” he said, meaning, among others, Prescott, District Attorney General Bill Gibbons, former Memphis city councilman John Bobango, and Shelby County Trustee Bob Patterson (who technically is still thinking about it).

The GOP chairman then proceeded to qualify himself a tad, however: “I do think that political influence is cyclical and it’s probably true that the Republican Party will need to adapt to population tendencies. We’ve been heavily suburban and rural, but we’ll probably see ourselves becoming more urban-oriented in the years to come.” Crone has been a consistent advocate of Republican outreach into traditionally Democratic minority communities.

Flinn believes in that respect he is exactly what the, er, doctor ordered: “My main offices are in the center city. I’ve had a center-city presence for years and I understand the thinking of people who live in the center city.”

It remains to be seen what becomes of a Flinn candidacy or of a local Republican reorientation, just as it remains to be seen what the results of next year’s mayoral election will be. But change of some sort is clearly in the offing in a season when the incumbent Republican mayor, Jim Rout, has decided against running and potential GOP successors are scarce indeed, while simultaneously three active Democratic candidates — Shelby County Public Defender AC Wharton, Bartlett banker Harold Byrd, and State Representative Carol Chumney — are actively campaigning.

· It may have been inevitable but there was still an element of surprise to the sudden resignation of Bobby Lanier, top administrative aide to two-term mayor Rout (and Rout’s four-term predecessor, Bill Morris).

Without much preliminary ado, Lanier filed for his retirement benefits last Friday, climaxing weeks of complaints from political opponents concerning his alleged use of county facilities on behalf of his current political protégé, mayoral candidate Wharton.

Lanier’s move was said to have been prompted by the complaints, raised mainly by organization Republicans and by backers of Byrd. Lanier made a perfunctory denial Monday that he had resigned due to pressure, but others close to the situation acknowledged that the move owed much to the volume of the criticism, turned up considerably once Wharton, for whose candidacy Lanier was something of a prime mover, made his formal announcement last month

The well-liked Lanier didn’t spend much, if any, time kicking back and relaxing after his “retirement.” He spent Monday in the company of fellow Wharton backer Reginald French setting up Wharton’s new downtown campaign office on Court Street and pushing ahead plans for the candidate’s first major fund-raiser, scheduled for Thursday night at the Racquet Club.

There was a mishap connected with the latter. A list of potential donors was mislaid Monday during or after Lanier and French held a lunch meeting at the Cupboard Restaurant on Union Avenue in the hospital district.

Neither Lanier nor French hold any titles at the moment but they are two pivotal members of an ad hoc group that worked intensively — in the aftermath of Rout’s decision some months ago not to run again — first to persuade Wharton to run and then to launch him as a mainstream candidate with appeal across racial and political lines.

Some of that crossover involved Wharton supporters from the ranks of Rout allies — a circumstance that caused Rout himself some discomfiture that will no doubt be increased by a follow-up move by the Byrd camp Tuesday.

Attorney Richard Fields, a Byrd supporter, hand-delivered a letter to Rout which was subheaded “Re: Political activity by Bobby Lanier” and cited Section 12-46 of the county charter, which, as reprised by Fields, states that “[no] employee in the classified service may be required or directed, either directly or by implication, to contribute or solicit funds for any political candidate.”

The Fields letter continued: “Clearly, Mr. Lanier’s solicitation of funds for AC Wharton violates this section if he made solicitations of Shelby County employees and implicitly violates the purpose of the section when solictations are made from the office of the Mayor.”

On behalf of the Byrd campaign, Fields asked for “a list of all persons contracted by Mr. Lanier for purposes of soliciting funds for the Wharton campaign” and “the telephone records for Mr. L’s telephone extension in the county building showing incoming and outgoing calls with the phone numbers listed.”

He also said that Wharton should be asked to withdraw from his “part-time” job as public defender and that Rout should engage independent legal counsel to investigate the matter since “Donnie Wilson, current county attorney, has openly stated his support of AC Wharton for county mayor and has appeared with him publicly at a church.”

At press time Rout had not been reached for a reaction but County Attorney Wilson dismissed the allegations in the letter as “crazy” and said, “I’m surprised that Richard Fields would go to these lengths.” Wilson said that while he privately supported Wharton’s candidacy he had taken no public role and had not appeared with the public defender at a church.

· Jeff Sullivan, who had been working on behalf of state Senator Jim Kyle‘s mayoral campaign before Kyle’s withdrawal from the race last month, is now Shelby County director of the gubernatorial campaign of former state Senator Andy Womack (D-Murfreesboro). Womack’s is the only gubernatorial campaign so far to open a Shelby County office per se.

Both Republican gubernatorial candidates made Memphis stops during the last week. Fourth District U.S. Rep. Van Hilleary was the beneficiary of a fund-raiser at the Crescent Club on Monday, while his sole GOP opponent so far, former state Senator Jim Henry of Kingston, stopped over for a couple of days before Thanksgiving. Henry recruited veteran Republican activist Bob Schroeder as a member of his campaign committee. ·

Éor make that ‘in like Flinn,’ as the GOP may finally have a mayoral candidate

Is radio magnate/radiologist George Flinn the Republican nominee-presumptive for the office of Shelby County mayor? It begins to look that way.

Dr. Flinn — who owns a host of local radio stations and, as a radiologist, pioneered in (and got rich from) the now widespread art of ultrasound technology — hankered to run for mayor of Memphis in 1999 but decided that the number _ and variety _ of candidates then available made that race a potential “three-ring circus” for a political neophyte like himself and therefore opted out.

Back then he foresaw himself being matched against the likes of Hizzoner Willie Herenton (the eventual winner), then City Councilman Joe Ford, and wrestling eminence Jerry Lawler, among numerous others. As a potential candidate for the GOP nomination for county mayor, he won’t have that problem of standing out in a crowd.

Right now Flinn is all by himself as a potential Republican candidate. Nobody else seems to want the honor.

“I’m ready to go. I can put together the money, I believe, and if they’ll help me with the essentials of running a major campaign, I think I can mount one,” said the good doctor this week.

The “they” of his commentary was the local GOP leadership, who have been running down the list of potential Republican heavyweights and seen them all deign not to run. The latest to say no was Allie Prescott, the recently retired president of the Memphis Redbirds.

Prescott was a new political face who would have been making his maiden race _ a fact that emboldens Flinn to believe that GOP eyes should now be turning to him.

And local Republican chairman Alan Crone, who has been heading the party’s increasingly desperate efforts to find a standard-bearer, may be ready for a session with the doctor.

“I think that a successful candidate has to be both politically viable and financially viable,” Crone said. “I think that George is the latter, and it’s possible he could be the former, too.”

Any doubts Crone has on the matter are owing to Flinn’s relative inexperience in the GOP wars, though he doesn’t consider it to be an obstacle that Flinn’s son Shea Flinn, a brand-new lawyer who is about to become a brand-new husband, ran unsuccessfully as a Democratic candidate for the legislature last year.

“George has been fairly convincing that he is a life-long Republican himself, and I doubt that many people would be concerned about the fact that his son may have a different personal politics. That happens a good bit,” Crone said.

Crone does not buy into the widely accepted theory that name Republicans have ducked the race because recent demographic change has made it unwinnable for a Republican. “Not one of the people we talked to was of that persuasion,” he said, meaning, among others, Prescott, District Attorney General Bill Gibbons, former Memphis city councilman John Bobango, and Shelby County Trustee Bob Patterson (who technically is still thinking about it).

The GOP chairman then proceeded to qualify himself a tad, however. “I do think that political influence is cyclical, and it’s probably true that the Republican Party will need to adapt to population tendencies. We’ve been heavily suburban and rural , but we’ll probably see ourselves becoming more urban-oriented in the years to come.,” opined Crone,who over the years has been a consistent advocate of Republican outreach into traditionally Democratic minority communities.

Flinn believes that, in that respect, he is exactly what the, er, doctor ordered. “My main offices are in the center city. I’ve had a center city presence for years, and I understand the thinking of people who live in the center city.”

It remains to be seen what becomes of a Flinn candidacy or of a local Republican re-orientation, just as it remains to be seen what the results of next year’s mayoral election will be.

But change of some sort is clearly in the offing in a season when the incumbent Republican mayor, Jim Rout, has decided against running and potential GOP successors are scarce indeed, while simultaneously three active Democratic candidates _ Shelby County Public Defender A C Wharton, Bartlett banker Harold Byrd, and State Representative Carol Chumney _ are actively campaigning..

It may have been inevitable, but there was still an element of surprise to the sudden resignation of Bobby Lanier, top administrative aide to two-term Shelby County Mayor Jim Rout as he was to Rout’s four-term predecessor, Bill Morris.

Without much preliminary ado, Lanier filed for his retirement benefits last Friday, climaxing weeks of complaints from political opponents concerning his alleged use of county facilities on behalf of his current political protégé, Shelby County Public Defender A C Wharton, a Democratic candidate for county mayor.

Lanier’s move was unexpected and was said to have been prompted by the aforesaid complaints, raised mainly by organization Republicans and by backers of one of Wharton’s Democratic opponents, Bartlett banker Harold Byrd.

Lanier made a perfunctory denial Monday that he had resigned due to pressure, but others close to the situation acknowledged that the move owed much to the volume of the criticism, turned up considerably once Wharton, for whose candidacy Lanier was something of a prime mover, made his formal announcement last month

The well-liked Lanier didn’t spend much, if any, time kicking back and relaxing after his “retirement.” He spent Monday in the company of fellow Wharton backer Reginald French setting up Wharton’s new downtown campaign office on Court and pushing ahead plans for the candidate’s forthcoming Thursday-night fundraiser at the Racquet Club.

(There was a mishap connected with the latter. A list of potential donors was mislaid Monday during or after a lunch meeting of Lanier and French at the Cupboard Restaurant on Union Avenue, in the hospital district.).

Neither Lanier nor French hold any titles at the moment, but they are two pivotal members of an ad hoc group that worked intensively — in the aftermath of Rout’s decision some months ago not to run again — first to persuade Wharton to run and then to launch his candidacy as a mainstream candidate, with appeal across both racial and political lines.

Some of that crossover involved Wharton supporters from the ranks of Rout allies _ a circumstance that caused Rout himself some discomfiture.

The incumbent mayor joined other key Republicans in the last several weeks in a search _ unsuccessful so far — for a name Republican candidate to carry the party’s hopes.

As previously reported in the Flyer, radiologist/media baron George Flinn has developed an interest in running for county mayor as a Republican, and, though something of a political neophyte (and the father of a Democratic legislative candidate last year, Shea Flinn), he may end up as the party’s standard-bearer.

Meanwhile, a lively contest is expected in Democratic ranks between Wharton, Byrd, and State Representative Carol Chumney.