Category: Politics Beat Blog

Christmas came early Saturday for ex-Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen, who at a luncheon of supporters at Memphis’ downtown Rendezvous restaurant got the formal endorsement for his gubernatorial campaign of a fellow Democrat, 8th District congressman John Tanner of Union City.

Meanwhile, across town and shortly thereafter, an equally early New Year’s resolution was voiced by Lt. Governor John Wilder of Somerville, who addressed the Dutch Treat Luncheon at the Audubon Cafe in East Memphis and promised afterward that he would do “everything in my power” in next year’s regular legislative session to bring about a constitutional convention on “equity in taxation.”

Tanner’s endorsement was due, said the congressman, to his respect for Bredesen’s “public service record” coupled with his “private sector experience.” Talking earlier to reporters, Tanner acknowledged that a sitting public official’s endorsement of a candidate in a primary campaign, especially one this early, was unusual but said, “I knew I was going to do it sooner or later, so I just decided, ‘Why not go ahead and do it?’” (Bredesen was properly appreciative to Tanner for making the endorsement “at this point of my campaign.”

Tanner’s action was almost certainly meant to be pre-emptive, of course, so as to encourage Democratic unity around Bredesen and to discourage the efforts of three other contenders: Knoxville District Attorney General Randy Nichols, former State Senator Andy Womack of Murfreesboro, and Charles Smith of Nashville, who served stints both as state Education Commissioner and as chancellor of the state Board of Regents.

Smith was quickest with a retort, saying in a statement, “Phil Bredesen is still Phil Bredesen,” and going on to repeat his previous doubts that Bredesen, who as the Democratic nominee lost the 1994 governor’s race to Republican Don Sundquist, would be able to make favorable public impression on the state’s voters.

Whoever emerges from next year’s Democratic primary will take on the winner in a Republican field that so far includes 4th District U.S. Rep. Van Hilleary and former State Senator Jim Henry of Kingston. Both Bredesen and Hilleary, the presumed GOP frontrunner, have rejected a state income tax as a reponse to the state’s fiscal problems, while their opponents have declined to close the door on such a solution.

Wilder, who as the presiding officer of the Senate, has been a central figure in the legislature’s ongoing search for a solution to its revenue problems, told the Dutch Treat audience that he regarded a state income tax as “unconstitutional,” holding to a position he has taken throughout the current three-year-old tax-reform debate.

The lieutenant governor, known for his occasional use of a kind of pidgin English (as in his frequent declaration that “the Senate is good”), chose on Saturday to strike an erudite note, speaking of “law in the cosmos” and pronouncing that “all wealth is production and all property is production less taxes.”

Continuing to wax philosophical, Wilder told the overwhelmingly conservative audience, “All taxes are income taxes.The sales tax– all consumption taxes– are income taxes.”

The most important principle, he said, was that a state tax should be made deductible from one’s federal taxes. For years Wilder has carried on a crusade to restore an element of deductibility to sales taxes, which were removed from deductible status by federal tax legislation in 1986. What is needed, he said, was “a constitutional convention on equity in taxation.”

He later elaborated on that, saying that if an income tax could be made indisputably constitutional, he would support efforts to enact one in the legislature.

Christmas came early Saturday for ex-Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen, who at a luncheon of supporters at Memphis’ downtown Rendezvous restaurant got the formal endorsement for his gubernatorial campaign of a fellow Democrat, 8th District congressman John Tanner of Union City.

Meanwhile, across town and shortly thereafter, an equally early New Year’s resolution was voiced by Lt. Governor John Wilder of Somerville, who addressed the Dutch Treat Luncheon at the Audubon Cafe in East Memphis and promised afterward that he would do “everything in my power” in next year’s regular legislative session to bring about a constitutional convention on “equity in taxation.”

Tanner’s endorsement was due, said the congressman, to his respect for Bredesen’s “public service record” coupled with his “private sector experience.” Talking earlier to reporters, Tanner acknowledged that a sitting public official’s endorsement of a candidate in a primary campaign, especially one this early, was unusual but said, “I knew I was going to do it sooner or later, so I just decided, ‘Why not go ahead and do it?’” (Bredesen was properly appreciative to Tanner for making the endorsement “at this point of my campaign.”

Tanner’s action was almost certainly meant to be pre-emptive, of course, so as to encourage Democratic unity around Bredesen and to discourage the efforts of three other contenders: Knoxville District Attorney General Randy Nichols, former State Senator Andy Womack of Murfreesboro, and Charles Smith of Nashville, who served stints both as state Education Commissioner and as chancellor of the state Board of Regents.

Smith was quickest with a retort, saying in a statement, “Phil Bredesen is still Phil Bredesen,” and going on to repeat his previous doubts that Bredesen, who as the Democratic nominee lost the 1994 governor’s race to Republican Don Sundquist, would be able to make favorable public impression on the state’s voters.

Whoever emerges from next year’s Democratic primary will take on the winner in a Republican field that so far includes 4th District U.S. Rep. Van Hilleary and former State Senator Jim Henry of Kingston. Both Bredesen and Hilleary, the presumed GOP frontrunner, have rejected a state income tax as a reponse to the state’s fiscal problems, while their opponents have declined to close the door on such a solution.

Wilder, who as the presiding officer of the Senate, has been a central figure in the legislature’s ongoing search for a solution to its revenue problems, told the Dutch Treat audience that he regarded a state income tax as “unconstitutional,” holding to a position he has taken throughout the current three-year-old tax-reform debate.

The lieutenant governor, known for his occasional use of a kind of pidgin English (as in his frequent declaration that “the Senate is good”), chose on Saturday to strike an erudite note, speaking of “law in the cosmos” and pronouncing that “all wealth is production and all property is production less taxes.”

Continuing to wax philosophical, Wilder told the overwhelmingly conservative audience, “All taxes are income taxes.The sales tax– all consumption taxes– are income taxes.”

The most important principle, he said, was that a state tax should be made deductible from one’s federal taxes. For years Wilder has carried on a crusade to restore an element of deductibility to sales taxes, which were removed from deductible status by federal tax legislation in 1986. What is needed, he said, was “a constitutional convention on equity in taxation.”

He later elaborated on that, saying that if an income tax could be made indisputably constitutional, he would support efforts to enact one in the legislature.

In an unusual action, especially for this early in a campaign, U.S. Rep. John Tanner (D-8th) will endorse Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Bredesen of Nashville at Memphis’ Rendezvous restaurant Saturday morning.

An endorsement by a sitting Democratic congressman of one candidate among many in a Democratic primary — especially when that primary has for all practical purposes not really begun — is rare, and it reflects the obvious desire among some state Democrats that the party unite behind a single gubernatorial candidate as soon as possible.

Besides Bredesen, a former Nashville mayor and the party’s 1994 standard-bearer, there are three other Democrats in the field. They are: Knoxville District Attorney Randy Nichols; former state Education Commissioner and ex-Board of Regents chancellor Charles Smith; and former state senator Andy Womack of Murfreesboro.

The Republican field for governor includes 4th District U.S. Rep. Van Hilleary and former state representative Jim Henry of Kingston.

Memphis has become something of a battleground for the several Democrats — at least three so far — who hope to play Avis at the expense of Phil Bredesen‘s Hertz. They’ll try to try harder, in other words, so as to catch up with the former Nashville mayor, who is reckoned as Number One in next year’s Democratic gubernatorial primary on the strength of his name recognition, financial war-chest, and commitments from party cadres.

It has to be said, of course, that Bredesen is trying pretty hard himself — not only in Memphis, which he’s visited several times, but elsewhere in the state. As he’s confided, he considers a certain remoteness of style and of effort to have been a major fault of his losing 1994 effort as the Democratic nominee against Republican Don Sundquist.

Consequently, Bredesen has not only made himself more available to the public and the media at what is still a fairly early stage of the governor’s race, but his personality has generally remained sunny as well — without the sudden unexpected frosts (actually, they were probably just preoccupations) that were a feature of his campaign eight years ago.

Moreover, Bredesen is keeping his rhetoric on the cautious side, especially where the issue of taxation is concerned. He has renounced a state income tax as a panacea and maintained consistently that he can “manage” the state out of its current fiscal doldrums.

But, while that position serves to neutralize the tax issue vis-ˆ-vis potential Republican opponent Van Hilleary, the 4th District congressman who is adamantly against a tax increase, it leaves an opening of sorts for Bredesen’s Democratic opponents — Knoxville District Attorney Randy Nichols, former state senator Andy Womack of Murfreesboro, and Charles Smith, who served formerly as both state Education Commissioner and as chancellor of the state Board of Regents.

Unlike Bredesen, none of the three have closed the door on the income tax, and Nichols has gone so far as to give a recent proposal for a 3.5 percent flat tax (coupled with a subsequent referendum) his conditional endorsement.

All three were more critical of Bredesen than of Sundquist when the ex-Nashville mayor attacked the governor last weekend for some of Sundquist’s recent economies — notably the closing of selected state parks, which Bredesen said was little more than a device to force acceptance of an income tax.

In almost identical language, the three other Democrats said that they might have applied other priorities but that Sundquist had little choice in the matter of making significant cuts. Smith, the most recent visitor to Memphis (for a fundraiser on behalf of State Rep. Kathryn Bowers (D-Memphis), went so far as to praise the governor for his “courage.”

In one respect, Smith has to try a little harder to try harder. As he said Monday, “One big difference between me and the others is that, with the exception of the time I spent as Education Commissioner [for former Governor Ned McWherter], I’ve had very little experience on the partisan side of politics; so I’ve been doing my best to become acquainted with party people the last few months.”

One measure of his success, according to Smith: a poll of state Democratic executive committee members and party chairs, meeting last month at Dickson, showed that he had doubled his support among them in less than a month’s time, going from 12 votes to 23, against Bredesen’s 43, with Nichols and Womack trailing.

Irony of ironies: The Shelby County Republican Party, which hit its high-water mark eight years ago when it elected a GOP mayor, two-term incumbent Jim Rout, now seemingly has nobody willing to run for the office.

Rout said months ago he wouldn’t run again. District Attorney General Bill Gibbons decided against a race two weeks ago; former city councilman John Bobango followed over the weekend; and state Senator Mark Norris, who had been emerging as the newest consensus nominee, said no Tuesday morning. Later Tuesday, city councilman Jack Sammons and outgoing Shelby County Commissioner Buck Wellford also made clear they would decline the opportunity.

All of them, either publicly or privately, alluded to the huge problems facing the county financially, to its diminished resources, to the meager powers available to a county mayor (especially over two problem areas, the Shelby County school system and the county jail), to the demographic shifts which are inexorably creating a Democratic voting majority, and to the appeal which Democratic candidates already in the field might have along the Poplar Corridor, an area which a successful Republican would need to do well in.

When he conducted last week’s monthly meeting of the Shelby County GOP’s steering committee, party chairman Alan Crone had just learned of Bobango’s decision. Somewhat wanly, he said to the committee, “If anybody here wants to run for county mayor, would you see me after the meeting?”

It may come down to Crone himself, who said this week that, if push came to shove, he’d consider running. Other possibilities include Commissioner Tommy Hart and city councilman Brent Taylor, who had already raised a sizeable campaign war-chest in hopes of mounting a race for Ed Bryant‘s 7th District congressional seat, deferred indefinitely after Fred Thompson decided to stay in the Senate and Bryant decided to stay where he was, too.

· Another unresolved issue of county government/politics is that of the commission’s District 5, which Wellford is vacating. There are at least four different plans extant right now as commissioners consider redistricting from the perspectives of party and/or class and/or race.

The phrase “toss-up” is often heard as a desideratum for the East Memphis seat, which could be shifted in almost any direction — north, south, east, or west. Wellford himself believes that the district will remain more or less unchanged.

In any case, few potential candidates for the seat have yet declared themselves. Two new ones are in the offing, however: Clay Perry, a Democrat who is U.S. Rep. Harold Ford‘s district director; and financial manager Bruce Thompson, a Republican.

· Memphis has become something of a battleground for the several Democrats — at least three so far — who hope to play Avis at the expense of Phil Bredesen‘s Hertz. They’ll try to try harder, in other words, so as to catch up with the former Nashville mayor, who is reckoned as number one in next year’s Democratic gubernatorial primary on the strength of his name recognition, financial war-chest, and commitments from party cadres.

It has to be said, of course, that Bredesen is trying pretty hard himself — not only in Memphis, which he’s visited several times, but elsewhere in the state. As he’s confided, he considers certain remoteness of style and of effort to have been a major fault of his losing 1994 effort as the Democratic nominee against Republican Don Sundquist.

Consequently, Bredesen has not only made himself more available to the public and the media at what is still a fairly early stage of the governor’s race, but his personality has generally remained sunny as well — without the sudden unexpected frosts (actually, they were probably just preoccupations) that were a feature of his campaign eight years ago.

Moreover, Bredesen is keeping his rhetoric on the cautious side, especially where the issue of taxation is concerned. He has renounced a state income tax as a panacea and maintained consistently that he can “manage” the state out of its current fiscal doldrums.

But, while that position serves to neutralize the tax issue vis-à-vis potential Republican opponent Van Hilleary, the 4th District congressman who is adamantly against a tax increase, it leaves an opening of sorts for Bredesen’s Democratic opponents — Knoxville District Attorney Randy Nichols, former state senator Andy Womack of Murfreesboro, and Charles Smith, who served formerly as both state Education Commissioner and as chancellor of the state Board of Regents.

Unlike Bredesen, none of the three have closed the door on the income tax, and Nichols has gone so far as to give a recent proposal for a 3.5 percent flat tax (coupled with a subsequent referendum) his conditional endorsement.

All three were more critical of Bredesen than of Sundquist when the ex-Nashville mayor attacked the governor last weekend for some of Sundquist’s recent economies — notably the closing of selected state parks, which Bredesen said was little more than a device to force acceptance of an income tax.

In almost identical language, the three other Democrats said that they might have applied other priorities but that Sundquist had little choice in the matter of making significant cuts. Smith, the most recent visitor to Memphis, went so far as to praise the governor for his “courage.”

In one respect, Smith has to try a little harder to try harder. As he said Monday, “One big difference between me and the others is that, with the exception of the time I spent as Education Commissioner [for former Governor Ned McWherter], I’ve had very little experience on the partisan side of politics; so I’ve been doing my best to become acquainted with party people the last few months.”

One measure of his success, according to Smith: a poll of state Democratic executive committee members and party chairs, meeting last month at Dickson, showed that he had doubled his support among them in less than a month’s time, going from 12 votes to 23, against Bredesen’s 43, with Nichols and Womack trailing.

Irony of ironies: the Shelby County Republican Party, which hit its high-water mark eight years ago when it elected a GOP mayor, two-term incumbent Jim Rout, now seemingly has nobody willing to run for the office.

Rout said months ago he wouldn’t run again. District Attorney General Bill Gibbons decided against a race two weeks ago; former city councilman followed over the weekend; and State Senator Mark Norris, who had been emerging as the newest consensus nominee, said no Tuesday morning.

Later Tuesday, city councilman Jack Sammons and outgoing Shelby County Commissioner Buck Wellford also made clear they would decline the opportunity.

All of them, either publicly or privately, alluded to the huge problems facing the county financially, to its diminished resources, to the meager powers available to a county mayor (especially over two problem areas, the Shelby County school system and the county jail), to the demographic shifts which are inexorably creating a Democratic voting majority, and to the appeal which Democratic candidates already in the field might have along the Poplar Corridor, an area which a successful Republican would need to do well in.

Democrats A C Wharton, the Shelby Public Defender, and Harold Byrd, a banker and former state representative from Bartlett, have acknowledged support in the county’s business community, and another Democrat, State Representative Carol Chumney of Midtown, counts on votes from women across party lines.

When he conducted last week’s monthly meeting of the Shelby County GOP’s steering committee, party chairman Alan Crone had just learned of Bobango’s decision. Somewhat wanly, he said to the committee, “If anybody here wants to run for county mayor, would you see me after the meeting?”

It may come down to Crone himself, who said this week that, if push came to shove, he’d consider running. Other possibilities include Commissioner Tommy Hart and city councilman Brent Taylor, who had already raised a sizeable campaign war chest in hopes of mounting a race for Ed Bryant‘s 7th District congressional seat, deferred indefinitely after Fred Thompson decided to stay in the Senate and Bryant decided to stay where he was, too.

With the incumbent Republican county mayor declining to run for reelection and the two most-discussed GOP possibilities opting not to run, who will the Shelby County Republican Party turn to next?

Mayor Jim Rout has said no to a race. So, in the last few days, have District Attorney General Bill Gibbons and former city councilman John Bobango.

Undismayed, editor Cherrie Holden has included a hatful of names on the Shelby County Republican PartyÕs official website (www.shelbygop.org), listing no fewer than eight names and an open-ended whosoever-will choice for respondents to vote for in an interactive preference poll. The list is as follows:

city councilman Jack Sammons
State Senator Mark Norris
Shelby County commissioner Linda Rendtorff
County Trustee Bob Patterson
lawyer Duncan Ragsdale
County Commissioner Tommy Hart
County Commissioner Marilyn Loeffel
Memphis city councilman Brent Taylor
Another Republican.

It remains to be seen whether this group constitutes an embarrassment of riches or, should none of them step forward, just an embarrassment.

Holden has also included a poll on Republican candidates fornext yearÕs governorÕs race. Only two names are listed in this category, those of 4th District U.S. Representative Van Hilleary and former State Representative Jim Henry of Kingston.

Climaxing a week of rumors that John Bobango would follow the lead of District Attorney General Bill Gibbons and remove himself from consideration as a potential Shelby County Mayor, the former city councilman did just that Saturday morning.

BobangoÕs statement, dispatched via passalong email,is as follows:

ÓDear Fellow Republican,

“During the last several weeks, I have seriously considered running for County Mayor. My family and friends know I have a passion for public service and this community. However, I do not want my desire to serve the public to negatively impact those around me. After reviewing all the facts, I feel there would be an adverse impact, and therefore, I have chosen to not enter the race. My final decision was based on my responsibilities and obligations to my family, the law firm and its clients.

“I deeply appreciate all the prayers and encouragement I have received, especially over the last several days.

“Sincerely,

John Bobango.”

BobangoÕs dropout leaves the way open, among Republicans, for State Senator Mark Norris, who, as theFlyer first reported, is seriously considering a run.

Norris is fatalistic about the prospect that the legislatureÕs majority Democrats will reapportion the Senate so that Shelby County, which is losing a seat, will have one majority-Republican district including both himself and long-term incumbent Curtis Person.

Person, a respected veteran who has not even had an opponent since 1966, is regarded as unbeatable.

Moreover, Norris, a former Shelby County commissioner, has genuine concerns about the countyÕs future, especially on the fiscal front. Regarded as being on the right edge of his party economically, Norris has people skills that allow him to operate in the center. Even so, should he follow through and run, he may start from a position somewhat further back than Bobango or Gibbons would have.

As the week began, there were those who assumed that Bobango would hasten to announce his candidacy; as it progressed, talk at political gatherings focused on the fact that he was developing cold feet, especially as he considered the impact upon the race of Shelby County Public Defender A C Wharton, a recent Democratic entry who has good support from Republicans, too, and across racial lines. Partisans of another Democratic candidate, Bartlett banker Harold Byrd, maintain that he, too, has broad-based support.

As one Democrat put it Saturday, ÒThey [the Republicans] are scared. TheyÕre down to their fourth string now.Ó As he spelled it out, incumbent Mayor Jim Rout, who has decided not to run, was the first string; Gibbons was the second; and Bobango was the third.

In a conversation later Saturday, Bobango said that his decision not to run was not made until Thursday afternoon and communicated to a few people Friday.

“The fact is, last Sunday my wife and children and I had some studio photos made to be suitable for campaign use,” said Bobango, who attributed his change of mind to family factors and the need to complete some of the practicalities of his law firm’s two-year-old merger with that of the politically influential Farris firm.

He denied strenuously that anything having to do with the candidacy of Wharton or any other Democrat influenced his action.

The Shelby County Mayor’s race lost one contender Tuesday but stood, down the line a bit, to gain another,

State Senator Jim Kyle opted out of the race, arranging for announcements of his withdrawal to be hand-delivered just before noon Tuesday to his three Democratic Party rivals, State Representative Carol Chumney, Bartlett banker Harold Byrd, and Shelby County Public Defender A C Wharton.

In the statement, as in separate remarks to the Flyer, Kyle cited the state’s desperate fiscal situaton as a reason for his decision to leave the race. Kyle, a key member of the Senate Finance Committee, had hoped for a special session this week to resolve Tennessee’s budget dilemma. It didn’t happen, and that meant, Kyle realized, that he and the rest of the General Assembly would likely be tied up to Nashville from late winter through early summer next year– a period during which he could neither effectively campaign nor, by the terms of state law, raise any money.

Another reason for his departure, Kyle acknowledged, was the recent entry of Wharton, “who has name recognition as good as my own.”

Meanwhile, another senator, Collierville’s Mark Norris, was considering a race for mayor at some point Ð especially if lawyer John Bobango ends up not running in the Republican primary. Norris, a former member of the county commission, is likely to see his senate district joined with that of long-term GOP colleague Curtis Person during legislative reapportionment, which will be controlled by Democrats in Nashville.

In another development, Shelby County Election Commission chairman O.C. Pleasant, a Democrat, acknowledged he was likely to run for the office of Shelby County clerk, opposing incumbent Republican Jayne Creson.

The first Democratic candidate to announce for Shelby County Mayor, state Senator Jim Kyle, has become the race’s first significant dropout.

Just before noon on Tuesday, Kyle had copies of a brief statement of withdrawal hand-delivered to his three primary opponents — Bartlett banker Harold Byrd, Shelby County public defender A C Wharton, and state Representative Carol Chumney.

The statement read in part: “Both the political landscape and the fiscal problems facing our state have changed dramatically since I began considering a race almost a year ago …” It went on to refer to the “historically long legislative session” and “political changes” and concluded, “This difficult decision has been made easier by the presence of excellent candidates in the Democratic primary. I wish them well.”

In conversation, Kyle amplified his reasons: “First of all,” he said, “we were in session too long, and that put me behind. Then we went to war, and that stopped everything again. Third, there was A C, who has as much name identification as I have. But what sealed it was when I determined we [the General Assembly] were not going into special session. That meant there was a very good chance I would be up there [in Nashville] for a long time next spring, and I needed that time.”

As Kyle noted, a special session, which at one point seemed certain for the current week, could have resolved the state’s financial issues. Without a special session, Kyle — a key member of the Senate’s Finance Committee — and other legislators are likely to become entangled in a lengthy regular session next year, possibly lasting into the summer as the last two sessions have. Kyle could not have campaigned effectively during that time and by state law could not have raised money during the session.

The departure of the outspoken and respected senator, who had planned to campaign aggressively for city-county consolidation, will probably provide a marginal demographic boost to both Byrd and Chumney — both whites — in a county where racial identity always counts for a substantial portion of the vote.

· Until such time as former city councilman John Bobango actually takes the bit in his teeth and gets out on the cinder track and formally starts his expected race for Shelby County mayor, the opportunity is still there for other name-brand Republicans.

To date, a number of GOP hopefuls have pawed the track warily, checked out either the odds or the Democratic field — which includes several highly touted runners — and, for whatever reason, backed away. Early on, most of these — like probate court clerk Chris Thomas — were conservatives.

As recently as last week, word went out that another such, County Trustee Bob Patterson, was thinking of running, but — although Patterson has not yet officially ruled the idea out — it now seems doubtful that he’ll risk his current position for a mayor’s race.

That’s the rub for so many prospects — the sacrifice of a safe seat in the pursuit of an unknown quantity.

As it turns out, there’s another mainline GOP prospect — one whose interest, ironically enough, may actually have been kindled by facts relating to an incumbency which he’d dearly love to keep.

This is state Senator Mark Norris, a former county commissioner. Elected to the legislature just last year without opposition, Norris rapidly became a player in Nashville. He was elected parliamentarian by the Republican Senate caucus and to a number of other party posts whose import was somewhat more than ceremonial.

In July, during the nitty-gritty last days of the 2001 regular session of the General Assembly, Norris became one of his party’s chief negotiators in the Senate’s ultimately futile effort to reach a bipartisan consensus on a budget measure,.

While his politics — especially on fiscal matters — were dependably conservative, Norris proved adept at maintaining sunny relations with his ideological opposites in the Senate and was a swing vote on occasion — as when he lent his vote to Democrat Steve Cohen‘s lottery bill, providing decisive momentum to put over a perennial proposal that had failed of passage for the previous two decades.

But Norris is the least senior Republican in a county which is slated to lose one of its Senate seats during the forthcoming reapportionment based on the 2000 census. Although both he and fellow Republican senator Curtis Person are members of the GOP’s reapportionment committee, their party’s say in the matter will be subordinated to that of the Senate Democrats, who are likely to place both the hugely popular Person, who has not even had an opponent since 1978, in the same district with Norris.

If worse comes to worst, and that happens, and, especially if Norris gets an inkling of it before the February 21st filing deadline for county races, he may think seriously of a return to the politics of the county, whose fiscal affairs absorbed him during his time on the commission.

· The chairman of the Election Commission, O.C. Pleasant, has all but decided on a race as a Democrat for Shelby County clerk, to oppose GOP incumbent Jayne Creson. Pleasant, who would have to face the choice of whether to resign his long-term position on the commission, also gave consideration for a while to the idea of running for county trustee.

· Pending the resolution of the district lines for county commission District 5, currently occupied by the retiring Buck Wellford, a Republican, most potential candidates for the seat are holding back on formal announcements.

Not Republican Jerry Cobb and Democrat Joe Cooper. Cooper, in fact, is busy constructing the elements of a platform. He, too, is a proponent of consolidation and called this week for the establishment of a Consolidation Charter Commission.

You can e-mail Jackson Baker at baker@memphisflyer.com.