Scarcely a week after his colleague Jim Strickland opted out of a race for mayor in the October 15 special election, councilman Kemp Conrad followed suit Thursday, saying he wouldn’t be a candidate this year but not closing the door on the possibility of future mayoral runs.
“All I hope to do right now is do the most effective job on the council that I can and help the mayor pro tem [Myron Lowery] and whoever gets elected in October succeed,” Conrad said.
Although he acknowledged that the possibility of stalemate in city government still exists — particularly after such events as the imbroglio over Lowery’s attempted firing of city attorney Elbert Jefferson — Conrad contended that relations between the council and the mayor’s office are bound to improve in the wake of former Mayor Willie Herenton’s resignation. “They had become downright poisonous,” Conrad said.
He praised Lowery’s choice of Jack Sammons as acting CAO and said that Sammons would be of enormous help to Lowery in restoring an atmosphere of amity and trust.
“I agree with Myron that we can still get a lot of positive things done in the next few weeks,” Conrad said.
