If there is a single leitmotif that defines the coming disharmony of a local election in these parts, it is the struggle between members of the two parties — Republican and Democratic — for dominance. The 2022 election in Shelby County is skewed in this way, with all the structural advantages adhering to the Dems. Actually, there is a fairly accurate division of influence — with the demographics of the city (i.e., Memphis) favoring Democratic candidates and those of the suburbs tilting unmistakably and dependably toward Republicans.
Yet beyond the party leaderships there is here and there a breach in this binary circumstance. Take the 13 members of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners — apportioned 8 to 5, as of now, in favor of Democrats, with the 2022 election likely to make that division 9 to 4 in favor of the Democrats — on the strength of reapportionment that’s fetched up another seat, the new District 5 seat in Cordova, expected to go the Democrats’ way.
Up until now, the Republicans have for several sessions been holding their own by the simple device of finding two dependable Democrats who could be coaxed onto their side when need be. Democrats Edmund Ford and Eddie Jones (the most recent two such) have reasonably often opted to make common cause with the Republicans, so long as the right trades were made on other points elsewhere.
Within the 2021-2022 session the Democrats did some bargaining of their own, attracting East Memphis Republican Brandon Morrison, already prone to look for non-partisan solutions, to their side on some key votes — both procedural: she would become vice chair instead of the minority Republicans’ choice of Amber Mills in northern Shelby (District 1), and policy-wise: (she would display an open mind on key votes favored by the Democrats (e.g., county funding of MATA), Morrison even agreed to serve as vice chair of a committee to re-examine the virtues of Metro consolidation, that bane of the suburbanite.
That makes the current contest in District 4 (East Memphis, Germantown) between Morrison and political newcomer Jordan Carpenter simply a matter of arithmetic. Morrison’s current GOP colleagues — Mills, Mick Wright, David Bradford, and the term-limited Mark Billingsley — are backing Carpenter to restore as much of an unbroken Republican orthodoxy as possible. Even a bloc of 4 in what is likely to be a new Commission favoring Democrats by a 9-4 margin, is, in their minds, worth something.
It remains to be seen if party loyalty or the principle of bi-partisanship will prevail. The Democrats, with their probable 9-vote supermajority, can indulge a certain equanimity on the matter.
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The recent brouhaha over the endorsement of Republican state Senate candidate Brent Taylor, in District 31, by Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, a nominal Democrat, indicates another way in which the binary party system is being breached. In their primary Democrats had been grooming Ruby Powell-Dennis, an educator and civil figure, to seek the seat, which up to now has been held by the indicted and now withdrawn GOP incumbent Brian Kelsey.
The fact is, Memphis mayors, whose own elections are non-partisan, have frequently crossed the party line to espouse candidates of another party. Willie Herenton, a Democrat, did it twice on behalf of the statewide candidacies of Republicans Don Sundquist and Lamar Alexander.
Strickland was in the large crowd that gathered on Taylor’s behalf for a fundraiser last Thursday at the East Memphis home of Craig and Cathy Weiss. Spotting the Mayor, who was a full head taller than most of the attendees, Taylor quoted Strickland as having said the endorsement of Taylor was for the sake of “better outcomes for Memphis.” Addressing the Mayor, he jested, “I would ask you to say a few words but I think you’ve probably said enough. If you say any more, they may try to impeach you.”
That got an animated chuckle from the crowd. Then Taylor proceeded: “I know you took a lot of heat for it. But I love Memphis and I think you know I love Memphis, and that’s one reason he endorsed me.”
Taylor continued: “There’s a second thing. I just came back to Nashville on Monday and Tuesday where I met with Senate leadership and about half of the Senate. They are very excited about having me joining the Senate, primarily because they don’t understand Big Shelby. They don’t understand Memphis and its politics. And they’re excited to have me up there…. I will tell you that [the Mayor’s endorsement] meant more among those senators than the endorsement of [U.S. Senators] Hagerty and Blackburn because they knew they needed somebody to help them understand Memphis and Shelby County.”
Binary politics is under threat elsewhere in local politics. Shelby County’s Republicans caved in to the reality that they could not find a GOP candidate to beat Sheriff Floyd Bonner, the Democratic nominee; so they have in effect endorsed Bonner’s campaign as well. It was no accident that the huge crowds that gathered the weekend before last at the Sheriff’s campaign headquarters opening included as many Republicans as Democrats.
And conversations between the two parties — like one between Democratic state Representative Dwayne Thompson and Republican John Gillespie, both representing “purplish” adjoining districts — abounded as well.
It will take some time before the twain truly meet, but it has to be a good sign that they are talking.
