- Justin Fox Burks
- Commissioner Steve Mulroy
The Flyer has learned that Shelby County Commissioner Steve Mulroy will be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Shelby County Mayor and will pull a qualifying petition for that office from the Election Commission on Monday.
Mulroy, who has also considered open judgeships, both state and federal, in the last few months, has expressed an interest in a mayoral race for some years.
The commissioner, a law professor at the University of Memphis, is in his second term as representative on the Commission of District 5. Term-limited, he is ineligible to run again for that office.
Mjulroy has a reputation as a liberal, and, while on the Commission, has taken the lead on numerous initiatives, ranging from ordinances dealing with living-wage, ethics, and homeless issues to passage of the county’s first anti-discrimination resolution in 2009.
He attracted national attention last year when he became an altruistic donor of a kidney to the UT-Memphis Transplant Institute, thereby enabling a near-record “chain” of 28 available organs to needy recipients.
Mulroy joins Shelby County Commission chairman James Harvey, former County Commissioner Deidre Malone, and former School Board member Kenneth Whalum Jr., as prominent Democrats who have drawn petitions with intent to challenge the reelection of Republican incumbent County Mayor Mark Luttrell.
