Except for a generous number of judges and judicial candidates whom one also
sees at Republican events these days, and for the several MOR Democrats (like
businessman Karl Schledwitz)
active in the campaigns of District Attorney General Bill Gibbons
and Sheriff Mark Luttrell,
there was no taint of Republicanism at the Kennedy Day Dinner held Monday night
by a newly cleansed Democratic Party.
And for all the absence of Republicans, there was still a large enough crowd to
come near filling the third-floor ballroom of the University of Memphis-area
Holiday Inn on Central Avenue to hear Governor Phil Bredesen‘s
keynote address. Ironically, the famously centrist governor would proselyte
earnestly for a commitment from those present to the U.S. Senate campaign of
Congressman Harold Ford Jr.,
not exactly a stickler for Democratic orthodoxy himself.
As another irony, Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton
— whose loyalty to party causes and candidates has been, to put it mildly,
uneven – was also on hand, at least at the beginning. But Gibbons and Luttrell,
who were the subjects of all the fuss made over the weekend, were kept away, and
that certainly represented a victory for the Democratic Party nominees – every
countywide candidate save Mayor A C Wharton
and the mysteriously invisible Circuit Court clerk nominee Roderic Ford
– who had protested the very possibility of the two Republican office-holders’
showing up as paying guests.
The group of nominees had held two press conferences over the weekend to prevent
that indignity and had gone so far as to issue an ultimatum to Shelby County
Democratic chairman Matt Kuhn,
demanding that he dis-invite Gibbons and Luttrell. That the letter bearing this
demand was hand-delivered to Kuhn’s address after the 5 p.m. Saturday deadline
had already expired was, all things considered, an unfortunate piece of bad
timing.
Perhaps understandably, the normally laid-back Kuhn was perturbed by that
circumstance, as well as by an implication in a statement made Sunday by
Gibbons’ general-election opponent, Gail Mathes,
the Democratic nominee for District Attorney General. Mathes, who was serving
(impressively, by most judgments) as spokesperson for the group of nominees,
said of Kuhn, “He did not return calls until the very last minute, when he may
have called Mr. Gibbons – only Mr. Gibbons, and not necessarily the other
incumbents, and he may have talked Mr. Gibbons into not coming.”
Kuhn would later characterize the implication that he ignored calls from
Democratic nominees as a “boldfaced lie.” He said the only calls he had not
returned were from Democratic activist David Upton,
who played a major role in organizing the nominees’ protest, and that he had
specifically and immediately returned a telephone call from Shep Wilbun,
the party’s nominee for Juvenile Court clerk.
As Kuhn summarized things, he had twice last week discussed with fellow
Democrats the issue of a Republican presence at the Kennedy Day Dinner. This was
after rumblings had started up among Democrats in the blogosphere. The matter
came up on Wednesday night at a planning session for the dinner, and again on
Thursday night at a meeting of the party’s steering committee. By then, Kuhn had
evolved a policy which the committee ended up giving its unanimous backing to.
In essence, the party would not obstruct the attendance at the event of Gibbons
and Luttrell, who had purchased tickets on line — not by anybody’s invitation,
said Kuhn, who made a point of adding, “Certainly not mine.”
Kuhn and the committee members agreed that the two GOP officials would not be
recognized from the dais, or be allowed to bring campaign literature, or do any
electioneering as such. Kuhn made phone calls to both Luttrell and Gibbons on
Friday briefing them on the ground rules. Neither objected.
But the party nominees did, and the brouhahas of the weekend ensued. After that,
Luttrell bowed out on his own, and an intermediary prevailed on Gibbons to do
the same. (The D.A.G. issued a formal statement to that effect on Monday,
pointedly appending to it a lengthy list of his Democratic supporters.)
When it came time for Kuhn to address Monday night’s gathering, he conveyed a
tone of battle fatigue – understandable for one who, in scarcely ten months at
the helm, has had to deal with continued factionalism and case after case
relating to the issue of strict party fidelity vs. inclusiveness.
“Are you a Republican?” he began brazenly. “…If you are, as a last resort, we
may ask our sergeant-at-arms… to come around individually – it might take a
little bit, I mean, ’til about midnight – to ask about a litmus test and see you
if you’re a real bona fide Democrat, to give you the secret handshake and hear
the password.”
As the crowd began to stir with various kinds of nervous energy, some delighted,
some clearly not, Kuhn delivered the clencher: “That secret password is
‘minority.'” A brief and – as they say – pregnant pause ensued, punctuated with
an audible gasp or two from the audience. Kuhn proceeded to detail the fact of
a current Republican majority on the county commission and segued into a
castigation of the local GOP for having led the way into partisan and “divisive”
local elections more than a decade ago.
The young chairman then launched into a conventional call to arms on behalf of
the party’s slate of candidates this year, and the rest of the evening proceeded
along more or less traditional lines, culminating with Bredesen’s speech. But,
just as Kuhn’s critics within the party had made their point, so, finally, had
he made his.
JB
Demcoratic chairman Kuhn with Gibbons’ voided check.
The GOP ‘Homecoming’: As it happened, the
Shelby County Republicans had just put on a formal dinner of their own, only two
nights earlier, at the Al Chymia Shrine Temple on Shelby Oaks Drive, where, all
things considered, Republican chairman Bill Giannini had an easier time
of it.
The Saturday-night event, called “A Tennessee Homecoming
featured, inter alia, patriotic songs by former Miss America Kellye
Cash, a skit from impressionist Paul Shanklin, remarks from former county
mayor Jim Rout and former Governor Winfield Dunn, and – the piece de
resistance – an appearance by TV actress Dixie Carter. Carter
entertained the crowd with a speech that focused on Republican “values” and
detailed her lifelong loyalty to the Republican Party from her West Tennessee
childhood on to the present.
A drop-in appearance was also made by state Senator Jim
Bryson of Franklin, the state GOP’s favored candidate for governor this year
to oppose Bredesen A home truth was spoken, perhaps inadvertently, when former
governor Dunn, in an intended encomium, spoke of his, and the party’s, gratitude
to Bryson – who thereby forfeited his own chance for reelection to the state
Senate — for making the governor’s race.
Said Dunn: “Surely, we’re not going to let that guy in
Nashville, in the Capitol building, who’s a pretty nice guy, as everyone would
acknowledge, have a free ride into the governorship for four more years. And we
looked hard for a candidate.” That was an oblique way, perhaps, of saying
“sacrificial lamb.”
Also on hand were the three Republican candidates for the
U.S. Senate – former Chattanooga mayor Bob Corker and former congressmen
Van Hilleary and Ed Bryant. The latter two, who huddled together
before the event, may have been appearing in the same place for the first time
since they recently agreed to avoid attacks on each other and to make common
cause against the perceived “moderate” Corker.
“I’m flattered,” said Corker Friday night.
To no one’s surprise, a straw poll at the
dinner went overwhelmingly in favor of Bryant, who, as longtime congressman from
the 7th District, is something of a favorite son in Shelby County.
JB
Demcoratic chairman Kuhn with Gibbons’ voided check.
Last Thursday night a crowd of some 300 at the
University of Memphis Law School auditorium saw the largest turnout yet of
declared Democratic candidates for the open 9th District
congressional seat – 12 candidates in all, and a surrogate for another, at a
forum sponsored by the Shelby County Democratic Party and participating
Democratic clubs.
On hand, in inverse alphabetical order (which is how they
were seated, left to right), were Bill Whitman, Ralph White,
Joe Towns, Nikki Tinker, Ed Stanton, Ron Redwing,
Tyson Pratcher, Marvell Mitchell, Joseph Kyles, Lee Harris,
Steve Cohen, and Jesse Blumenfeld. Making an introductory statement
on behalf of his absent brother Joe Ford Jr. was Justin Ford.
A review of that event, which generated some sparks and may
have shaken up the perceived pecking order somewhat, will appear online at
www.memphisflyer.com and in next week’s regular Flyer issue, along
with a retrospective on the congressional campaign to date.
