The January 15th financial disclosures revealed four declared mayoral candidates as “cash on hand” leaders — Downtown Memphis Commission president/CEO Paul Young, Sheriff Floyd Bonner, businessman J.W. Gibson, and NAACP head and former County Commissioner Van Turner.
With months to go before petitions can even be drawn, though, surprise news last week from two other individuals in the ever-increasing list of mayoral prospects indicated the fluidity of things.
Frank Colvett: When he announced for mayor last week, the city councilman, a white Republican, surprised a lot of people, who wondered how he — as a member of both a racial minority and a political minority — stood a chance of victory. Asked about that kind of skepticism, Colvett cited what he said was his proven record as a conciliator on the council, where he served a recent term as chairman.
“White, Black, Republican, Democrat, none of that matters. This is a nonpartisan race and a nonpartisan job, I intend to represent all the people,” said Colvett, with an unexceptionable answer that will seem so much pure rhetoric to the aforesaid skeptics. He said he intends to focus on the issues — crime, especially — and to demand that each of his opponents “produce a plan,” a detailed blueprint, with no evasions or mere platitudes.
Whatever his own prospects, Colvett has already had an effect on the race. Merely by announcing, he has probably forestalled prospects of a candidacy by lawyer John Bobango or council colleague Chase Carlisle or Carlisle’s developer brother Chance, all of whom had been rumored to be interested in running but who would be dependent in the beginning on the same GOP base as Colvett.
And, however fractional it might be, Colvett’s appeal to that base will drain some support from candidates Bonner and Young, each of whom has been making inroads among conservatives.
Colvett insists he is in the race to stay and won’t get out to accommodate anybody else, nor will he consider brokering a large-campaign exit by himself to affect the ultimate outcome.
Willie Herenton: The former mayor, who officially entered the race on Monday, had created a considerable stir last week among those observers paying attention with a heavily stylized online post that repeated variations of the sentence “Get the hell out of my office!” That was a reminder, the post elaborated, of Herenton’s clash with an impertinent reporter during his 18-year mayoral tenure. Significantly, the post ended with two panels which, together, formed the slogan “Campaign Coming Soon … 2023.”
Herenton lost his last two races for elective office — a somewhat feckless race for Congress in 2010 and a sixth race for mayor in 2019. In the loss to Jim Strickland in the latter race, a three-way affair, Herenton received some 30 percent of the total vote and finished second. Conceding to Strickland on election night, he referred to the 2019 race as being “my last,” though his recent post certainly suggests a change of mind.
Now that he is competing again, his impact could be considerable. Though he never gained traction in his 2010 congressional try, in the 2019 mayoral race he received the endorsement of several public-employee unions and polled well among African-American voters, many of whom still see in Herenton the heroic change-maker who in 1991 had become Memphis’ first elected Black mayor.
As an active candidate Herenton will almost certainly attract votes — perhaps a considerable number — which might ordinarily go to one of the several African-American Democrats now contending. And he remains controversial enough among conservatives — both white and, to some degree, Black — to coalesce in a backlash vote for a specific candidate or two among the other contenders.
