Tag: Amy Weirich

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Politics Politics Feature

Punching Down

Brent Taylor (Photo: Senator Brent Taylor | Facebook)

It surely hasn’t gone unnoticed that state government is continuing to flex its muscles vis-à-vis local government in Memphis and Shelby County. 

Officials aligned with the administration in Nashville are threatening outright takeover of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) system at the same time that state Senator Brent Taylor and helpers continue to implement their would-be coup d’état against the county judiciary and the office of District Attorney Steve Mulroy.

In the case of MSCS, the sudden out-of-nowhere power struggle between an apparent school board majority and first-year superintendent Marie Feagins has prompted what amounts to an ultimatum from Governor Bill Lee and the presiding officers of the state legislative chambers: Keep Feagins or else!

And Taylor has enlisted the same officials in his campaign to oust Mulroy, involving them in his bill of particulars against the DA at a press conference last Thursday that followed by a day a quickly improvised “summit” called by the senator to consider the case for a new crime lab in Memphis, something Mulroy has put forth as a major need for facilitating effective local law enforcement.

The list of invitees to the crime lab conference, styled as a “roundtable discussion,” included Tennessee Bureau of Investigation director David Rausch and a virtually complete roster of public figures, state and local, who could be considered stakeholders in the matter of law enforcement.

There was one glaring omission, however: DA Mulroy, who was not only not invited; he was not even informed of the meeting, which was held at the City Hall of Germantown and concluded with Taylor suggesting an ultimate consensus that processing of local crime data in sensitive cases could be easily expedited via an existing crime lab in Jackson, obviating the need for a new Memphis lab.

A cynic could be pardoned for assuming that the entire thrust of the meeting in Germantown was to undermine the absent DA’s call for such a lab.

There was no doubt about the senator’s minimizing motive in his press conference the next day at the Memphis Police Association headquarters. It was overtly to “reveal the causes to be considered for the removal of District Attorney Steve Mulroy.”

Taylor’s bill of particulars against Mulroy was a duke’s mixture of complaints, ranging from prerogatives asserted by the DA that could be, and in several cases were, countered by ad hoc state legislation to innovative procedures pursued by Mulroy, some of them reflecting purposes that Taylor acknowledged sharing himself.

A case of the latter was an agreement reached by the DA with Juvenile Court Judge Tarik Sugarmon to allow trial court judges access to Juvenile Court records. Taylor had sponsored a bill to do just that in last year’s session of the General Assembly.

A similar instance was Taylor’s inclusion in his list of Mulroy’s declared support of gun safety referenda placed by the Memphis City Council on the 2024 general election ballot and overwhelmingly passed.

“Many of us” could sympathize with the referenda points, Taylor said, but his point was that the referenda — calling for local ordinances on behalf of gun permits, an assault rifle ban, and judicial confiscation of firearms in at-risk instances — ran counter to state law.

Sponsors of the referenda had made it clear that they called for “trigger” laws that could be enforced only if and when state law might be amended to allow them.

And there’s a further anomaly here, given Taylor’s stated goal to “Make Memphis Mattter” and safeguard the city from crime.

One has to wonder why he isn’t pursuing an altogether different strategy, one calling for a legislative “carve-out” of Shelby County from current state law prohibiting the immediate implementation of the ordinances called for by the referenda.

Such a course would be consistent with the principle of home rule; it would also be supportive of a position taken by Mulroy’s Republican opponent in the 2022 DA’s race, then-incumbent Amy Weirich, who inveighed against the iniquitous consequences of the state’s increasingly permissive stripping away of gun safety regulations. 

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Politics Politics Feature

Turning the Corner

Van Turner with wife Tammie at Health Sciences Park (Photo: Jackson Baker)

It was Labor Day weekend, the seam between the dog days of a pit-bull summer and the open road of a hopefully cooler fall, the beginning of a new cycle of county government with the swearing-in of officials and of a pending city election season with early announcements from mayoral candidates.

Still, it felt like a lull, and then suddenly the vacuum was filled with a sinister event, the kidnapping and apparent foul play wreaked on teacher and young mother Eliza Fletcher while she was jogging on a city street, and, wherever you went, that was all anybody was talking about.

It was the subject of discussion Saturday night at The Magnolia Room in the Overton Square district, where newly inaugurated District Attorney General Steve Mulroy had invited a few guests to share in an “Almost Newlyweds” gathering, the reenactment of the nuptials of his daughter Molly and her Moroccan husband, Abdellah.

Mulroy, the perfect host, lost himself in the revelry and line dancing and in a joyous chorus, along with the rest of his Brooklyn-bred family, of “New York, New York.” But some corner of his brain had to be occupied by this ominous new development, joining there such preoccupations as he has about a forthcoming hearing on the fate of two young carjacking suspects accused recently of killing Dr. Autura Eason-Williams, a revered local Methodist cleric.

Amy Weirich, Mulroy’s predecessor, whom he defeated in the recent county election, had called for one juvenile suspect, whom she had previously put into a restorative-justice program, to be transferred to adult Criminal Court to be tried for the carjacking murder. The matter broke very late in the election campaign, and Mulroy, as the new DA, in tandem with new Juvenile Court Judge Tarik Sugarmon, will have to make the ultimate recommendation about the transfer, to Criminal Court of one or both juvenile suspects on or after a hearing on the psychological circumstances of the two, which is scheduled for September 12th in Juvenile Court. A third accomplice in the crime, who has already reached adulthood, is also part of the equation.

And now, on top of that conundrum, the Fletcher affair, which has gripped the nation as well as the city, has further dramatized the issue of crime in Memphis. No rest for the weary.

• Candidates for Memphis mayor in 2022 aren’t getting much rest, either. Two of them made formal entries into the race last week — local NAACP head Van Turner at an organized announcement at Health Sciences Park and Downtown Memphis Commission president/CEO Paul Young via an online post.

Turner, who recently left the Shelby County Commission after serving two terms, had his coming-out on a platform erected on the former long-term site of the grave and statue of Confederate Civil War general Nathan Bedford Forrest. Turner is the president of the nonprofit which, in cooperation with city government, took over the park grounds and authorized the removal and relocation of the statue and the remains of Forrest and his wife.

• The aforementioned Weirich is already at work as special counsel on the staff of DA Mark Davidson in the 25th judicial district, which serves the several rural West Tennessee counties immediately adjoining Shelby. She began her duties last Thursday at a salary, conforming with state guidelines, of $139,908, only 18 percent less than she made as Shelby DA.

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Politics Politics Feature

Mayor Floyd Bonner?

Floyd Bonner electioneering this year (Photo: Jackson Baker)

There is, it would seem, a different Name of the Week in generalized speculation about the 2023 Memphis mayor’s race. Confessedly, there have certainly been different figures to talk about in successive weeks of this column.

Previously mentioned as likely mayoral candidates next year have been: NAACP head Van Turner, who is finishing up his second and final term of the County Commission this week; Paul Young, the president/CEO of the Downtown Memphis Commission; Karen Camper, caucus leader of the state House of Representatives Democrats; and Joe Brown, the onetime Criminal Court judge and former TV celebrity judge.

Brown’s intentions, though he has certainly promoted a possible race, may be more fanciful than real. The others are, one way or another, making tangible plans to run. Turner has basically already announced, Young is reportedly lining up some serious financing for a campaign, and Camper is expected to make an announcement any week now.

Other names that are getting some mention are those of the Rev. Keith Norman of First Baptist Church-Broad, a chief lobbyist for Baptist Memorial Hospital and a former Democratic Party chair; Beverly Robertson, president/CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber; Patrice Robinson, City Council member and former Council chair; and Worth Morgan, City Council member and defeated Republican candidate for county mayor this year.

This week’s most mentioned mayoral prospect? Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner, who in two successive county elections has led all other candidates for office and has a decent-sized campaign account left over to start a mayoral campaign with.

Bonner’s popularity with the voters as a Democratic candidate has been such that Shelby County Republicans did not even bother to nominate an opponent for him this year and themselves endorsed him.

His interest in running for the nonpartisan office of mayor is a very real thing, and he has definitely had preliminary discussions about mounting a campaign next year. Bonner’s status on the eve of the Memphis city election has been likened by more than one observer to that of AC Wharton in the first decade of this century, when Wharton was considered an inevitable candidate for, successively, Shelby County mayor and Memphis mayor, both of which offices he would win.

Jason Martin (Photo: Jackson Baker)

• Jason Martin, the Nashville critical-care physician who emerged as the winner of the Democrats’ three-way gubernatorial primary, was the speaker at last week’s Germantown Democratic Club meeting.

Addressing an audience of 70-odd attendees at the Coletta’s restaurant in East Shelby County, Martin deplored GOP Governor Bill Lee’s policies on several counts, including Lee’s restrictive posture toward abortion rights, his refusal to countenance Medicaid expansion and the annual federal outlays of $1 billion that would come with it, his striking away of gun regulations, and his moves toward privatizing public education.

Said Martin: “The other side is so radical on these issues that most people are like, ‘That’s not me.’ And that’s why we’re getting traction.”

• As first reported last week on memphisflyer.com, outgoing District Attorney General Amy Weirich will be taking a position as assistant DA with the office of Mark Davidson, district attorney for the adjoining 25th Judicial District, which serves the counties of Tipton, Fayette, Lauderdale, McNairy, and Hardeman.

A press release from Davidson’s office on Monday confirmed that Weirich will be sworn in as special counsel to his office on September 1st, a day after the swearing-in of Steve Mulroy, who defeated Weirich in the August 4th county election, to replace her as Shelby DA.

• The ever-worsening situation of Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert, under fire for mishandling license-plate distribution and her office affairs in general, almost got even bleaker Monday when the Shelby County Commission, in its final meeting as currently composed, failed by one vote to appoint a special counsel to begin ouster proceedings.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Weirich Moving On?

Amy Weirich (Photo by Jackson Baker)

There is an as yet unconfirmed report that Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich, who was unseated in the August 4 election by DA-elect Steve Mulroy, has taken a position as assistant DA with the office of District Attorney Mark Davidson of the adjoining 25th Judicial District.

The 25th District serves the surrounding West Tennessee counties of Tipton, Fayette, Lauderdale, McNairy, and Hardeman. Each county possesses a General Sessions Court, a Circuit Court,  a Juvenile Court and a Drug Court.

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Politics Politics Feature

More to Come

Back in 2009, Joe Brown (right), then the star of a syndicated TV show and now a self-declared mayoral candidate, hobnobbed on a visit home with newly installed Memphis Mayor A C Wharton, state Representative G.A. Hardaway, and the late state Senator Reginald Tate. (Photo: Jackson Baker)

With outgoing County Commissioner Van Turner’s announcement last week of a pending run for Memphis mayor in 2023, another political season is on its way.

Actually, Turner did not announce as such; he told the Flyer, and subsequently the world, that he would be making his formal announcement at month’s end, about the time he leaves his present office.

If advance gossip can be trusted, Turner, whom many observers reckon as the favorite, can expect to be joined in the contest by Downtown Memphis Commission President Paul Young, who has a key speech to the Kiwanis Club scheduled this week, and Karen Camper, minority leader in the state House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, local NAACP head Turner is actually the second declared candidate for the office, which is likely to be the object of spirited competition now that the voters have taken incumbent Mayor Jim Strickland out of the running by voting in the August 4th election not to allow a third term for mayor and council members.

The first declared candidate? None other than Joe Brown — not the General Sessions Court clerk and former councilman but the other Joe Brown, who played a judge on TV for some years after being one for real in Shelby County back in the ’90s. You might have missed it, but Brown’s announcement was made via YouTube last fall, and if he follows through, it will be his second major non-judicial run for office in these parts.

Brown’s last electoral effort, a race for district attorney in 2014, began with abundant ballyhoo and a sense among some local Democrats that his celebrity and presumed healthy bank account would allow the party to achieve a generalized success at the polls. Instead he belly-flopped, badly. Coincidentally or not, so did the party.

Among other things, the bankroll — for whatever reason — didn’t exist, nor did Brown’s actions and public positions during the campaign exactly square with many people’s ideas of political leadership.

As part of his rollout, Brown had been the keynote speaker at an official Democratic Party tribute to former Mayor Willie Herenton. He used the occasion to denounce “promiscuous” women and make homophobic remarks.

One of his next acts was to get himself arrested on a contempt of court charge for insulting a Juvenile Court magistrate in the process of a pro bono child support case Brown was handling. (Brown thereupon posted a Facebook entry in which he likened his ordeal to that of Dr. Martin Luther King’s historic confinement in the Birmingham jail.)

All this was just a lead-in to Brown’s culminating campaign act, a speech in which — sans any evidence or pretense of same, or any relevance to anything, for that matter — he accused his opponent, incumbent DA Amy Weirich, of having a lesbian affair with her next-door neighbor. Weirich won with 65 percent of the vote.

• Weirich’s luck ran out this year in another reelection campaign, this time against an opponent, Steve Mulroy, not pre-ordained to fantasize or self-destruct.

The two of them took turns last week in the well of the Shelby County auditorium, arguing this time for the same goal — the creation of a new bail hearing courtroom. A resolution to that end, requiring that bail issues for new county prisoners be hashed out in a hearing before a judge and with representation from both arrestee and victim of an alleged crime, was passed unanimously by the 13 members of the commission. As Mulroy noted, this was the one thing the two erstwhile adversaries had been able to agree on during this campaign year.

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Politics Beat Blog

Harris, Mulroy, Sugarmon Win the Big Ones

Steve Mulroy. Photo by Jackson Baker.

While Republicans in Nashville were still smarting from the defeat — early in the week — of their hopes to host the 2024 Republican National Convention in the state capital, Democrats in Shelby County were rejoicing over their second straight sweep of countywide positions in the August 4th election.

To start with the most closely followed of all the races, the one for Shelby County District Attorney General: early voting totals, coupled with mail-ins, showed Democrat Steve Mulroy well ahead of incumbent Republican DA Amy Weirich, 76,280 to 59,364. As Mulroy correctly told his delirious election-night crowd at his Poplar Avenue headquarters, barring a statistical improbability, he had become the first Democratic DA in Shelby County history.

Fellow Democrat Lee Harris, operating out of the same HQ, was comfortably ahead of Republican challenger Worth Morgan, 78,552 to 56,789, thereby winning a second four-year term as Shelby County Mayor for his own reformist mission.

Completing a trifecta of sorts, Memphis Municipal Judge Tarik B. Sugarmon had apparently won out in a four-candidate race over Republican incumbent Dan Michael for the position of Juvenile Court Judge, with 53,267 votes to Michael’s 40,720. William Ray Glasgo and Dee Shawn Peoples were also-rans.

Though his was a non-partisan race, Sugarmon, who had lost to Michael eight years earlier, campaigned at times with Mulroy and Harris. The three of them had made a ceremonial visit, late on election day, to the statue of Ida B. Wells on Beale Street, where they had issued a call for late voters to turn out. 

In other results, who would have thought that Charlotte Bergmann, largely written off as a perennial candidate for the Republican nomination for Congress in the 9th District, would dust off a new face, entrepreneur Brown Dudley,  who had  lots of money and the apparent ability to make a real race in the fall against 9th District Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen (the odds-on favorite to win again)?

Bergmann prevailed over Dudley, 9,382 to 7,811, a win for long-term party fidelity. All bets are on Cohen, though, in November. The 9th District is wall-to-wall Democratic, the last such in Tennessee after ruthless GOP gerrymandering.

8th District Republican incumbent Congressman David Kustoff easily won out in a four-candidate race to seal his renomination and will take on Democrat Lynnette Williams in the fall.

GOP Governor Bill Lee will compete in the fall with Democratic nominee Jason Martin of Nashville, winner of a three-way Democratic primary with Memphians JB Smiley and Carnita Atwater. Smiley won in Shelby County.

Sheriff Floyd Bonner, the Democratic nominee and the Republican endorsee, finished with 96,289, blowing away two independent candidates.

Assessor Melvin Burgess, a Democrat, had fairly easy going over Republican challenger Steve Cross, 51,517.

Democrat Jamita Swearengen, 79,329,  defeated Republican Soheila Kail, 51,801, for Circuit Court Clerk.

Incumbent Trustee Regina Newman, also a Democrat, had similar ease over the GOP’s Steve Basar, 80,327 to 51,746.

Incumbent Criminal Court Clerk Heidi Kuhn won 81,223, over the GOP’s Paul Houston, 49,772.

Democrat Janeen Gordon was unopposed for Juvenile Court Clerk.

Democratic incumbent Wanda Halbert survived a scare from Republican Jeff Jacobs, with 65,520 votes to Jacobs’ 54,519. Harold Smith had 13,699 in third place.

As expected, Democrat Willie Brooks won Register of Deeds, 76,801 to Bryan Edmiston’s 50,191. George “Dempsey” Summers had 4,896.

Unofficial early indications were that all Shelby County legislative incumbents won their primary races. More details to come soon on vote totals and matchups for the fall.

As anticipated, there will be 9 Democratic members of the 13-member Shelby County Commission. Winners are Amber Mills, R, District 1; David C. Bradford Jr., R, District 2; Mick Wright, R, District 3; Brandon Morrison, R, District 4; Shante Avant, D, District 5; Charlie Caswell, D, District 6; Henri Brooks, D, District 7; Mickell Lowery, D, District 8; Edmund Ford Jr., D, District 9; Britney Thornton, D, District 10; Miska Clay Bibbs, D, District 11; Erika Sugarmon, D, District 12; Michalel Wehaley, d, District 13. 

The most competitive Commission race was between Whaley, with 7,036 votes,  and Republican Ed Apple, 6,702.

Judicial Results:

Circuit court Judge Division I, Felicia Corbin-Johnson

Circuit Court Judge, Division II, Carol J. Chumney

Circuit Court, Division III, Valerie L. Smith

Circuit Court Judge, Division IV, Gina Carol Higgins

Circuit Court Judge, Division V, Rhynette N. Hurd

Circuit Court Judge, division VI, Cedrick D. Wooten

Circuit Court Judge Division VII, Mary L. Wagner

Circuit Court Judge, Division VIII, Damita Dandridge

Circuit Court Judge, Division IX, Yolanda Kight Brown

Chancellor, Part I, Melanie Taylor Jeffe

Chancellor, Part II, Jim Kyle

Chancellor, Part III, Joe Jenkins

Probate Court Judge Division I, Kathleen N. Gomes

Probate Court Judge Division II, Joe Townsend

Criminal Court Judge Division I Paula Skahan

Criminal Court Judge Division II Jennifer Fitzgerald

Criminal Court Judge Division III, James Jones

Criminal Court Judge, Division IV, Carolyn Blackett

Criminal court Judge Division V, Carlyn Addison

Criminal Court Judge Division VI, David Pool

Criminal court Judge Division VII, Lee V. Coffee

Criminal Court Judge, Division VIII, Chris Craft

Criminal court Judge, Division IX, A. Melissa Boyd

Criminal Court Judge, Division X, Jennifer J. Mitchell

General Sessions Civil Court, Division 1, Lynn C obb

General Sessions Civil Court, Division 2, Phyllis B. Gardner

General Sessions Civil Court, Division 3, Danielle M. Sims

General ESessions Civil Court, Division 4, Deborah Henderson

General Sessions Civil court, Division 5, Betty Thomas Moore

General Sessions Civil Court, Division 6, Lonnie Thompson

General Sessions Criminal Court, Division 7, Bill Anderson

General Sessions Criminal Court, Division 8, Lee Wilson

General Sessions Criminal court, Division 9, Sheila Bruce-Renfroe

General Sessions, Criminal court, Division 10, Greg Gilbert

General Sessions Criminal court, Division 11, Karen L. Massey

General Sessions, Criminal Court, Division 12, Ronald Lucchesi

General Sessions Criminal Court, Division 13, Louis Montesi

Environmental  Court Division 14, Patrick M. Dandridge

General Sessions Criminal Court, Division 15, Christian Johnson

These judicial results, preliminary only, are subject to appeal and possible recount. Several races are very  close.

County School Board District 1: Michelle McKissack

County School board, District 6, Keith Williams

County School Board, District 8, Amber Huett-Garcia

County School  Board, district 9, Joyce Dorse-Coleman

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Politics Politics Feature

October Surprises

Thaddeus Matthews

A phrase that has attached itself to presidential election years, especially between well-matched candidates struggling to get in the last and best word to the electorate, is “October Surprise.” That’s the name given to an unexpected event that sometimes occurs and sometimes doesn’t, but is always feared by each of the rival candidates.

The October Surprise, so called because it occurs just before the final vote takes place in early November, is sometimes carefully hatched by one of the candidates and sprung against the other. Sometimes it occurs all by itself, without any obvious prompting or advance management.

The late announcement in 2016 by FBI director James Comey that his agency was reopening its investigation of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails was an October Surprise. So was Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The one circumstance benefited Donald Trump, the other Barack Obama, the then-president whose emergency efforts were enabled thereby to come to the fore.

In the case of this week’s county election, one could speak of both a late July Surprise or an early August Surprise — both affecting the crucial and hard-fought race for district attorney general. The first was the brutal hijacking murder a week before last of beloved local pastor Autura Eason-Williams. The second was a controversy over the call-in appearance by incumbent GOP DA Amy Weirich, via Facebook and YouTube, on the talk show of “shock jock” Thaddeus Matthews.

The murder, committed by a 15-year-old who had been the beneficiary of a restorative-justice program, fed directly and unexpectedly into the ongoing debate between Weirich and Democratic opponent Steve Mulroy over the pros and cons of transferring violent youthful offenders to adult criminal court. An issue that had been discussed in statistical, largely hypothetical terms — with Weirich taking the hard line and Mulroy a reformist view — suddenly became very real and very concrete. It is fair to say that determining the right legal response proved a difficult task not only for the two candidates but for members of the deceased’s family and for on-the-fence voters as well.

Was Weirich’s discussion of the state’s new truth-in-sentencing law with Matthews, who is the subject of ongoing prosecutions by her office, as seen both on Facebook and on YouTube, an open-and-shut case of conflict of interest, as charged by Mulroy? Or, was it, as Matthews maintains, a simple matter of venting an informed view on a matter of public interest?

One thing is certain: Both of these circumstances could have had a seismic effect, whether small or large, and in whatever direction, on the outcome of a race which, in the well-established jargon of pol-watching, had been too close to call.

• One of the most unusual — and in many ways most endearing — endorsements administered during the run-up to the August 4th election occurred at a fundraiser back in July on behalf of David Pool, a judicial magistrate seeking to become the judge of Criminal Court, Division 6, otherwise known as felony drug court.

Before an audience including at least a score of other candidates for various offices at the East Memphis home of Dr. Kishore Arcot, Pool was steadfastly making his case. “What do you want in a Criminal Court judge?” he asked his audience rhetorically, then began dutifully listening to some of the likely answers to such a question: experience, dedication, knowledge of the law, etc., etc. Until he was stopped cold by an outburst from one of the several rows of listeners seated nearby.

“Cute!” came a loud and enthusiastic voice. “Cute!” the voice repeated. “That’s what we want!” As the stunned audience beamed in surprise, the even more surprised Pool, a performing musician in his spare time, bounded over to where fellow lawyer and supporter Ellen Fite was sitting and gave her an appreciative hug. Then, he walked back to where he’d been talking and there, sober as a judge, resumed his remarks and his recitation of judicial attributes, to the group at large.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Of Numbers and Needles in Haystacks


Fundraising and the spending that it enables are important aspects of political campaigns. This has especially been the case in the heated contest for Shelby County District Attorney General between Republican incumbent Amy Weirich and Democratic challenger Steve Mulroy. 

Claims  concerning the respective campaign kitties have risen to the fore lately in several public ways. The subject has figured in debates, in news analyses, and in TV attack ads.

A recent issue of The Tennessee Journal, a prestigious statewide political weekly, recently published breakdowns of the money raised and spent by both candidates. 

The Journal gave Weirich’s fundraising totals for the 2nd quarter of the year as $130,400, her spending for the period as $240,400, and her cash on hand as $361,000. Mulroy’s 2nd quarter receipts were given as $279,000, his spending as $194,000 and his cash on hand as $159,000.

In either case, that ain’t hay.

But a discrepancy of sorts has arisen. In a debate between the two at a Kiwanis Club luncheon two weeks ago, Weirich made the declaration, “I don’t have any out-of-state donors, and I’m very proud of that fact.” Days later, as a counterpoint, a TV ad appeared in which her campaign made much of the fact that Mulroy had received substantial out-of-state contributions.

She evidently was in error. The Journal’s breakdown of her receipts assigned $1,600 of it (the equivalent of one maxed-out private donor) as coming from out of state.

And the Mulroy campaign has done its own breakdown of out-of-state contributions to the Weirich campaign and arrayed the results in a spreadsheet showing 17 contributions from a total of 10 separate donors in the states of Arkansas, California, Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Oregon. The contributors include retired people, heads of businesses, and, in at least one case, an apparent relative. Their contributions bridge the incumbent DA’s primary and general campaign, in amounts ranging from $125 to $1,600. And they total $13,200.

Basically, this is a needle in the totality of her somewhat voluminous campaign haystack. But it’s not $1,600. And it’s not zero.

Interesting. But not as much so, all things considered, as the revelation (in the Daily Memphian) that Weirich — whose office is prosecuting  controversial media shock jock Thaddeus Matthews, the “Cussin’ Pastor,” for various misdemeanors — was a recent interviewee on Matthews’ talk show and calls him “Buddy.”

Newswise, that’s not zero, either.

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Politics Politics Feature

Down to the Wire

Tuning it Up: GOP state Senate candidate Brent Taylor at campaign kickoff last week with country singer John Rich (Photo: Jackson Baker)

As the August 4th countywide election cycle winds down, the marquee race is still, as before, that for district attorney general between Republican incumbent Amy Weirich and Democratic challenger Steve Mulroy. The race remains the focus of attention in local politics. It has also engendered significant statewide and national attention.

A quiet moment in a turbulent campaign (Photo: Jackson Baker)

The Tennessee Journal, a weekly which is the preeminent statewide source for political news across Tennessee, featured the race in its lead story for the July 15th issue. Editor Erik Schelzig recaps some of the significant charges and other back-and-forths of the contest, highlighting the two candidates’ major differences regarding the state’s new “truth-in-sentencing” law, which eliminates parole in several major violent-crime categories.

Weirich, who boasts her years-long efforts on behalf of passing the law, points with pride. Mulroy sees it as a case of vastly increasing state incarceration expenses while blunting possible rehabilitation efforts.

In the several recent debates between the two candidates, the challenger notes that his skepticism puts him on the same page regarding “truth-in-sentencing” as opponents like the American Conservative Union and GOP Governor Bill Lee, who declined to sign the bill, letting it become law without his signature. Weirich seizes upon Mulroy’s mentions of that fact as an opportunity to advertise her purported independent-mindedness, noting that she also disagrees with Lee (and the Republican supermajority) on such issues as open-carry gun legislation. “I don’t care what the American Conservative Union says,” she adds.

All that being said (and it’s consistent with her would-be crossover slogan, “Our DA”), the race as a whole is between Weirich’s right-of-center hard line and Mulroy’s highly reform-conscious point of view. Mulroy wants cash-bail reform and systematic post-conviction reviews, the latter including DNA testing. Weirich is open to modifications in those areas but not to major changes.

The two have battled over the matter of alleged racial disparity issues in the DA’s office, with Mulroy charging, among other things, that Weirich has an 85-percent white staff of attorneys prosecuting a defendant population that is 95 percent Black. Weirich says she’s trying to alter the ratio but cites the difficulty of competing with better-paying private law firms in efforts to acquire African-American legal talent.

Both contenders have seemingly forsworn the Marquis of Queensberry rules regarding the etiquette of competition. With no real evidence to base her claim on, Weirich’s ads consistently try to saddle Mulroy with the onus of being a “Defund the Police” enthusiast. He answers that he would like to see more police hired, and at higher salaries, and given “better training.” His ads portray Weirich as being a Trumpian (a stretch) and the “worst” district attorney in Tennessee, one saddled with several citations for misconduct from state overseeing bodies and with an ever-rising violent-crime rate during her 11-year tenure that is the worst in the nation.

The two candidates took turns in verbally pummeling each other in a series of almost daily formal debates the week before last. The venues were the Rotary Club of Memphis, the Memphis Kiwanis Club, and an Orange Mound citizens’ association. Neither gave any quarter, each attacking the other along lines indicated above.

Much of the aforementioned Tennessee Journal article is dedicated to the two candidates’ fundraising and campaign spending. In the second quarterly disclosure of the year (April through June), Weirich reported raising $130,400 and spending $240,400 — much of it on the Memphis consulting firm of Sutton Reid, where her blistering TV and radio ads are prepared. She began the quarter with nearly half a million dollars on hand and ended it with $361,00 remaining.

Mulroy raised $279,000 in the period, a sum which included a loan from him to his own campaign of $15,000. He spent $194,000 and had a remainder on hand of $159,000.

As noted by the Journal, Weirich has gotten almost all her funding from within Tennessee, all but $1,600. Mulroy, who has the avowed support of such celebrities as singer John Legend and author John Grisham, is also boosted by several national groups with a professed interest in criminal-justice reform. Some 35 percent of his funding has come from out of state.

One key venue for Mulroy is New York, where he has traveled twice recently, attending public occasions in tandem with such supporters as criminologist Barry Scheck, mega-lawyer Ben Crump, and entertainer Charlamagne Tha God. Mulroy’s travels and his funding sources are reportedly the target of a new Weirich TV spot which begins this week. It should be noted that the vast majority of Mulroy’s trips out of town during the campaign — all unpublicized until now — have been to Pensacola, where he drives down regularly to look in on his elderly mother.

With early voting about to expire and a week to go before the judgment day of August 4th, polling information is being held close to the vest by both principals, though Mulroy publicized an early one showing him with a 12-point lead.

A fact that looms large to all observers and to both participants and their parties: The position of district attorney general, is, as of now, the only major countywide position held by a Republican. Early voting statistics gave evidence of serious turnout efforts by both parties.

• There are other key races, to be sure. The race for county mayor, between Democratic incumbent Lee Harris and Republican challenger Worth Morgan has been something of a back-burner affair, with neither candidate turning on the jets full-blast in the manner of the DA race. Harris basically is resting on what he sees as a high productive record, and Morgan, though he challenges that, saying the county “deserves better,” has not featured many specifics beyond Morgan’s ill-based claim that Harris has — wait for it — defunded the police (strictly speaking, the Sheriff’s Department).

A recent TV ad shows Morgan in interview mode, chatting about his life and outlook and looking and sounding likable. Given Harris’ edge in incumbency and party base, that is probably not enough for now, but it does bolster Morgan’s name and image for later on.

In the race for Juvenile Court judge, Dan Michael’s incumbency works for him, while his opponent, city Judge Tarik Sugarmon, has a well-known local name and an active Democratic party base working on his behalf. Michael is heavily backed by the GOP in what is technically a nonpartisan race.

Few surprises are expected elsewhere on the ballot, though Democratic County Clerk Wanda Halbert, who has fumbled the issuance of new automobile plates, may get a scare (or worse) from Republican opponent Jeff Jacobs.

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DA Candidates Clash in Aftermath of Eason-Wiliams Murder

As real-world circumstances will do, a tragic incident is having an impact on a political race. The event was the carjacking and killing of the Rev. Dr. Autura Eason-Williams, revered pastor and district superintendent for the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference of The United Methodist Church. Dr. Eason was slain in her driveway Monday afternoon of last week.  Two young suspects were apprehended.

One of the issues in the Shelby County District Attorney’s race between incumbent Amy Weirich and challenger Steve Mulroy is the matter of when a juvenile suspect between the ages of 14 and 17 should be transferred to Criminal Court for prosecution. 

Mulroy has criticized Weirich for effecting too many such transfers. She has responded that juvenile transfers occur only for the most violent of crimes, especially when a subject’s background suggests incorrigibility.

Upon the arrest last week of a suspect, 15-year-old Miguel Andrade, Weirich moved to have him transferred to Criminal Court. A second suspect, 15-year-old, Brayan Carrillo, also 15, was arrested, and Weirich wishes him tried in Criminal Court as well, “because of the facts, the serious nature of this case and this offender’s criminal history.” Similar words had attended her request for the transfer of Andrade.

After the first arrest and the request for transfer of Andrade, Mulroy issued a statement critical of Weirich. 

It said in part: “…When the crime is serious  and the defendant  has a long prior record, this merits transferring to adult court. But this  defendant should never have been out on the street where he could’ve killed a beloved pastor,  since he had committed prior crimes, including a prior carjacking. The fault for this lies with Amy Weirich, who for all her tough talk lets off too many serious criminals with her plea deals, including this plea deal.”

Weirich responded: 

“The  death of Rev. Dr. Autura Eason-Williams was a brutal crime and the accused murderer should face the most serious consequences and that is why I have requested his transfer to adult court. My opponent has opposed the transfer of youths who have committed violent crimes.  He has staked out a dangerous platform and has been rewarded with over a quarter of a million dollars from radical out-of-state criminal defense attorneys. His latest statement is a shameful and disgusting attempt to use the death of a beloved community leader to try to advance his campaign, and the voters of Shelby County should be outraged by his platform, his campaign donations, and his desperate last minute attack on my office.”