Dale Lane – Memphis Flyer

Sheriff Floyd Bonner was the top vote-getter of all Shelby County candidates in 2018, the year he was elected to his first term. Running as a Democrat, he handily defeated Republican Dale Lane, a veteran deputy who has since become police chief of Collierville.

Bonner is certain to do well in 2022, as well. For one thing, he will have no opposition this year from a Republican candidate. The local GOP ICS has petitioned for primaries in all county races except that for sheriff.

Asked why, Cary Vaughn, current chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party, said, “We think he [Bonner] has done an exemplary job and deserves everybody’s support. We believe in leadership, and we think that’s what he’s offered.”

The GOP’s position recaps in a way the enthusiasm of former Sheriff Bill Oldham, Bonner’s predecessor and a Republican, who endorsed Democrat Bonner, rather than Lane, to succeed him in 2018.

Democrats might be entitled to feel pleased that one of their own is apparently guaranteed a conflict-free re-election contest. There is always the chance that a candidate or two will run independent campaigns for sheriff, but, lacking the backing of an organized partisan effort, any such candidate would have little chance of prevailing.

A factor mitigating Democrats’ pleasure in seeing Bonner go unopposed is, no doubt, the well-founded suspicion of an ulterior motive on the part of the Republicans. The “blue wave” county election of 2018, which saw Bonner and other Democratic candidates carried into office, was a confirmation of a demographic fact: The population of Shelby County — majority-Black and working-class — has finally begun to reflect that demographic reality in local elections as well as in presidential ones.

In the two or three county elections leading up to 2018, Republicans had managed to do well, but eventually the statistics began to tell, and GOP success in all-county balloting from now on will depend on (a) such superior organization as the party can manage, and (b) having candidates with clear crossover appeal.

In eschewing to nominate a rival candidate for sheriff, the Republicans simultaneously are hoping thereby to scale down Democrat campaign efforts generally and are husbanding their own resources for such races as that by District Attorney General Amy Weirich, seeking re-election against Democratic competition.

Ironically, there was a modest but unsuccessful effort by a few members last week in a meeting of the Shelby County Democratic Committee to seek a critical vote on Sheriff Bonner’s compliance with a federal decree on Covid protections for jail inmates.

• Like other elected political bodies elsewhere, the Shelby County Commission is working overtime in efforts to agree on a redistricting map for the next round of elections in 2022.

After several rounds of discussion, both with each other and with members of the Shelby County Schools board, also facing an election, commission members are seeking agreement on finished products for both their own election and that of SCS. A preliminary decision could come as early as Wednesday of next week, says Darrick Harris, the commission’s ex-officio assistant in the matter. Final decision is due by November.

So far, at least eight different maps have been chewed over by the participating commissioners (mainly the six incumbents who intend re-election bids: Amber Mills, District 1; David Bradford, District 2; Mick Wright, District 3; Michael Whaley, District 5; Mickell Lowery, District 8; Edmund Ford Jr., District 9; and Brandon Morrison, District 13).

Candidate Bonner addresses his large crowd at the Racquet Club.

One political race that looms before the voters of Shelby County as more than usually competitive is that for Sheriff, and, though more candidates, both Republican and Democratic, are sure to make a claim upon the job in the 2018 election, there is general consensus on the front end that the candidates to beat are Republican Dale Lane and Democrat Floyd Bonner, both highly credentialed..

Lane, a former Deputy Sheriff, is current director of the Shelby County Office of Preparedness, while Bonner is Chief Deputy Sheriff, the first African American to hold that office.

In a reversal of the cross-party situation in 2014 when incumbent Sheriff Bill Oldham, a Republican, was assisted in his reelection bid by a prominent Democrat, longtime political broker Sidney Chism, this time Democrat Bonner can count on the public support of a major figure from the other party, no less than term-limited Sheriff Oldham himself.
JB

Bonner with incumbent Sheriff Bill Oldham,who endorsed him.

Introducing Bonner to a massive and diverse crowd of several hundred at a combination fundraiser/campaign kickoff in the Racquet Club Tuesday night, Oldham lavished praise upon his chief deputy for his career progress through the ranks and his accomplishments and proclaimed, “I’m going to do something that my predecessor [then Sheriff, now County Mayor Mark Luttrell] didn’t do for me, I’m going to fully endorse Floyd Bonner.” The crowd anticipated Oldham and, before his sentence was halfway through, interrupted him with loud and sustained applause.”

Continuing his introduction with a vow to “put the right man in that chair at 201 Poplar,” Oldham then beckoned Bonner, and the two men embraced before Bonner made his own remarks, beginning with a reciprocal tip of the hat to Oldham, acknowledgment of his family members who were present, and a statement of gratitude at the turnout, making special note of the clergy in attendance (no small factor, inasmuch as Lane, too, can boast of support from the religious community).

“I love coming to work every day. There’s no other place that I’ve ever thought about working at but the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office,” said Bonner, a veteran of 37 years in the Department. “I’m not tired yet, I’ve still got a little in the tank, and I enjoy getting up every day.”

Bonner mentioned his role in “being in on the ground floor” of the Department’s expanding responsibility for Juvenile Court detention and noted that he had started his ascension in the Department all those years ago with service in the County Jail, nobody’s idea of a glamor assignment and a piece of experience that he cites by way of encouraging new recruits.

“I tell them now, ‘I started just like you did, I started out slick-sleeved and wild-eyed and didn’t know what to expect….But I’ve had a great career, I love what I do….There’s nobody in this race with more experience than me,” said Bonner, who concluded optimistically, “You know, we are going to win!”