Tag: Dan Springer

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Opinion Viewpoint

Thoughts About How to Win Memphis Council District 5

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Some readers may recall that, in 2015, I ran unsuccessfully for the Memphis City Council as an avowed progressive in District 5. Since then, I have heard several people comment that District 5 was won by a conservative because three progressive candidates ran and split the vote. Now that the 2019 city elections are on the horizon, I would like to dispel that myth and look at what is potentially different for the district in 2019.

Justin Fox Burks

John Marek

Even if only one progressive had run in 2015, that one progressive would have lost. Worth Morgan, the current councilman and eventual winner, had $300,000 in his campaign war chest, and the votes of conservatives Dan Springer and Morgan combined were 55 percent of the total vote, as compared to 42 percent of the combined percentages of Mary Wilder, Chooch Pickard, and, me, all progressives in good standing.

Democratic turnout was lower than expected that year. A lot of working-class and middle-class voters were upset over the city council’s votes on pension retrenchment, and they evidently did not see any alternative that excited them enough to show up to the polls. Meanwhile, conservatives came out strong for mayoral candidate Jim Strickland.

Strickland and I both happened to be at one of the polling sites on Election Day, and I said to him: “Based on who has voted early and the seemingly low turnout today, I believe what is going to help you is going to hurt me.”

Having seen the early voting data, I also mentioned to Mary Wilder my belief that it would be Morgan versus Springer in the runoff, because of the high conservative turnout.

The fact is, District 5 is not exactly a blue district. Yes, it has Midtown and Binghampton, but it also contains most of East Memphis. In essence, Midtown progressives saw all of their districts either transformed or moved elsewhere in Tennessee in post-2010 redistricting. Congressman Steve Cohen’s former state Senate district was affected, as were the state House seats formerly occupied by Jeanne Richardson and Mike Kernell.

I would consider the current council District 5 to be purple in a high-turnout scenario and red in a low-turnout scenario. It’s regrettable that we don’t hold all of our local general elections on the same day we hold our state and federal general elections. We would save money thereby, and simultaneously reap a higher turnout of progressives.

In any case, in 2015, any progressive who might have made the runoff would have lost handily. I thought I could prevail on the strength of personally knocking on some 6,500 doors in a four-month period, while my supporters were doing likewise. Hindsight tells me I was over-optimistic.

Had any of us progressives made that runoff, the older and wealthier white vote would have shown up in higher numbers, and no amount of knocking on doors would have prevailed over the tidal wave of money committed to the conservative contender.

Instant runoff voting (IRV), which should already have been implemented after the 2008 referendum approving it, could well transform the electoral situation if it is employed in 2019. Runoffs have allowed the city’s economic elite to control a council that should by all rights have a majority voted in by working-class voters and people of color. That is why the IRV issue mattered enough for me to volunteer on its behalf in the referenda of both 2008 and 2018.

Looking ahead to 2019 voting, I find myself wondering whether or not the blue-wave turnouts we saw last year will continue to prevail in non-federal elections. If  IRV is properly implemented, a progressive could win District 5. That result would not be guaranteed, although a progressive with the ability to at least partially self-finance would, in my judgment, have a fair chance of  success.

I have heard rumors about one potential progressive candidate who would fit that profile, and that person would benefit from the absence of a runoff via IRV, as well as not having to worry about the divisive effects of multiple progressive candidates, as in 2015.  

Our current council members — and the status quo types behind them — thought it was a good idea in 2018 to try to undo decisions already made by voters in 2008, and they had the temerity to spend $40,000 of our taxpayer money to campaign for such a result in last fall’s referendums.

I would just say this: If you are a progressive prepared to run hard and govern well, please announce your intentions soon, because your city needs you.

John Marek is a lawyer, activist, and
occasional candidate for various offices.

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Politics Politics Feature

Showdowns in Shelby County

CREDIT: JB

JB

Council runoff candidates at Hooks forum were (l to r) Jamita Swearengen (District 4); Worth Morgan and Dan Springer (District 5); and Anthony Anderson and Berlin Boyd (District 7)

As early voting ends this Friday and the final runoff election date of November 19th, next Thursday, beckons, most attention has been focused on two of the five district city council runoffs: District 5 (Midtown, East Memphis) between newcomer Worth Morgan and youthful activist Dan Springer, and the District 7 race (North Memphis, Frayser) between interim incumbent Berlin Boyd and challenger Anthony Anderson.

District 5 lies astride the Poplar corridor power nexus and is also the bailiwick of current Councilman and Mayor-elect Jim Strickland. Both Morgan and Springer are Republicans, though Springer, who has worked for both Senator Bob Corker and County Mayor Mark Luttrell, won the formal endorsement of the Shelby County Republican Party during the regular election process, in which seven candidates overall vied for the seat.

Morgan, who led by far in fund-raising, with receipts of more than $200,000 to Springer’s $60,000 or so, had the support of the city’s business elite. Now, both he and Springer have solicited support from the camps of losing candidates. 

A meet-and-greet for Morgan last week hosted by fifth-place finisher Charles “Chooch” Pickard, drew a diverse group including avowed Democrats, African Americans, and members of the city’s gay community. Springer, for his part, has actively pitched across party lines as well and has won the formal support of Democrat Mary Wilder, among others. 

Overall, Springer leads in formal endorsements of various kinds. Morgan finished ahead on October 8th, however, with 32 percent of the vote to Springer’s 23 percent.

At a forum last week at the Hooks Central Library for candidates in Districts 4, 5, and 7, Morgan and Springer differed only moderately on issues, though Morgan, who has seemed more at ease in debate formats, gave answers that were both more glib and more expansive. He spoke of having transcended several difficult illnesses as evidence of his resolve, while Springer emphasized his experience.

At the same forum, Boyd, too, stressed his existing connections and boasted of having brought $3.6 million into District 7. Anderson, a clergyman who is the entrepreneur behind the Memphis Business Academy charter-school network, countered with a figure of $8 million allegedly invested in MBA and with references to his numerous community involvements.

Both advocated revenue solutions involving assessments of nonresidents who work in Memphis, in the form of sticker fees (Boyd) or payroll taxes (Anderson). Both approaches would seem to require approval by the Tennessee General Assembly. The two differed most obviously on crime, which Boyd saw as a looming danger and Anderson saw as having diminished.

In the regular general election, Boyd had 26 percent of the total vote, and Anderson had 24 percent.

(Go to Politics Beat Blog at memphisflyer.com for more on these races and the three other Council runoffs: Frank Colvett Jr. vs. Rachel Knox in District 3; Patrice Robinson vs. Keith Williams in District 3; and Jamita Swearengen vs. Doris DeBerry-Bradshaw in District 4.)

The power struggle between the Shelby County Commission and the administration of county Mayor Mark Luttrell moved toward another showdown on Monday with the mayor’s veto of a recent commission resolution appointing former Commissioner Julian Bolton as its independent counsel.

Commission chair Terry Roland‘s public response was in a memo to his fellow commissioners, in which he wrote that he had in mind to call a special commission meeting for Thursday. “We must act as a body to protect our legislative duty to the people of Shelby County, Tennessee,” the memo concluded.

Roland had previously indicated privately that County Attorney Ross Dyer, who has resisted the independent-counsel idea on grounds that the County Charter does not allow it, might be confronted with a choice between altering his view and facing a possible ouster move from the commission. That could come with a vote to reconsider his hiring.

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Politics Politics Feature

Memphis Council Elections: Not Over Yet

A substantial minority of the members of the Memphis City Council — five of the 13 overall — have yet to be chosen and will be determined after the runoff elections on November 19th.

The runoff races were made necessary when no candidate achieved a majority of the votes cast in the five districts in the regular general election that ended on October 8th. The five districts, and the two top vote-getters in each, along with the percentages they received as of October 8th, are:

DISTRICT 2: Frank Colvett Jr. (49.5 percent), Rachel Knox (22.5)

DISTRICT 3: Patrice Robinson (48.4), Keith Williams (20.8)

DISTRICT 4: Jamita Swearengen (33.0), Doris DeBerry-Bradshaw(24.4)

DISTRICT 5: Worth Morgan (31.9), Dan Springer (23.3)

DISTRICT 7:  Berlin Boyd (26.5), Anthony Anderson (24.0)

Going merely by the percentages, it would seem that the tightest runoff races would be in Districts 4, 5, and 7.

Dan Springer

Worth Morgan

The one in District 5, based in Midtown and East Memphis and formerly occupied by Mayor-elect Jim Strickland, had one of the largest fields in the regular general election, with seven candidates competing. Of those, three — John Marek, Mary Wilder, and Charles “Chooch” Pickard — were generally lumped together as appealing to Democrats and progressives, while two — Morgan and Springer —  were considered to be candidates whose base was Republican or conservative.

The progressive trio finished with vote percentages of 18.55 percent for Wilder, 16.90 percent for Marek, and 6.37 percent for Pickard; Morgan and Springer got into the runoff with percentages of 31.92 percent and 23.28 percent, respectively.

No sooner had the votes been counted on the evening of October 8th than the two runoff candidates promptly began competing for the support of candidates who had been eliminated. 

Here was Springer in a Facebook statement on October 9th: “I’ve made many new friends over the past several months on the campaign trail. And I know voters are grateful for the willingness of John Marek, Chooch Pickard, and Mary Wilder to not only put their names on the ballot, but also to bring to the forefront serious topics that deserve our attention. I know how hard they all worked, but I also know them well enough to know that they will remain committed to making Memphis a better place to live for all of us.

“Over the coming weeks, I look forward to sharing my clear vision about how we can address our community’s serious challenges in regards to job creation, education, and public safety, while promoting and building up all the good things about our city.”

Translation: Springer, who had gained the endorsement of the Shelby County Republican Party in the general election, thanks mainly to his yeoman’s service previously for GOP candidates and office-holders, notably for U.S. Senator Bob Corker and Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, believed himself credible enough among moderates, independents, and Democrats to make an active pitch to the erstwhile supporters of Marek, Pickard, and Wilder.

Springer was rewarded with a statement from Wilder, the leading vote-getter among progressives, urging her supporters to consider Springer in the runoff. That was publicly hailed as a “classy” move on Wilder’s part by County Trustee David Lenoir, a Republican considered certain to be a candidate for county mayor in 2018.

For his part, Morgan won the public approval of former candidate Pickard, the third-place finisher among progressives and the fifth-place finisher overall.

In a statement that paid tribute to the previous field of candidates (“amazing people who felt the call to public service in a similar capacity as myself”), Pickard, referring to himself as “an architect and community leader,” said, among other things: “I want to make the public and formal endorsement of Worth Morgan. Over the 10 months we spent campaigning for the position, I was impressed with Worth’s integrity and the ethical way he ran his campaign. I believe Worth Morgan will make a great city councilman and has the ideals to best represent the diverse population of District 5 through truly listening to his constituents and making rational decisions in the best interest of our community.”

Early voting for the runoff races begins October 30th and runs throughNovember 14th, with final election-day voting taking place on November 19th.

• As a reminder, the council members elected outright on October 8th are as follows, with the winning percentages for them and their closest competitor:

DISTRICT 1: Bill Morrison (incumbent), 77 percent, over Wayne Roberts, 21.88 percent.

DISTRICT 6: Edmund H. Ford Jr. (incumbent), 72.24 percent, over Perry Bond, 18.43 percent.

SUPER DISTRICT 8, POSITION 1: Joe Brown (incumbent), 69.15 percent, over Victoria Young, 20.41 percent.

SUPER DISTRICT 8, POSITION 2: Janis Fullilove (incumbent), 76.78 percent, over Isaac Wright, 12 percent.

SUPER DISTRICT 8, POSITION 3: Martavius Jones, 44.93 percent, over Mickell Lowery, 40.97 percent.

SUPER DISTRICT 9, POSITION 1: Kemp Conrad (incumbent), 70 percent, over Robin Spielberger, 16.90 percent.

SUPER DISTRICT 9, POSITION 2: Philip C. Spinosa, 47 percent, over Kenneth Twigg Whalum, 23.61 percent.

SUPER DISTRICT 9, POSITION 3: Reid Hedgepeth (incumbent), 61.23 percent, over Stephen Christian, 19.59 percent.

MEMPHIS CITY COURT CLERK: Kay Spalding Robilio, 26.35 percent, over Wanda Halbert, 24.91 percent.

It will be noted that incumbents running for reelection had easy going, and that the closest of these decided races, Jones vs. Lowery in Super District 8, Position 3, and Robilio vs. Halbert for City Court Clerk, might well have ended with different results if subjected to runoffs.

The same 1991 decision by the late federal District Judge Jerome Turner that prohibited runoff elections for mayor that year subsequently has also prohibited runoffs for the clerk’s position and for the super district council seats, all considered “at large” positions.

Turner’s ruling permitted runoffs only in regular district races. The prohibition of runoffs for mayor is credited with the victory of Willie Herenton in 1991 (with 49 percent in a three-way race) and with that of Jim Strickland (with 42 percent) in this year’s multi-candidate race.

The Shelby County Election Commission will meet to certify the October 8th vote results at noon, Friday, at the commission’s operations center at 918 Nixon in the Shelby Farms government complex.

• Of the nine applicants to succeed former Chief Justice Gary Wade on the state Supreme Court, four claim to hail from Memphis, though only three have a current address in these parts.  

The ex-Memphian in the bunch is Ted Hayden, an attorney and compliance director in the state Department of General Services. Hayden now lives in the near-Nashville suburb of Gallatin, and his wish to be considered a Memphian boils down to his having been, as he stated on his official application, “extremely active” for 24 years at Bellevue Baptist Church.

Aside from his undoubted piety, Hayden makes the claim of a Memphis connection because two of the current state justices are from the Middle Tennessee grand division, where Gallatin is (and Memphis isn’t), a fact which means that Wade’s replacement must come from either East Tennessee or West Tennessee, where Memphis is (and Gallatin isn’t).

The three real Memphians whose hats (or robes) are in the ring are: Memphis lawyer Robert D. Meyers, chairman of the Shelby County Election Commission; former state Representative Larry Scroggs, chief counsel and administrator for Shelby County Juvenile Court; and Memphis tax lawyer Matthew Cavitch, who caught the attention of the state political newsletter “The Tennessee Journal,” with this line in his letter of application: “I work alone, so I handle everything. Unlike most tax lawyers, I actually know something about the rules of evidence and how to draft a motion in limine.”

Under the new judicial selection formula approved by the state’s voters in a 2014 referendum, the selection will be made by Governor Bill Haslam, subject to confirmation by both chambers of the General Assembly. Whoever is chosen and approved will serve for the balance of Justice Wade’s eight-year term, which concludes in 2022 and is then eligible to serve another eight-year term if approved by the voters in a retention election.

Prior to Haslam’s selection, a Council for Judicial Appointments, whose members were named previously by the governor, will interview the nine applicants next Tuesday, October 27th, in Nashville, and submit three names for Haslam to consider.

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Politics Politics Feature

Outliers and Insiders

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

The history of American politics demonstrates that positions that seem unconventional, even outrageous, when first broached have a way of becoming the norm with the passage of time — and sometimes not much time at all.

Think “Defense of Marriage Act,” now blink your eyes and think “Marriage Equality Act.” Even simpler: Think “Bruce,” don’t waste time with blinking and now think “Caitlyn.”

Though there was a time when the political left was responsible for most innovations (think 1960s, sit-ins, or even Social Security), the initiative where change is concerned seems to have shifted over to the right. Or at least to some mutating middle.

On the urban scene — and not just in problem-plagued Memphis city government — the idea of de-annexation may be finding its time. A bill to that effect got a trial run in the General Assembly last year, and it’s sure to take another bow in 2016.

Now you find the phenomenon of three city council candidates running as a ticket on that idea — which seemingly originated with suburban conservatives, but coupling it with such street-populist and Mempho-centric ideas as saving the Mid-South Coliseum and restoring pension and benefit levels for city police and firefighters.

The three are Jim Tomasik, a veteran of Libertarian Party politics; Lynn Moss, who admits to being Republican; and Robin Spielberger, whose politics are more amorphous. The trio of council candidates (Moss, Super-District 9, Position 2; Tomasik, District 2; and Spielberger, Super-District 9, Position 1) held an open-air meet-and-greet/fund-raiser Saturday at Lost Pizza Company on Poplar (site of the old Ronnie Grisanti’s Restaurant).

Their slogan (on a sign alongside a downtown-skyline graphic) indicates the ambivalent appeal of their position. “Right for Memphis/Cordova,” it says, and the fact is, sentiment for de-annexation seems to have just such a divided appeal. Recently annexed suburbanites (Moss and Tomasik are Cordovans) want independence (though they might settle for autonomy); meanwhile, a growing number of Memphians, like Spielberger, are concerned about the high costs of providing services to the sprawling outer areas annexed in recent years.

Maybe these three are wasting their time (competing with well-financed traditional candidates is going to be a problem), and maybe they are pathfinders, and maybe they’ll even run competitive races. All that remains to be seen, and how it works out may tell us something about our future.

• The developing matchup in council District 5 involves more conventional candidates and enough conservatives and liberals to allow for intramural contests within the larger race itself.

Of the nine potential candidates who have so far drawn petitions, five have drawn the most attention, and, though the nonpartisan nature of city elections allows for a certain flow across party preference and ideological lines, those five divide into two groups, basically.

Dan Springer, a still-youthful veteran of government service and Republican politics, and Worth Morgan, an even more youthful insurance executive with family ties to elite Memphis business circles, are regarded as battling it out for the loyalty of conventional conservatives. (Morgan’s first-quarter financial disclosure showed upwards of $150,000 on hand; my friend Kyle Veazey of the Commercial Appeal may not like the term, but that’s a war chest.)

On the other side of the ideological spectrum, Mary Wilder, Charles “Chooch” Pickard, and John Marek, will be competing for the support of those voters who see themselves as progressives (a designation that has largely replaced “liberal” as a self-signifier).

All three have overlapping interests and platforms, with Wilder noted for neighborhood advocacy, Pickard for preservationist activity, and Marek for campaign management. Wilder and Pickard have been in the field for some time, while Marek, a longtime advocate of police reform and loosening of restrictions on marijuana, is poised to begin a serious effort.

Expectations are that a runoff is inevitable, with no candidate able to get an absolute majority as of October 8th. It seems almost certain that either Springer or Morgan will make the runoff, to vie against whoever predominates among the progressive trio. But it is not impossible that the two perceived conservatives, given the depth of their anticipated resources, will end up opposing each other.

It is less likely that the runoff will be drawn exclusively from the Wilder-Pickard-Marek aggregation, but that is possible.

The Rev. Kenneth Whalum drew a petition for a District 5 race, along with petitions for Super-District 9, Position 2, and mayor, but it’s now being taken for granted that he will end up in the mayoral field.

Colonel Gene Billingsley, Jimmie Franklin, and Jennifer James Williams, all of whom have drawn petitions for District 5 (Franklin has actually filed), have to be regarded as outliers, on the basis of the name-identification factor alone.

• At its meeting of June 3rd in Nashville, the Tennessee Ethics Commission met to consider several new penalties for alleged campaign-finance offenders and to reconsider several already assessed. One of the latter was a $1,000 fine imposed on then Shelby County Democratic Party chairman Bryan Carson last September.

As the commission recapped the situation last week: “Mr. Carson was assessed $1,000 at the September 17, 2014, meeting for failure to file the Statement of Interests. Mr. Carson has subsequently filed and appeared before the commission to explain the tardiness of his filing. After the discussion, Mr. [Jim] Stranch made the motion to reconsider and to waive the penalty as it was Mr. Carson’s first time filing. Mr. [Greg] Hardeman seconded and the motion passed 5-0.”

Carson — who ran afoul of his executive committee and the state Election Registry for his accounting procedures a few months ago and subsequently resigned his chairmanship — offered this explanation: “A few months ago, I learned that each candidate running for public must file a Statement of Interest and submit it to the Tennessee Ethics Commission. I ran for the Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee last August 2014 and did not know that I needed to complete a Statement of Interest which was due in September 2014. 

“All candidates were required to complete another statement in January 2015, of which I completed and filed on time. Running to serve on the TNDP was my first time running for public office, therefore, that weighed heavily on the final decision of the Tennessee Ethics Commission.”

• Fresh from serving as host for a “Memphis for Hillary” rally held on Saturday in a Southeast Memphis storefront owned by her family, state Representative Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis) is in Canada this week, guest of the Embassy of Canada, which selected her and seven other legislators from the United States for a week-long “Rising State Leaders Program.”

The program began in 2006 with the goal of facilitating understanding between the two neighbor countries on business, trade, and cultural matters. The 2015 program, focusing on eastern Canada, will take legislators to Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. It began on Sunday and will continue through Saturday.

Following the death of longtime legislative eminence Lois DeBerry in 2013, Akbari won a special election to represent DeBerry’s District 91 House seat in the Tennessee General Assembly. She was easily reelected to full term last year.

A member of the House Criminal Justice Committee and Subcommittee, Akbari also serves on the House Education Instruction and Program Committee, where she closely monitors the effect on Memphis public schools of various state programs. She has sponsored several pieces of legislation designed to safeguard the structure of Memphis schools during a period of rapidly imposed innovations at the state level.