Tag: David Kustoff

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Memphis Congressmen on Wednesday’s Vote to Impeach President Trump:

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-9th), Aye: “After President Trump was impeached but not convicted last year, Senator Susan Collins said ‘He’s learned a pretty big lesson. He was impeached.’ Then, last week, he brought his ‘It will be wild’ riotous television show that he produced for one person, Individual One. Intelligence reports indicate that the people he said he ‘loves’ and ‘are special’ are going to attack this city and attack this Capitol next week. He has not asked them not to do it. He has not told them to stand down. I most fear January 20th because I think he will try to go out with a bang and take attention away from Joe Biden.”

U.S. Rep. David Kustoff (R-8th), Nay: “There is no doubt every American was shocked by the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol Building last Wednesday. As our

 country is experiencing this time of turmoil and uncertainty, we must work together to reconcile our differences and heal our nation. Impeaching President Trump during his last seven days in office would only further divide us as Americans. That is why I do not support the removal of President Trump through impeachment. Our country is in the middle of a global pandemic and the American people are struggling. We must focus our efforts on unifying our country and supporting a peaceful transition of power on January 20th.”

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Politics Politics Feature

Roland versus Kustoff? Conflict Over Who’s the Most Trumpian

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

Before the current week is finished, we’ll have an accurate head count of how many members of Congress choose to cast a vote against confirming the election of Joe Biden and, conversely, in favor of the pretense of Donald Trump that he is somehow entitled to remain as president — if not indefinitely, than certainly for the next four years.

Nobody has any doubts that among these loyalists will be David Kustoff, the arch-conservative Congressman from Tennessee’s 8th district and one of the state’s earliest known Trump enthusiasts.

Jackson Baker

Kustoff

Well, almost nobody. As of the middle of the week, with Trump’s minions in Congress prepared to put their votes where their professed outrage is, Terry Roland, the former county commissioner from Millington and an ur-Trumper nonpareil, the sponsor in fact of Trump’s earliest rally in these parts in 2016, has been nursing serious doubts indeed about Kustoff’s willingness to keep the faith.

Roland has for some time been bombarding people on his online networks with expressions of doubt that Kustoff will follow through this week on a key action on Trump’s behalf, a vote in Congress objecting to the recording of the votes of Electoral College members from the 50 states, showing Biden with a commanding total of 306 votes — well over the threshold of 272 votes required to elect a president.

The hardcore members of Donald Trump’s loyalist bloc not only don’t accept that arithmetic, they do not believe the repeated reassurances of election commissions and tribunals and various courts that, in fact, their man has lost and Biden is president-elect. They believe instead that the recent presidential election was conducted in an atmosphere of such unrestricted, if as yet unproven, cheating on behalf of the Democrats that the election needs to be rerun, at least in several key battleground states — Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia among them.

In fact, these hardcore Trump true believers regard the presidential contest — now two full months past — as still being in the live, contestable stage and, as Roland does, use such locutions as “if Biden wins,” as though the issue were still in doubt.

Jackson Baker

Roland

And Roland has made it clear, going into this week, that he regards Kustoff’s commitment to a Trump continuance to be in doubt, asking in one posted text: “Is David Kustoff part of the Surrender Caucus wing of the Republican Party?” And suggesting the answer in another, which overlaps Kustoff’s image with that of 9th District Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen.

All of this is in the absence of any declared intent on Kustoff’s part that he will break with the other long-term Trump loyalists and vote this week to accept the evidence of triumph for the Biden-Harris ticket.

So what else, what wonders, might be fueling Roland’s suspicion? Asked point-blank if he might be interested in challenging Kustoff for the 8th District seat, Roland declared, “I’m thinking about it.”

On the surface, this would seem to be a forbidding undertaking. As the incumbent in the 8th, Kustoff has twice won re-election easily since overcoming George Flinn in a stout challenge for the seat in 2016. Kustoff’s strength in that first race was overwhelmingly in the East Memphis part of the district. On the strength of heavy advertising in the 14 mostly rural counties of the sprawling West Tennessee district, Flinn ran him close elsewhere.

Roland, who maintains, “I have a house and farm in Tipton County that’s already in the 8th and I’m kin to everyone,” thinks he can do better than Flinn did in those rural outreaches, and he also thinks there’s a good chance before 2022 that in a post-census reapportionment the legislature might return Millington and north Shelby County to the 8th district, where those precincts were a decade ago.

A Roland-Kustoff race is still in the realm of the hypothetical, and most observers doubt that Kustoff will evince even the smallest sign of falling off the Trump wagon this week, but a contest between the two of them, should it develop, could still reveal fissures in area Republican ranks.

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Politics Politics Feature

Kustoff Defends Postal Changes

The U.S. Postal Service cannot “continue to act like Blockbusters in a Netflix world.” So said 8th District U.S. Representative David Kustoff in a Zoom address to the Rotary Club of Memphis. The matter came up in relation to concerns about the effect of reductions of postal services on mail-in ballots.

Speaking from his local office in Ridgeway Loop, Kustoff said those reductions reflected ongoing social changes — mainly the drastic reduction in first-class mail caused by the cyber-revolution — and had begun under President Obama. “The Postal Service will have to adapt,” he said.

On another matter, Kustoff took note of the fact that there has been no congressional follow-up to the original COVID-related stimulus payments and said that the window for passing another stimulus bill had, for practical purposes, shrunk to the dimensions of the next three weeks.

Congressman David Kustoff

Members of Congress stand ready to return to Washington to vote for a solution as soon as one is agreed to by the two parties, he said, but, “once we hit October, everybody will be in their districts and involved with campaigns.”

• COVID-19 has clearly affected the way running for office has proceeded, locally. Certain races that usually involve a significant amount of public appearances or door-to-door contacts are more than usually dependent on social media, mailouts, phone banks, and — not least — polls.

Much polling is, of course, carried out by disinterested parties and seeks genuine opinion sampling. But increasingly candidates invest in polling, including “push polls” that are phrased so as to insinuate various points of views, for or against. And there are “benchmark” polls, designed to elicit public attitudes on various issues so as to guide the campaign strategy of a given candidate.

Two polls that were dropped last week indicate the range. One, arriving in people’s message boxes, is entitled “The Voter Survey,” and, despite its generalized name, is not so anodyne as all that, including as it does several leading questions that “push” in the direction of some candidates as against others.

The other poll, on Facebook, asks a wide variety of questions about various candidates and offices, and, to the degree that it deals with positions, phrases those positions more or less fairly. It, like the other poll, seems to focus ultimately on the state House District 83 race between incumbent Republican Mark White and Democratic challenger Jerri Green — indicating that the District 83 race is considered up for grabs. More on these two polls anon.

• The Shelby County Commission is scheduled to meet next in committee on September 9th, and, if all goes as County Mayor Lee Harris has indicated, they’ll finally have a budget book from the administration to pore over. Uncertainty over the final shape of the 2020-21 budget has vexed the last several meetings of the commission, and the budget book, which has been firmly promised for delivery on September 8th by Deputy Mayor Dwan Gillom, could go far toward resolving several issues or opening up new questions. Or both.

In recent meetings, the commission has been asked to lift a freeze on new hiring for several departments, both in the purview of elected officials and elsewhere. Those departments seeking relief from the freeze have pointed out that the proposed new positions would remain within fiscal limits voted on earlier. The commission has agreed to lift the freeze in one or two instances but in other cases has held judgment, pending receipt of the budget book.

Budget issues have been complicated by disagreements between the commission and the administration over an abundance of matters — ranging from the actual status and amount of funds on hand to the matter of authority over revising specific allocations. The original budget proposal submitted by Harris for the new fiscal year was rejected by the commission, which, after a lengthy series of meetings, proposed and voted on a different sort of budget altogether. In several areas, implementation of the budget has awaited the final details in the aforesaid administration budget book.

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Politics Politics Feature

Signs of Political Life as Election Season Finally Kicks Off

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

At long last, and after months of inaction, it can probably be said that there’s an election season on. On the Republican side, GOP members of all stripes were on hand Sunday at a Germantown Parkway storefront that will serve as the party’s campaign headquarters for the duration of the 2020 election year.

Interestingly, the new party headquarters location is on the approximate geographic site — the same lot, it would seem — as the old, sprawling Homebuilders headquarters, razed to the ground some years ago but, in its prime, a complex that contained a generous-sized auditorium/arena area that long served as a meeting place for local GOPers, as well for civic clubs of various kinds.

Local Republican party chairman Chris Tutor, who, because of the resurgent coronavirus, insisted that all attendees wear face masks and do what they could to achieve some measure of social distancing, turned things over to keynote speaker David Kustoff, the 8th District congressman, who pointed out that one final Democrat-vs.-Republican contest loomed on the August 6th county general election ballot: the General Sessions Court clerk race between Republican Paul Boyd and Democrat Joe Brown.

That was something to unite upon, given that others in the crowd were running against each other for positions in the federal/state primary elections to be held on the same day.

In theory, Shelby County Democrats were on the move, too, organizing a series of “forums” involving their candidates for the state and federal primaries, and simultaneously recording for later broadcasting these events, some of them conducted at the old Hickory Ridge Mall.

Jackson Baker

Who was that (un)masked man? At Sunday’s opening of the Shelby County Republcan campaign headquarters on Germantown Parkway, everybody, in accordance with advance instructions, wore a face mask. There was one exception — the unidentified interloper at the very right side of this photo.

Jackson Baker

time for the U.S Senate seat being vacated by Lamar Alexander.

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Politics Politics Feature

Council Switch; New House Speaker; Legislative Alteration

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

A decision by the presiding officials of the local AFL-CIO on Sunday to prohibit speeches by political candidates at their annual picnic at AFSCME headquarters downtown — even by those whom the union has chosen to endorse — has stirred some disquiet. Jackson Baker

Charley Burch (l) with K.C. and Jeff Warren

It has also prompted some action on the city-council-candidate front. Charley Burch reacted to the unprecedented acton by arranging a press conference for Monday afternoon involving himself, state Representative G.A. Hardaway, and fellow council candidate Jeff Warren. The purpose of the press conference?

Said Burch: “It’s to make the point that couldn’t get made at the picnic because we didn’t have the opportunity to say it — that those of us friendly to labor have to bond together in support of common goals.”

In Burch’s case, those common goals would be served by his using the Monday press conference to endorse Warren, who, along with Burch, Cody Fletcher, and Tyrone Romeo Franklin, is on the ballot for Position 3 in Council Super District 9. Presumably Burch would have availed himself on this option on Sunday if allowed to.

Eighth District Congressman David Kustoff addressed a National Federation of Small Business group at Regions Bank on Poplar last week and, as he has in the past, made a point of backing as many of President Trump’s initiatives as possible, including one that has been somewhat overlooked in the crescendo of recent political developments.

Said Kustoff: “An issue that I’m going to continue to fight on is the U.S., Mexico, Canada Agreement (CAFTA), which will replace the old NAFTA. The president renegotiated NAFTA, I think, to the betterment of the United States. Mexico’s ratified it. Canada’s ratified it. So we need Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi to put it on the floor. And the challenge that I see right now — should we go back on September 9th in Washington — is that we’ve got 41 legislative days or something like that.

“You’ve  got some Democrats who say they want to do it. But some who don’t, who say it’d be a win for Donald Trump. It’d be a win for the United States of America.  But that’s the mentality. That’s the mindset. And I’m concerned that with the presidential election, which is already in gear, that the longer she waits, the tougher it’s going to be to to get it to get it done.”

At the same NFIB meeting, state Representatives Ron Gant (R-Rossville) and Tom Leatherwood (R-Arlington) both attested to their belief that Representative Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville), newly nominated by the majority Republican caucus to be speaker of the state House of Representatives, will be a positive antidote to the confusion and mistrust that accompanied the one year-reign as speaker of Glen Casada (R-Franklin), who lost a vote of confidence in his caucus to remain in that position of leadership.

Gant told an affecting story about how Casada called him to the front of the assembled House in the last session and tried unsuccessfully to get him to change his No vote on the issue of private-school vouchers. Eventually, the then-speaker did manage to get another representative to change his vote, breaking the tie and allowing the voucher measure to progress.

As it happens, new Speaker Sexton was a No voter on the issue and has expressed a desire to postpone implementation of the new voucher law, which, as written, applies only to Shelby and Davidson counties. Gant allowed as how he thought some “tweaking” on the law might occur in the 2020 legislative session, which begins in January.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Trump Endorsement of Hagerty Senate Bid May Have Force of Edict

CREDIT: JB

JB

Bill Hagerty in Memphis in 2012

The trial balloon sent up last week by 8th District Congressman David Kustoff, along with several others expected to have been launched by would-be Republican U.S. Senate candidates would appear to be grounded by word from President Donald Trump favoring Bill Hagerty, current U.S. Ambassador to Japan.

Trump’s support for Hagerty as a 2020 candidate for the Tennessee Senate seat being vacated by Lamar Alexander was announced in a presidential tweet on Friday that said: “Tennessee loving Bill Hagerty, who was my Tennessee (Victory) Chair and is now the very outstanding Ambassador to Japan, will be running for the U.S. Senate. He is strong on crime, borders & our 2nd A. Loves our Military & our Vets. Has my Complete & Total Endorsement!.”

Trump’s tweet came the day after an announcement of non-candidacy from former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, who had been understood to have first dibs on a race for Alexander’s seat. After Haslam said that such a race was “not my calling,” Kustoff teased a candidacy of his own, saying,” I’ve been approached by folks from all across Tennessee encouraging me to run and I look forward to continuing to talk to the people about how to best continue serving our great state.”

Meanwhile, such other GOP Senatorial prospects as 7th District Congressman Mark Green and Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett made statements taking themselves out of contention for the race.

Inasmuch as Trump’s tweeted endorsement preceded any statement by Hagerty himself, it amounted to an unusual presidential edict, and it would seem to have, temporarily at least, foreclosed any other candidate activity from state Republicans, though Manny Sethi, a Nashville physician, had already announced his Senate candidacy in early June.

As Green made a point of noting, Hagerty has good ties with both the traditional Republican establishment and its Trump wing. A private equity investor, he served as an economic advisor and White House Fellow under President George H. W. Bush and was national finance chairman for Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign. From 2011 to 2014, Hagerty served as commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development under Governor Haslam.

Lawyer and Iraq war veteran James Mackler of Nashville remains the only serious and declared Democratic candidate for the Alexander seat.

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News News Blog

Election Results: Harris, Dean, Blackburn, Lee, Bredesen, Kustoff, Cohen Win

CREDIT: Ward Archer

Ward Archer

County mayor victor, Lee Harris, talks with reporters at his victory party.

Yes, Virginia, there was a blue wave in Shelby County, Tennessee — at least it appeared so when all the votes were counted for the August 2nd election, which included a county general election, primaries for state and federal offices, and isolated other ballot matters. From Mayor-elect Lee Harris on down the ballot, Democrats swept all the races for county offices, and even picked up an extra seat on the County Commission, giving their party an 8 to 5 majority going into the next four years.

Though Diane Black barely carried Shelby county in the Republican primary race for governor, the winner statewide was Franklin businessman Bill Lee, with former state Economic Development Commissioner Randy Boyd finishing second, Black finishing third, and state House Speaker Beth Harwell coming in fourth.

The Democratic gubernatorial primary was won, in Shelby County and statewide, by former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean over state House Democratic Leader Craig Fitzhugh of Ripley. Former Governor Phil Bredesen and 7th district Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn easily won nominations for U.S. senator in the Democratic and Republican primaries, respectively.

U.S. Reps. Steve Cohen (D) and David Kustoff (R) handily won their primary races for reelection, Kustoff having to head off a well-funded intra-party challenge from perennial candidate George Flinn. Cohen will oppose Republican Charlotte Bergman in the fall, while Kustoff’s opponent will be Erika Stotts Pearson, who edged out John Boatner Jr. in the Democratic primary.

The other news of the night was that, not for the first time, a glitch of some sort at the Shelby County Election Commission marred reporting of the results. A sizeable crowd had gathered early on in The Columns downtown (the old Union Planters headquarters building) hoping to cheer a victory for county mayor by the Democratic nominee Lee Harris, but was frustrated for nearly two hours after the polls closed without seeing any results.

When the numbers finally came in, though, there was tumult among the well-wishers in the large room, followed, moments later, by the happy mayor-elect himself. Harris addressed the crowd from a stage that came to include, besides family and campaign staff, 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen and former Mayor A C Wharton.

A gracious Harris extended thanks to one and all and even asked for some appreciative applause for his vanquished Republican foe, County Trustee David Lenoir.

Final vote for Mayor, with all 166 precincts reporting, was Harris, 84,956; Lenoir, 68,491.

Chief Deputy Floyd Bonner, running as a Democrat for Sheriff, solidly beat local Homeland Security director Dale Lane, running as a Republican. Vote was 91,370 to 60,433, giving Bonner the election’s highest total number of votes.

Other county results:

Assessor of Property— Melvin Burgess (D), 81, 815: Robert “Chip” Trouy, 61,707; Katherine Culverhaus (I), 614.

County Trustee— Regina Morrison Newman (D), 84,712; George Barnes Chism, 62,194.

Circuit Court Clerk — Democrat Temiika Gipson over Republican Tom Leatherwood, 81,573 to 68,806.

Criminal Court Clerk — Democrat Heidi Kuhn, 85,492; Republican Richard De Saussure, 60,917.

Juvenile Court Clerk — Janis Fullilove (D), 75,031; Bobby Simmons 74,030.

Probate Court Clerk — Bill Morrison (D), 81,057; Chris Thomas ( R), 61,862; Jennings Bernard (I), 6,333.

County Clerk — Wanda Halbert (D), 86,327; Donna Creson ( R), 63,017.

Register of Deeds — Shelandra Ford (D), 75,260; Wayne Mashburn R), 70, 575

Other notable results:

SHELBY COUNTY COMMISSION: Democrat Michael Whaley’s victory in County Commission District 5, over Republican Richard Morton, increased the existing Democratic majority by one, to 8 to 5. Other winners: Republican Amber Mills over Democrat Racquel Collins, District 1; Republican David Bradford over Democrat Tom Carpenter, District 2; Republican Mick Wright over Democrat Monica Timmerman, District 3; Republican Mark Billingsley over Democrat Kevin Haley, District 4; Democrat Willie Brooks, District 6; Democrat Tami Sawyer over Republican Sam Goff, District 7; Democrat Mickell Lowery, District 8; Democrat Edmund Ford Jr. over Republican Sharon Webb, District 9; Democrat Reginald Milton over independent Vontyna Durham, District 10; Democrat Eddie Jones, District 11; Democrat Van Turner, District 12; Republican Brandon Morrison over Democrat George Monger, District 13.

In closely-watched legislative races:
Democratic challenger Katrina Robinson ousted incumbent Democrat Reginald Tate in state Senate District 33.

State Rep. Raumesh Akbari defeated County Commissioner Justin Ford in the Democratic primary in state Senate District 29 and will oppose Republican Tom Stephens in November.

Gabby Salinas defeated David Weatherspoon in the Democratic primary for state Senate District 31 and will compete against incumbent Republican Brian Kelsey in the fall.

Incumbent Republican Mark White defeated challenger Doyle Silliman in the GOP primary for state House District 83.

Scott McCormick defeated Patricia Possel in the GOP primary for state House District 96 and will oppose incumbent Democrat Dwayne Thompson in November.

Jesse Chism won out over fellow Democrats Ricky Dixon and Lynette Williams in state House District 85.

Incumbent Democrat Barbara Cooper defeated Amber Huett-Garcia and Jesse Jeff in state House District 86.

Incumbent John DeBerry defeated challenger Torrey Harris in the Democratic primary for House District 90.

London Lamar beat fellow Democrats Doris DeBerry Bradshaw and Juliette Eskridge in the Democratic primary for House District 91.

Incumbent Democrat G.A. Hardaway turned back challenger Eddie Neal in House District 93.

Incumbent Antonio Parkinson beat Johnnie Hatten in the Democratic primary for House District 98.

JUDICIAL RACES:

Circuit Court, Division 7: Incumbent Mary Wagner over Michael Floyd.

Circuit Court, Division 9: Yolanda Kight over incumbent David Rudolph.

Criminal Court, Division 10: Jennifer J. Mitchell over incumbent Jennifer S. Nicho
Environmental Court, Division 14: Incumbent Patrick Dandridge over Price Harris.

SCHOOL BOARD RACES:

Shelby County Schools Board, District 1: Michelle McKissack over incumbent Chris Caldwell, Michael Scruggs, and Kate Ayers;

Shelby County Schools, District 6: Incumbent Shante Avant over Percy Hunter, Minnie Hunter, and R.S. Ford;

Shelby County Schools, District 8: Incumbent William Orgel over Jerry Cunninghan;

Shelby County Schools, District 9: Joyce Dorse-Coleman over incumbent Mike Kernell, Alvin Crook, Rhonnie Brewer, and Kori Hamner.

SPECIAL ELECTION, MEMPHIS CITY COUNCIL, SUPER DISTRICT 9, POSITION 2: Interim incumbent J. Ford Canale over Lisa Moore, Charley Burch, Erika Sugarmon, Tim Ware, David Franklin, and Tyrone R. Franklin.

Complete election results and vote totals from the Shelby County Election Commission.

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Editorial Opinion

A Call to Arms on Health Care

It was a heck of a party, jammed to the rafters and brimming with overflow energy. The only problem was that the chief invited guests were a no-show, though no one was much surprised by that.
We’re talking about last Saturday’s town hall on health care at the IBEW union hall on Madison, sponsored by a generous assortment of local organizations devoted to the subject and dedicated to the preservation of the Affordable Care Act, currently under threat of elimination by a GOP-dominated Congress and a fellow-traveling tag-along president.

In theory, Tennessee’s two Republican Senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, both regarded as antagonistic toward the ACA (aka Obamacare) were to be the guests of honor, but, as was relayed with heavily underscored irony early on by co-host Mary Green of the progressive group Indivisible, both senators had responded that they had “schedules that would not allow them to come.”

That got an appropriate mix of groans, sardonic laughs, and boos from the audience, and the laughter got more uproarious when Green drew attention to the fact that Alexander and Corker, along with fellow Obamacare opponent David Kustoff, the GOP congressman from the 8th District, were all represented at the meeting by life-size cardboard cutouts that were “questioned,” mocked, and scolded in the course of the meeting.

Another Indivisible host, Emily Fulmer, noted the fact that passage of the pending Senate bill, disingenuously called the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) would mean $880 billion in cuts for Medicaid, which in one form or another pays for the medical needs of 60 percent of the American population.

Aftyn Behn of the Tennessee Justice Center presented slides demonstrating, among other things, that BCRA would mean disastrous cutbacks for hospitals and programs designed to curb the current opioid epidemic. Tennessee, she observed, owned the dubious distinction of having the nation’s leading rate of hospital closures, “with more rural closures coming, including one in Blount County on Lamar Alexander Parkway.” That got the wry laugh it deserved.

Ashley Coffield of Planned Parenthood pointed out that the bill included a provision to “defund” her organization and prohibit women, children, and men from availing themselves of the wide range of “affordable, high quality, and non-judgmental health care” offered by Planned Parenthood.

Allison Donald of the Center for Independent Living and ADAPT, which sees to the needs of the disabled, saw services to these “most vulnerable” about to be disrupted. Physicians Art Sutherland and Tom Gettelfinger pointed out the ongoing hijacking of heath care by self-serving corporations and the outrageous spike in therapeutic drug prices. Essence Jackson of Sistercare proclaimed the obvious: “Health care is not a privilege; it’s a human right!” And Virgie Banks of the COPPER Coalition exhorted, “Keep the pressure on!” As she and the others noted, the BCRA will likely come to a vote the week of July 24th.

It would behoove all of us with a concern for the general health and welfare our citizenry to pay heed to what was said on Saturday.

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Editorial Opinion

Time for Town Halls on Health Care

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

A group of local Democrats, acting on the premise that several key elected officials representing this area have been less than accessible to constituents wanting to express themselves on pending health-care legislation, have scheduled their own “town hall” meeting on the matter for this Saturday, July 8th, at the IBEW Meeting Hall on Madison.

It remains to be seen how much of a turnout this event will generate beyond the party cadres who organized it, although the city and its environs certainly contain a fair number of health-care activists, as well as a considerable complex of medical-related sites, and, needless to say, as a poverty capital of sorts, a largish number of individuals whose need for medical care is both acute and problematic.

Greg Cravens

Local Republicans may either ignore the event or dismiss it as a political stunt, which, in some measure, it may very well be. But that does not diminish the need for such public ventings of the health-care issue, especially since the three elected officials pinpointed by organizers of Saturday’s event — Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker and 8th District congressman David Kustoff — have indeed not been as forthcoming to their constituents as they might be, though all have, to some degree, posted official statements on the matter.

Unfortunately, these tend to reflect standard Republican talking points against the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”) rather than involving direct interactions with members of the public, many of whom depend on the ACA and fear its extinction. To the extent that statements by the three officials have been part of an actual discussion, they belong to the rote responses and the dueling positions of a highly partisan Capitol Hill.

To be sure, any effort to discuss the health-care issue in a genuinely open public meeting risks being caught in a crossfire of conflicting accusations and demands. We have all seen clips of such meetings held elsewhere. So far there have been none locally, beyond a three-hour no-holds-barred town meeting in the cavernous East High School auditorium held earlier this year by Memphis’ Democratic congressman Steve Cohen. As it happened, discord was not a feature of that jam-packed affair, though Cohen has certainly been willing to take his risks and, as may be, his lumps — which was the case in 2009 when a Tea Party crowd challenged him for his support of the Affordable Care Act at a boisterous meeting at the Bridges building downtown.

Now, with repeal-and-replace efforts underway in Congress but with the issue still hanging fire, it is the turn of ACA’s opponents — including Corker, Alexander, and Kustoff — to put themselves on the line and take their chances in free and open public assemblies. We earnestly hope that current efforts by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to ram through a hastily concocted version of TrumpCare will continue to fail, giving our elected officials a chance to do so in the forthcoming August recess.

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Politics Politics Feature

Looking Ahead: The Electoral Picture

Nature, rather famously, abhors a vacuum. And, for better or worse, few vacuums exist, year by year, in the calendar of elections for Memphis and Shelby County.  

Leap years occupy a special space on the election calendar by reason of their being the occasion for presidential elections. In recent years, however, including the whole of the 21st century, Tennessee’s ever-increasing reliability as a red state has significantly eroded the excitement that used to go with its former status as a bellwether state, partisan-wise.

Once in a while, a fair amount of drama might attach to a Super Tuesday presidential primary in Tennessee, as it did, for example, in 2008, when Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton each had significant statewide campaigns going on the Democratic side. But normally there is an anti-climactic sense to those preferential primaries here, generally held in late February or March, the balance in both parties having already been tipped elsewhere — in Iowa or New Hampshire or South Carolina.

State senator and gubernatorial candidate Mae Beavers

The same steady process of Republicanization (how’s that for a coinage?) has increasingly applied to the rest of the electoral menu — including the races in even-numbered years for governor, U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the Tennessee legislature — though some suspense is often generated in primary elections.

Such is likely to be the case next year, in what is shaping up to be a hotly contested (and well-financed) GOP primary for governor — with former state Commissioner of Economic Development Randy Boyd and Nashville businessman Bill Lee, both well-heeled, already running, ultra-rightist state Senator Mae Beavers of Mt. Juliet just declared, and 4th District U.S. Representative Diane Black, also wealthy, expected to jump in, along with presumed Shelby County favorite Mark Norris of Collierville, the state Senate majority leader.

Democrats, too, will likely have a primary choice, with popular ex-Nashville Mayor Karl Dean already campaigning and another party favorite, state House minority leader Craig Fitzhugh of Ripley, seemingly sure to throw his hat in. (And hark!: Even so well-grounded a judge of the state political scene as the Tennessee Journal‘s Ed Cromer suggests this week that 2018 could be a comeback time for Democrats in the gubernatorial race.)

On the local election scene, next year’s Republican primary for Shelby County mayor is set for a showdown between Shelby County Commissioner Terry Roland and County Trustee David Lenoir. On the Democratic side, former commissioner and longtime political broker Sidney Chism is one certain candidate. Others may emerge, with former commissioner and assistant University of Memphis law dean Steve Mulroy, who sought the office in 2014, being one possibility.

The identity of the latest primary challenger to 9th District Democratic congressman Steve Cohen, who has fairly easily knocked off several in a row, is uncertain, and 8th District GOP congressman David Kustoff would seem to be home free at this juncture.

Looking ahead into 2019, rumored possibilities to challenge Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland include former Democratic chair Keith Norman, pastor of First Baptist Church on Broad; Memphis Police Association president Mike Williams, who ran for the office in 2015; and Terrence Patterson, president and CEO of the Downtown Memphis Commission.

Meanwhile, in the current electoral “off year” of 2017, there is a special election in state House District 95 (Collierville, Germantown, Eads) for the seat vacated in February by former Representative Mark Lovell amid allegations of sexual harassment.

Though two independents, Robert Schutt and Jim Tomasik, are on the ballot, the race — to be decided next Thursday, June 15th — is considered to be between Republican nominee Kevin Vaughan, an engineer and real estate developer, and lawyer Julia Byrd Ashworth, the Democratic nominee.

The odds would seem to heavily favor Vaughan in a district that normally votes overwhelmingly Republican, but several factors at least theoretically give Ashcroft a fighting chance.

Among them: Vaughan’s involvement in a controversial local shopping-mall project; the unpredictability of turnout characteristic of all special elections (and amply demonstrated for this one by skimpy early-voting totals); and energetic under-the-radar efforts by Ashworth, who hopes to build on the success enjoyed last year by state Rep. Dwayne Thompson, a fellow Democrat who pulled off an upset win in adjacent District 96.