Democratic primaries – Memphis Flyer

Key Races on May 3 Primary Ballot

As of Thursday’s filing deadline, the lineup cards are in for the first major voting of the campaign year: the county Democratic and Republican primaries of May 3, pending withdrawals by next Thursday. Most of the primary races are between Democrats, though a serious showdown in August will come for some of those Democratic winners, as formidable Republican foes will await them on the general election ballot. (Incumbents’ names are in caps.)

DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY

MAYOR: The County’s first-term chief executive, LEE HARRIS, will be favored against city administrator Kenneth Moody and Michael Banks. City Councilman Worth Morgan, a Republican, lies in wait for the August general election.

SHERIFF: FLOYD BONNER, JR., who also has de facto Republican endorsement, is highly favored against challenger Keisha Scott.

ASSESSOR: MELVIN BURGESS, who probably has ambitions down the line, should be secure against this relatively unknown challenger, Roderick Blount.

CIRCUIT COURT CLERK: Veteran TEMIKA GIPSON will have all she can handle against challenger Jamita E. Swearengen, the current Memphis City Council chair and member of a prominent political clan.

COUNTY CLERK: Activist clerk WANDA HALBERT should be well positioned vs. Arriell Gipson (daughter of Temika Gipson), Mondell Williams, and William Stovall.

JUVENILE COURT CLERK: Retiring County Commissioner Reginald Milton could have brisk challenges from TV reporter Janeen Gordon, former School Board member Stephanie Gatewood, and Marcus Mitchell.

PROBATE COURT CLERK: BILL MORRISON is opposed by Eddie Chism and retiring County Commissioner Eddie Jones.

REGISTER: SHELANDRA FORD is matched against retiring Commissioner Willie Brooks and Wanda Faulkner.

TRUSTEE: REGINA NEWMAN will be highly favored against frequent candidates Roderic Ford and Marion Alexandria-Williams (aka M. LaTroy Williams). Former GOP County Commissioner Steve Basar will oppose the winner in August.

CRIMINAL COURT CLERK: HEIDI KUHN has won awards and is hustling hard to stave off a repeat primary opponent, Carla Stotts, and Maeme Bernard.

DISTRICT ATTORNEY GENERAL: The celebrated legal activist Steve Mulroy, a former County Commissioner and University of Memphis law professor, is favored against two able opponents, Linda Harris and Janika White, for the right to challenge the formidable Republican incumbent AMY WEIRICH in August.

COMMISSION #5: The newly forged Cordova seat on the County Commission has drawn three formidable aspirants, the Commission’s able administrative assistant Quran Folsom, recently retired School Board member Shante Knox-Avant, and Reginald French, a prominent aide to former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton.

COMMISSION #6: Minister/activist Charlie Caswell is matched against former Young Democrat president Alexander Boulton.

COMMISSION #7: Former legislator and Commissioner Henri Brooks is hazarding a comeback against School Board vice chair Althea Greene, Kathy Temple, and Cartavius Black.

COMMISSION #8: MICKELL LOWERY will run unopposed and will have no Republican opponent in August.

COMMISSION #9: EDMUND FORD, Jr. will defend his turf against contenders Sam Echols and Sean Harris.

COMMISSION #10: Activist Britney Thornton, she of the unofficial homeless shelter, vs. lawyer Kathy Kirk, member of a Memphis political family, and Teri Dockery.

COMMISSION #11: Human Resources specialist Candice Jones vs. School Board member Misaka Clay Bibbs and Eric Winston.

COMMISSION #12: Erika Sugarmon, the well-known activist and member of a legendary political family, has challengers in Reginald Boyce, David Walker, and Jasmes Bacchus.;

COMMISSION #13: MICHAEL WHALEY, running in a new district unopposed, will be challenged in August by Republican businessman Edward Apple.

Other Democratic candidates: Donna McDonald Martin vs. Kerry White in Commission District 1; Lynette Williams in Commission District 2; Britney Chauncey in Commission District 4.

REPUBLICAN PRIMARY

COUNTY COMMISSION # 4: In the only out-and-out Republican primary contest, BRANDON MORRISON is favored against challenger Jordan Carpenter.

Running unopposed in the GOP primary are: Worth Morgan, Mayor; Stephen Cross, Assessor; Sohelia Kail, Circuit Court Clerk; Jeffrey Jacobs, County Clerk; Steve Basar, Trustee; Paul Houston, Criminal Court Clerk; Rob White, Juvenile Court Clerk; DeWayne Jackson, Probate Court Clerk; Bryian Edmiston, Register; and District Attorney General AMY WEIRICH.

With the confetti swept and the holiday credit card statements sent for payment, it’s time to dive into what promises to be a well-fought and civil presidential election season. In just three weeks, we’ll find out which of the 12 (at press time) Democratic hopefuls survives the gauntlet. Who will emerge from a year of hand-shaking and folksy photo ops in Iowa, electability still intact?

That was a trick question. The four candidates who have been leading the whole time will persist, and so will the four billionaires who have no chance. If you had more money than you could ever use, wouldn’t you spend it on a vanity campaign and not something frivolous like, I don’t know, earthquake relief or fighting the Australian wildfires? Guess that’s why I’m not a billionaire.

Pancaketom | Dreamstime.com

Candidates of the corn

Iowa’s outsized relevance is one of many baffling traditions that proves this country’s electoral process needs an overhaul. What started as a response to a legitimate threat to democracy in 1968 has become, like the Electoral College and two-party system, “just the way we do things,” for better or worse. The Iowa caucus is like a large-scale version of a New York Times profile of “undecided voters” in a Rust Belt diner. I’m sure they’re all fine people, Iowans. They just don’t deserve the attention.

Iowa has a population of 3.15 million. That’s total. The population is just slightly larger than that of Puerto Rico, a territory that does not even get to participate in the election. Los Angeles has more people than Iowa. New York City has more than twice as many people as Iowa.

Defenders of the state’s vanguard status — most of whom live in Iowa — say the state’s small size allows candidates to interact with voters one on one and sample a slice of real American life. The state is more than 90 percent white, so that slice is more like a sliver. The second state to vote, New Hampshire, is also more than 90 percent white — and even smaller. It’s almost as if this is done by design to preserve the influence of white people in an increasingly diverse electorate!

Iowa doesn’t represent the country electorally, either. In 2016, about 171,000 Democrats and 187,000 Republicans voted in Iowa’s caucuses. The winners, Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz, won 50 and 27 percent of the delegates, respectively. Neither candidate won the general election, not that any of us need to be reminded.

In fact, the Iowa caucus has correctly picked only three first-term Presidents: Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. Bill Clinton got less than three percent in 1992. He came in fourth place, two spots below “Uncommitted.” Yikes. A real barometer, that caucus.

As much as I enjoy watching middle-aged dudes try to look natural while eating a corn dog, the state fair butter-cow shtick is played out. Kamala Harris ate a pork chop with her bare hands, and she’s not even in the race anymore. Joe Biden didn’t eat anything: How is he even competitive? As political views go, “Wow, that candidate really humiliated himself. He wolfed down that turkey leg like a pro. I bet he’d show Vladimir Putin who’s in charge” is just as misguided as “The ‘You’re Fired’ guy really tells it like it is.” Maybe that’s just who we are.

I understand primary season is a huge windfall for the state. Des Moines’ tourism board estimates $11.3 million in economic impact in the week leading up to caucus day — and that’s just Mike Bloomberg’s ad spend. (Did you hear? He Will Get It Done.) But if the primaries were really small-D democratic, every state would be voting on the same day — preferably one that isn’t nine months from Election Day. Let’s do the whole primary on Super Tuesday. Iowa voters no doubt take their caucus seriously, but media buyers and TV pundits are the only other Americans benefiting from this exhausting slog.

Jen Clarke is a digital marketing specialist and an unapologetic Memphian.