Tag: Hendrell Remus

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Dissension Among Dems

Christos Georghiou | Dreamstime.com

It may be the proverbial tempest in the teapot, but the quarrels among Democrats, both local and statewide, continue to boil over.

The Shelby County Democratic Party (SCDP) may or may not have fully recognized official leadership as a result of contradictory recent actions taken by state chairman Hendrell Remus and the local party executive committee.

Remus started the turmoil by a surprise announcement, weekend before last, that he was removing local party chair Lexie Carter from her position as head of the SCDP. This was in the immediate wake of the local party’s annual Kennedy Day banquet, which drew a sizeable crowd of attendees and, according to Carter, raised $40,000 for party coffers.

Remus said the basis of his action was Carter’s failure to prepare an acceptable plan for the November election in response to his request for one in a questionnaire sent to Carter. As needy but overlooked Democrat campaigns, he mentioned specifically that of District 97 state representative candidate Jesse Huseth, who opposes Republican incumbent John Gillespie, and that of Gloria Johnson of Knoxville against GOP U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn.

But, according to Carter, the state chair’s action was more likely due to a series of conflicts that occurred between Remus and herself and others at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.

In any case, Remus’ action has not gone unchallenged. Both his decision and the authority to take it have been challenged, locally and at the state level.

Speaking for himself and what he said was a sizeable portion of the state Democratic committee’s membership, Erick Huth of Shelbyville, until recently a member of that committee from state District 14, said the party’s bylaws did not permit Remus to remove a local chairman without expressly granted permission from the state body.

Remus had said he vetted in advance his removal of Carter with several West Tennessee vice chairs of the state party, but, said Huth, such a claimed consultation, even if accurate, would not have authorized Remus’ removal action.

Huth, who in August lost an election to retain his state committee seat, said that fact enabled him to speak more freely about party matters, including what he said was Remus’ high-handed and ineffective conduct of his chairmanship.

“The state committee is badly divided, and that’s largely due to Hendrell,” he said.

An active state committeeman from Nashville, who chose not to be identified, confirmed Huth’s analysis of things.

For the record, Hendrell Remus has opted not to be a candidate for reelection as chair in state committee elections scheduled for January. According to various sources, Remus intends to return to Memphis, his former home base, in order to scout a possible future run for an elective position.

Meanwhile, the executive committee  of the local SCDP met late last week in Whitehaven and, in a highly argumentative session, engaged in disagreements among themselves as well as with state chair Remus about the whole brewing matter.

The local committee declined in its turn to accept Remus’ changes, which included the naming of four proposed temporary co-chairs for the SCDP.

These were former state Representative Dwayne Thompson, Memphis City Council Chair JB Smiley Jr., Shelby County Commission Chair Miska Clay Bibbs, and veteran party figure Danielle Inez. The proposed new co-chairs were invited to speak their piece on ideas for the party and the fall election, but their status as party leaders was not confirmed.

Instead, in the absence of both Lexie Carter and Hendrell Remus from the meeting, the local committee named as acting SCDP chair Will Simon, who is a current state party vice chair.

None of these changes, by the state chair or the SCDP committee, would seem to be anything but ad hoc expedients, as the situation simmers on.

New SCDP elections are scheduled for December. 

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Musical Chairs

Hendrell Remus (Photo: Tennessee Democratic Party)

“Shock waves” is too strong a term for the reaction, but a fair number of eyebrows have been raised by the surprise action of state Democratic Party chair Hendrell Remus in removing from power local Shelby County party chair Lexie Carter.

The action took place Thursday following a Zoom call between Carter, Remus, and others. Invoking what the state chair said was the absolute authority of the state party over local parties, Remus said Carter had not measured up to the needs of a coordinated Democratic campaign for the fall election.

He mentioned specifically the campaigns for District 97 state representative of Jesse Huseth, who opposes Republican incumbent John Gillespie, and that of Gloria Johnson of Knoxville against GOP U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn.

Remus said he had sent a questionnaire to Carter asking for details of the local party’s readiness for election activity and received insufficient information in response.

Carter professed to be taken by surprise by her removal, having just, as she maintained, presided over the local party’s annual Kennedy Day banquet on September 5th and grossed upwards of $40,000 for party coffers.

She alleged that a number of disagreements and confrontations had occurred between herself and Remus at the recently concluded Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Remus had apparently been considering the removal action well in advance, having discussed the possibility with potential ad hoc successors to Carter the previous week. 

He said he would appoint four temporary co-chairs to guide the Shelby County Democratic Party (SCDP) until December, when a local party election would be held. The Flyer has learned that two of those invited to serve in that capacity are outgoing state Rep. Dwayne Thompson and City Council Chair JB Smiley. 

Former local party chair and ex-County Commissioner Van Turner, who had assisted Carter in answering Remus’ questionnaire, raised concerns about due process in Carter’s removal and likened his action to the state Republican Party supermajority’s attempt to dominate over the actions of local government.

The new developments recalled the situation of 2016 when then-state Democratic chair Mary Mancini disbanded the Shelby County party following years of local controversy, including charges of embezzlement.

The local party was reconstituted in 2017 with Corey Strong as chair. So far, no names have surfaced as potential local candidates for the permanent chairmanship of SCDP.

As it happens, Remus will be giving up his own chairmanship in January, when his elected term ends. So far the only known candidate to succeed him is Rachel Campbell, chair of the Hamilton County (Chattanooga) Democratic Party and vice chair of the state party.

• Sarah Wilkerson Freeman, the Democratic nominee for the 8th District congressional seat, confirms that Susan Boujnah, a videographer who accompanied her to last month’s Democratic National Convention, is hard at work on an official campaign video, which will be released (presumably via social media) within the month.

Though Freeman has issued no formal debate challenge to Republican incumbent David Kustoff, Freeman observed that the NAACP will be holding an open forum for area candidates in Collierville on October 8th and that Kustoff is among those invited to participate.

Freeman, a resident of Germantown, likes to say she lives “within spitting distance” of her opponent.

• Former U.S. Senator Jim Sasser died at his North Carolina home last week. Sasser represented Tennessee in the Senate from 1977 to 1995 and later served as ambassador to Japan.

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State Democratic Chair Removes SCDP Chair Carter

Tennessee Democratic Party chair Hendrell Remus (Photo: Courtesy TN Democratic Party)

In a surprise action that recalls a similar circumstance eight years ago, state Democratic Party chair Hendrell Remus has removed local Shelby County party chair Lexie Carter from power.

The action took place Thursday following a Zoom call between Carter, Remus, and others. Invoking what the state chair said was the absolute authority of the state party over local parties, Remus said Carter had not measured up to the needs of a coordinated Democratic campaign for the fall election.

He mentioned specifically the campaigns for District 98 state representative of Jesse Juseth, who opposes Republican incumbent John Gillespie, and that of Gloria Johnson of Knoxville against GOP US Senator Marsha Blackburn.

Remus said he had sent a questionnaire to Carter asking for details of the local party’s readiness for election activity and received insufficient information in response.

Carter professed to be taken by surprise, having just, as she maintained, presided over the local party’s annual Kennedy Day banquet last weekend and raised upwards of $40,000 for party coffers. She alleged that a number of disagreements and confrontations had occurred between herself and Remus at the recently concluded Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Former local party chair and ex-County Commissioner Van Turner, who had assisted Carter in answering Remus’ questionnaire, raised concerns about due process in Carter’s removal and likened his action to the state Republican Party supermajority’s attempt to dominate over the actions of local government.

Remus said he would be appointing four ad hoc co-chairs to guide the SCDP until December, when a local party election will be held.

The new developments recalled the situation of 2016 when then state Democratic chair Mary Mancini disbanded the Shelby County party following years of local controversy, including charges of embezzlement.

The local party was reconstituted in 2017 with Corey Strong as chair.

More details to come as they are learned.

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Dem Brass Comes to Memphis, Calls D.A. Race a Priority

Hendrell Remus and Steve Mulroy (Credit: Jackson Baker)

Yes, Virginia, there is a Tennessee Democratic Party, the current Republican supermjaority in state government notwithstanding. And an impressive delegation from the TNDP arrived at the Flyer office Thursday, headed by the party’s state chairman Hendrell Remus (who happens to be an ex-Memphian) and executive director Brit Bender.

Their mission was made clear: With the county primaries over, said Remus, “we know that back here in Shelby County and in Memphis, the political climate is a little bit different. … We know that there’s some Democrats, incumbents, who won’t be returning. So we want to make sure that we’re able to coalesce voters, especially of our base, around those Democrats who have been nominated to carry the torch for us in August and beyond.”

Accordingly, the local primary winners, along with the other candidates and the party’s rank-and-file, had all been invited to Loflin Yard for a combination fundraiser and post-election rally Thursday night. “Hopefully, that gives us an opportunity to light that spark and grow,” he said.

Remus made the state party’s priorities clear. “We’ll be here making the case for [County Mayor] Lee Harris for re-election, because obviously, we want him reelected. But most importantly, the D.A.’s race is a top priority for for the state party this year, almost as important as the gubernatorial race is for the state. It is at the top of our list of targets for this election cycle. And so we’ve got to be intentional about where we put that investment in how we’re down here, coalescing people around the the nominee … to move the needle [and] give us an opportunity to bring everybody together.”

Remus referred to the post-primary invitation by GOP incumbent D.A. Amy Weirich to defeated Democratic primary candidates Janika White and Linda Harris, both African Americans, for a look-around in her office. He called that “a political stunt,” adding, “she [Weirich] has a diversity issue in her office. It’s a reality that that there’s no diversity in that office. So either one of those candidates would probably be more qualified than she is to run the office. But it’s a telling approach to take after a primary’s over.”

The chairman also alluded to the fact that “we have a Democratic incumbent who seemingly endorsed the [Republican] opponent, because she didn’t win her  primary.” That, it turned out, was defeated Circuit Court Clerk Tamiika Gipson, who lost the Democratic primary to City Council chair Jamita Swearengen. The potential beneficiary would be Sohelia Kail, the Republican nominee for the position.

So, per Remus, the state party’s mission was clear: Bring everybody together in common cause and energize the troops for what the chairman saw as the most important August contest — the equivalent, as he said, of a gubernatorial race  — that between Democratic D.A. nominee Steve Mulroy and incumbent Republican Amy Weirich.

Later, once a goodly crowd had settled at the Loftin Yard event, Remus wasted no time in broadcasting that message. Standing on a table-top, he said: “In this election cycle, the most important race at the top of that ticket, is a district attorney, a very terrible district attorney, someone who has shown that she’s willing to step into a courtroom and strictly show up to score. She doesn’t care about whether or not she’s telling the truth. She doesn’t care about whether or not she inconveniently leaves evidence in the backseat of the car, or leaves it locked up in evidence or somewhere else.

“Here’s someone who talks about being tough on crime. Someone who wants to drive the crime rate down. The entire time she’s been district attorney, the crime rate has gone up. It’s because she’s not tough on crime in a way that drives crime down. … We cannot cannot let her become the district attorney for eight more years. Imagine what crime will look like over the course of the next eight years. Imagine what that would mean for young black and brown children who are being charged as adults almost every single day, because her office is more concerned about scoring a win than they are about truly fighting crime in the county.”

The antidote? “We’ve got a hell of a candidate for district attorney,” Remus said. Whereupon he summoned Mulroy to the table-top alongside him.

Mulroy gave the crowd more of the same, beginning with an appeal for party unity: “I really appreciate the opportunity to speak here, and I’m really glad to see all of you Democrats. Democrats are in the house tonight. The thing we need to remember, in Shelby County, is we’ve got the numbers. If we stick together and we turn out, there ain’t nobody stopping us.”

As to the importance of his race: “Now, obviously, I am very concerned about district attorney’s race and everything that’s being said is exactly on point. There is a reason why this particular race in Shelby County is gonna get national attention. Our district attorney has received national attention over the last decade for all the wrong reasons.

“We [were] written up in The New York Times and in best-selling books for prosecutorial misconduct and ethical violations which led to overturned convictions. We don’t disclose evidence when we’re supposed to; we make improper comments to the jury when we’re not supposed to. And not only does it give us a black eye and erode public confidence in the fairness of our system, it also overturns convictions. So either we’re trying to convict people who are innocent, which happens a heck of a lot, or criminal defendants who actually are guilty are being let free, because we’re not playing by the rules. Either way, it needs to be repaired.”

Mulroy continued: “We’re number-one in the state in transferring young African-American men from juvenile court to adult court, where they end up in adult prisons, which are essentially crime colleges with no rehabilitative services, and where they’re more likely to reoffend when they come out. Ninety-five percent of them are black. We’re number-one in the state for the number of people who are languishing behind bars who haven’t  been convicted of any crime. They’re awaiting trial at 201 Poplar; they’re waiting their day in court. Over a quarter of them are there for 500 days or more, the longer they’re in there, the more likely they are to be black.”

And it went on from there — Mulroy’s catalogue of misprisions on the part of the incumbent. Eventually he summed up: “We can reform the system, refocus on violent crime, restore public confidence and the fairness of our system; we can get the community to cooperate with law enforcement in a way that they have not been. I’m going to end tonight in a slightly modified way, because there can be no Mulroy remarks at a Democratic function without a Mulroy limerick. I think it’s federal law somewhere.”

“So let’s make this a bash, not a bummer.
Let’s all march to the beat of the same drummer.
Thanks for Tuesday night’s win,
Let’s all do it again.
Let’s go kick ass and win this summer.” 

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On the Docket: Bills Before the General Assembly Could Alter the Local Status Quo

CREDIT: TN State Senator Brian Kelsey

A persistent issue in Tennessee government is that of whether state law should trump the preferences of local jurisdictions. Two tests of the proposition are now before the General Assembly. One concerns Senate Bill 29 by state Senator Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown). Passed last week by the Senate and pending in House committee, the bill would strike down local residence requirements for first responders.

Another measure, House Bill 1280, by state Representative Tom Leatherwood (R-Arlington), would outlaw partisan primaries for judicial or local political offices in counties containing populations greater than 500,000 (Shelby County and Davidson County). This bill is now before the Senate State Local Government Committee and the House Elections and Campaign Finance Committee. In a preliminary committee vote, the Shelby County Commission voted 7-2 last week on a resolution to oppose the Leatherwood bill.

Joining other bar associations statewide, the Memphis Bar Association issued a statement on Friday “strongly condemning” a Republican-backed Tennessee House resolution that would initiate a process to remove Nashville Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle from office. House Resolution 23 (HR 23), said the MBA, “is as undemocratic as it is dangerous and flatly forbidden by the separation of powers principles enshrined in the Tennessee Constitution.”

The resolution, sponsored by state Representative Tim Rudd (R-Murfreesboro), has numerous GOP signers in the state House, and at least one Republican state Senator, Frank Nicely of Strawberry Plains, has indicated he will sponsor an equivalent resolution in his chamber.

TN State Senator Brian Kelsey

Ruling on a suit last year by Up the Vote 901, a Memphis group, and the state ACLU, Lyle ordered state absentee voting restrictions relaxed to allow universal mail-in voting in view of the ongoing pandemic. The state appealed, and her order was later modified somewhat by the state Supreme Court, but it resulted in the acknowledgment of COVID-19 as a factor weighing in favor of an absentee-voting application.

• It is hard to believe that I won’t get to see Drew Daniel again. Although he had become 40-something and thereby ineligible to be a member of the Young Republicans, he was given permanent status as “honorary elder” by that local group even as he rose in estimation among his party’s seniors, winning their Statesman Award in 2019 for the 9th Congressional District.

Though he was a legacy Republican from an established GOP family, he was an almost archetypal version of the youthful political activist — the eternal volunteer and doorbell-ringer — idealistic, dedicated, in for the outreach as well as the fellowship. He was somehow untarnished by the seamier, cynical side of politics and utterly uninvolved with anything slashing or over-ideological.

Drew died over the weekend, and this came as a total surprise to many who knew him. He apparently suffered from diabetes, a disease that, it would seem, figured in his demise. Granted, he was physically frail in appearance, though appearances could be deceiving. He was a runner and was used to running 10 miles a day. As recently as the big snow, he kept to that pace while the rest of us were shivering in our blankets. I always enjoyed seeing Drew on my political rounds. He was the sincerest and best kind of citizen, and as likable as anybody I’ve ever known. I don’t know how many friendships he had across party lines, but he deserved to have many.

• Former Memphian Hendrell Remus, who was recently elected chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party, will have a homecoming of sorts on Wednesday, March 24th, when he becomes the guest speaker, via Zoom, for the Germantown Democratic Club, an unusually active group that is resuming its pattern of regular meetings, suspended during the pandemic, and hopes to be resuming in-person meetings in short order.

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Former Memphian Wins State Dem Chair; Cohen Outs Boebert

CREDIT: Tennessee Democratic Party

In American popular music history, there is a long-established tradition whereby individuals with talent begin their rise to prominence in Memphis, a “roots” city in every sense, and extend their careers in Nashville, site of a monolithic music and broadcast industry. Among those who have made this journey are such titans as Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash, and lesser-known but influential studio and club mainstays like Cowboy Jack Clement and Paul Craft.

For somewhat obvious reasons, this kind of odyssey also occurs in politics, where Nashville’s prominence as the state capital is the attraction. One Hendrell Remus, ex-Memphian, could turn out to be a case in point.

Tennessee Democratic Party

Hendrell Remus

Remus’ name may ring a bill for Memphians who are close students of local politics. A former security professional here and, for the last year or two, at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Remus opposed incumbent state Representative Joe Towns in the Democratic primary for District 84 in 2012, and two years later ran in a multi-candidate field for the Shelby County Commission seat won that year by Eddie Jones, now the commission chairman.

In both races, Remus finished far behind the winner.

As a resident of Nashville, the earnest young man has had better success, having just won, as of last weekend, the chairmanship of the state Democratic Party in a field of 10 candidates. Remus, who also becomes the state party’s first Black chairman, has been vice chair of the Tennessee Young Democrats.

Among the factors contributing to his success with the 68 voting members of the party’s executive committee on Saturday were Remus’ sterling performances both in published questionnaires arranged for candidates by consultant Christy Pruitt Hayes and in a candidate forum held by The Tennessee Holler, a digital media company that closely follows Democratic Party issues.

Also telling in Remus’ favor was the enthusiastic support given him by Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, who personally lobbied for Remus with several Shelby County and West Tennessee members of the state committee, a majority of whom sided with the ex-Memphian.

The election, held via the electronic platform Maestro, was a two-ballot affair, with 35 votes required for the winner. On the first ballot, Remus trailed former party official and Democratic National Committee member Wade Munday, also of Nashville, by 24 votes to 30. On the second ballot, aided by endorsements from two other candidates who dropped out of the running, Remus finished ahead of Munday, 36 votes to 32. Elected party vice chairs for West Tennessee were David Cambron and Jasmine Boyd.

• Steve, meet Lauren. One of the national Democratic Party’s leading progressive lights is 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen, who last week connected — sort of — with a new U.S. House member of dramatically opposite leanings.

In a news item featured prominently by CNN and other media, Cohen named Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) as one of the House members rumored to have conducted a “reconnaissance” tour of the U.S. Capitol for a group in the day or two before the Capitol was besieged by a violent mob.

Cohen said he could not address either Boebert’s motives nor those of the group she guided through the building, but he had a specific memory of seeing the tour in progress “sometime after the 3rd and before the 6th.” Boebert, who was elected in November, has been publicly identified with QAnon, the extremist group known for its fanatical support of outgoing President Donald Trump and for encouraging conspiracy theories at the expense of Democrats and liberals.

Boebert has denied leading any insurrectionists through the Capitol, but she has made a point of what she says is her right to pack a pistol in the Capitol complex, and attracted attention last week by refusing to abide by a new rule requiring members to pass through a metal detector on their way to the floor.

Several Democratic members of Congress have, in the wake of the January 6th riots, expressed concern that they may become targets of violence by extremists among their Republican counterparts.

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Tennesesee Democrats Prepare to Select New Chair

Even as outrage mounts among Tennessee Democrats regarding the Republican state government’s involvement in a suit to overturn the presidential election, the Tennessee Democratic Party (TDP) is preparing to select a new leader for itself.

At least nine hopefuls have announced their candidacy for the chairmanship of the TDP in an election tentatively scheduled for mid-January, on the weekend after the state’s legislature reconvenes in Nashville.

Mary Mancini, who has guided the TDP for the past several years, has announced her retirement from the party helm, and the state Democratic executive committee will name a successor from the nine.

The contenders are: London Lamar, Theryn Bond, Wade Munday, Hendrell Remus, Frank Hundley, Robin Kimbrough Hayes, Jane George, Civil Miller Watkins, and Kate Craig.

The first five of those participated Wednesday night in a candidate forum sponsored by The Tennessee Holler on Zoom. Lamar, a state Representative from House District 91, and Bond are from Memphis, and Remus is a former Memphian.

A second forum is scheduled for Thursday night involving the other four candidates.

Wednesday night’s participants in party chairmanship forum