Tag: Lang Wiseman

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Politics Politics Feature

One-Way Ticket

Lang Wiseman (Photo: Wiseman Bray)

Lang Wiseman, the Memphis native who announced weeks ago that he would be leaving his post as deputy governor to Republican Governor Bill Lee, dropped the other shoe on Monday, when he declared his departure officially as of this coming Friday, December 3rd.

Wiseman, a former University of Tennessee basketball star who went on to get a law degree from Harvard and served for a spell as chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party, announced that he would not be returning to Memphis but would remain in Nashville (suburban Brentwood, actually) to pursue future opportunities.

Once considered a possible candidate for a now-vacant seat on the state Supreme Court, Wiseman is also rumored to be interested in a possible future appointment as state attorney general. In any case, what he’ll end up doing will be done in Nashville.

That kind of one-way ticket is a fairly customary thing for Memphians who enter the vale of state politics. Perhaps the most famous emigre to the state capital is former Governor Winfield Dunn, who was a Memphis dentist and local Republican activist before his surprise election as Tennessee’s chief executive in 1970.

Dunn would serve a single term before absenting the governor’s office (at the time, the state constitution prohibited Tennessee governors from seeking consecutive terms) and was succeeded in 1974 by Adamsville Congressman Ray Blanton, a Democrat, whose administration would be plagued by scandal.

After waiting out the two terms of fellow Republican Lamar Alexander, Dunn would make another try for the governor’s office in 1986, losing to Democrat Ned McWherter of Dresden. Dunn had meanwhile become a resident of Nashville, where he would remain, making only an occasional return trip to Memphis.

Another Memphian who settled in Nashville was more avid about touching base locally and made several back-and-forth trips on Interstate 40, culminating in an ill-fated one.

This was Bill Giannini, a former chairman of both the Shelby County Republican Party and the Shelby County Election Commission. Giannini, who was then serving as deputy commissioner of the state Department of Commerce and Insurance, was returning to Nashville in 2017 from attending a political fundraiser in Memphis when he was killed in a car crash in Decatur County.

Two other one-time Memphians turned Nashvillians are Tre Hargett and David Lillard, formerly a state representative and a county commissioner, respectively.

For the past several years, Hargett has held the office of Secretary of State and Lillard that of state Treasurer.

In addition to the aforementioned, there are numerous other former residents of the Bluff City who have lingered in the capital city, serving as lobbyists or state functionaries or what-have-you.

And, without mentioning any names, there have been instances of an elected Memphis representative or two who basically ended up as more or less full-time residents of Nashville, making only occasional toe-tap visits — generally at election time — back to a Memphis home address of record.

In state politics, “Go West, Young Man” is effectively reversed more often than not.

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Politics Politics Feature

Shelby County Democrats: The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. Again.

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

In August, 2016, Tennessee  Democratic Party chair Mary Mancini announced that the state party executive committee had voted to disband the Shelby County Democratic Party, a hopelessly fractious organization that, as Mancini noted, had experienced “many years of dysfunction.”

One year later, in August 2017, a reconstituted local party took shape at a convention that crowned months of focus-group activity in tandem with the state party. Corey Strong, a Shelby County Schools administrator and a military reservist, was elected chair of a new body that possessed both an executive committee and a larger “grassroots” council.

Coupled with the revived Democratic activism that, in Memphis as elsewhere, fueled a “resistance” movement to President Donald Trump, the moment looked promising indeed for local Democrats.

But now, a year and a half later, in the aftermath of party successes at the ballot box in 2018 and on the threshold of a presidential election year, the Shelby County Democratic Party is freshly riven by a dispute that seemingly has racial overtones but may actually be the consequence of warring ambitions and an internal power struggle.

Months ago, Strong had indicated that he would not seek re-election, and for a long time only one potential successor made his leadership desires public. This was Jeff Etheridge, a retired businessman (Dilday’s TV Sales and Service) and an activist who had pulled his oar in many a party drive and political campaign.

Jackson Baker

Michael Harris for the (self-)defense.

Etheridge’s home base was the Germantown Democratic Club, a racially diverse organization whose membership encompassed large sectors of Shelby County well beyond the enclaves of East Memphis and the county’s eastern suburbs. More than most Democratic groups, it had been responsible for organizing the Shelby County party effort, from the reactivation effort onward. Its president, David Cambron, had, with his wife Diane and other core members, taken the lead in making sure the party had a full roster of candidates in the 2018 election.

But there were other party power centers, as well. One of them was the Young Democrats of Shelby County, a group that tilted more toward the urban precincts of Midtown and the inner city. Its president, Danielle Inez, had been Lee Harris‘ campaign manager during Harris’ successful 2018 campaign for Shelby County mayor, and she had become his primary assistant in the reconstituted county government, someone hugely influential in staffing and logistical decisions.

Inez and the YDs were also feeling their oats and looking to make further contributions. They cast about for one of their own to bear the hopes of the younger generation for party leadership, and — for reasons best known to them — settled on one Michael Harris, a young man who had taken an active role in party outreach activities.

Those were the two known candidates when the party met Saturday before last at White Station High School to hold its preliminary caucuses for the convention to be held this past Saturday. In the nomination process other names were put forward — Erica Sugarmon and Allan Creasy, two impressive candidates from the blue wave year of 2018 — but these nominees withdrew, leaving only Etheridge and Harris.

There matters stood until the beginning of last week, when Etheridge began communicating with party leaders, complaining of “pressures” and stress he was getting from backers of Harris — some of it, he indicated, with racial overtones (Etheridge is white, Harris black). He had meant to be a unifying force, not a divisive one, he told his auditors, and he saw his opportunity to build bridges being undermined by a whisper campaign.

Jackson Baker

Harris supporter Danielle Inez and nay-voter David Upton muse over the outcome.

Simultaneously, word was getting out about difficulties Harris had experienced as a young and inexperienced lawyer.

As it turned out, there was evidence on the public record that in June 2017 Harris had been suspended for five years from his legal practice by the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee. He was accused by the board of “lack of diligence and communication, excessive fees, improper termination, failure to expedite litigation, failure to perform services for which he was paid, unauthorized practice of law, dishonesty, and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.”

As a precondition to consideration of listing his suspension, the board ordered Harris to “make restitution” in the total amount of $22,975 to nine clients whose cases he was considered to have mishandled.

Knowledge of these facts emerged more or less at the same time that word of Etheridge’s withdrawal was getting out. On Wednesday of last week, which was the formal deadline for any post-caucus applications of candidacy, news was put out that two Memphis state representatives, London Lamar and Raumesh Akbari, had filed petitions to run for local party chair. Both were well-regarded young African Americans, seen as scandal-free legislative stars with wide appeal to all segments of the party.

Later Wednesday, stories were hitting the state media to the effect that Lamar had become the consensus choice. In actual fact, both she and Akbari had been desperation hotbox choices and would end up declining to pursue the chairmanship, pleading the press of business in Nashville. That objection was on the level, as anyone who has seen the demanding legislative process at first-hand can attest, but the swirls of internal discontent in Shelby County party circles had become all too obvious by now and were clearly another factor.

During the brief period when Lamar’s name was being floated as a consensus choice, Harris was confronted by party elders (former chairman David Cocke and Shelby County Commission chair Van Turner among them) who suggested that he yield the chairmanship to Lamar, thereby saving himself and the party the obvious public embarrassment that would come at Republican hands when his background was publicly vetted, as inevitably it would be.

In appreciation of his own efforts and ambition, Harris, now working as a compliance officer for Advance Primary Care, might serve for a year as a party vice chair, using that interval to make amends for his legal derelictions and refurbish his personal credentials. Harris said he’d think about it. He thought about it, said no, and meanwhile so did Lamar and Akbari.

That was the background of events going into Saturday’s party convention at Lindenwood Christian Church. As an ironic complement to the confusion, the party had agreed weeks earlier to conduct the chairmanship vote by the process of Ranked Choice Voting, a method of resolving multi-candidate races by reassigning the votes of trailing candidates in subsequent rounds of recalculation.

Given the fact of there being only one candidate (Harris), it was hard to see how the method of RCV could be applied, but Aaron Fowles, a local adherent of the process, provided a methodology which was announced to the voting membership by outgoing chairman Strong. Inasmuch as RCV (also known as IRV,  for “instant runoff voting”) required that a winner ultimately receive 50 percent of the vote “plus one,” Harris, as the sole nominee, would be matched against votes for “none of the above.”

Should Harris be outvoted by that formulation, it was agreed beforehand, Strong would continue to serve as party chairman until a new convention (hopefully, one with multiple candidates) could be held.

Those were the circumstances when what seemed an artificially relaxed buffet feed was concluded, and the delegates elected a week earlier at White Station filed into the church sanctuary, accompanied by a fair number of curious onlookers.

Harris had arrived late and had worked the crowd. Now it was his time to take the stage and face the voters and the accusations that hung over him.

He began with the device that might have been expected. “Those of you who have never made a mistake, raise your hands,” he asked. Unsurprisingly, there were no takers. He then went on to give a brief bio of his life, admitting at this point, without specifying, that he had made his share of mistakes, and exhorting his audience to think in terms of unity. “We shouldn’t be turning on each other,” he said. “We should be turning up the heat on the Republicans.”

Harris said he took responsibility for his actions and cited his generally creditable past performance as vice chair of the party’s outreach efforts. Still, he faced questions. How many elections had he voted in, he was asked. He could not recall in any detail, but said, “I’m an active voter now.” Inevitably, the questions came about his legal issues.

Asked how much money was still owed to the past clients, Harris was vague on the amount and slow to acknowledge that much, perhaps most, of what had been dispensed was paid out by the Tennessee Lawyers Fund for Client Protection or other legal-support organizations. The bottom line: He would still need to compensate the organizations that made the payments.

“I am not a thief!” Harris insisted, despite the fact that misappropriations of his clients’ money was one of the prime allegations against him.

“He has paid his dues,” said supporter George Boyington. Inez praised Harris’ “courage” and what she considered the deftness of his responses, though others, like Danielle Schoenbaum, one of the party’s corps of surprisingly effective suburban legislative candidates in 2018, didn’t think as highly of them: “2020 is very important,” Schoenbaum said. “If you put self first, before party, you’re not fit to be chair.” It was a theme expressed by others, as well.

And there was the matter of the detailed evidence against Harris. One speaker noted that people had been foreclosed on and lost their homes because of his ineffective or even nonexistent representation.

Inevitably, in days to come, pages from the case reports against Harris would surface. As one summary said, “Mr. Harris repeatedly took money but did not provide the most basic of services. He took desperate clients, who came to him as a last hope, and did nothing for them. It is not that he took difficult clients and fought the good fight but lost. He took people’s money and did not complete the most basic of tasks. He did not respond to basic discovery requests or summary judgments (ever). He literally did not fight at all.”

Interestingly, given the job to which Harris was aspiring, that of leader and figurehead of one of the county’s two major political parties, the opposing lawyer in several of the cases for which Harris was cited by the Board of Professional Responsibility was one Lang Wiseman, a former county Republican chairman and current deputy governor of Tennessee. This fact underscores the truism that none of Michael Harris’ legal misadventures are unlikely to remain unknown in the public circles he will inhabit as a party chair.

And a party chair he is, as of Saturday. Of the 76 eligible Democratic voters present, 72 actually cast ballots, and Michael Harris received 37 of those votes, versus 35 for “none of the above.” He had received precisely 50 percent plus one — the bare minimum needed for election.

Harris’ supporters are optimistic that he can unify his party and lead it to a victorious election year in 2020. His detractors fear the worst, a public catastrophe and implosions yet to be imagined. And the state party, having interceded so dramatically in 2016, is not in the best position to do so again.

Chairman Harris and his executive committee will be meeting again soon to determine who the rest of the party’s officers will be. That’s the next round of decisions that will loom large in the Shelby County Democratic Party’s future.

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Cover Feature News

Fresh Start in Nashville: Criminal Justice Reform on the Docket

CREDIT: Justin Wright, Tennessee State Photographer

Everybody agrees that there was an air of kumbaya to the inauguration of Governor Bill Lee on a rainy January 9th inside War Memorial Auditorium. Part of it derived from the personality of the new chief executive, whose laid-back, inviting demeanor made him the gubernatorial choice last year of Tennesseans who doubtless felt overdosed by the bitter back-and-forthing of his two chief opponents for the Republican gubernatorial nomination — and who have not yet recovered the habit of treating Democratic statewide candidates with full seriousness.

Lee’s acceptance address at his inauguration was in keeping with his campaign persona — uplifting without being confined to specifics, a partial reason for its brevity. On the whole, the speech was not much longer than the bookend prayers of the event — the invocation and benediction. It contained the obligatory tribute to faith, family, and the ancestral virtues of Tennessee and Tennesseans.

And the new governor left no doubt that, for him, as for most prominent Republicans of our clime and time, “[g]overnment is not the answer to our greatest challenges.” As he intoned: “Government’s role is to protect our rights and our liberty and our freedom. I believe in a limited government that provides unlimited opportunity for we the people to address the greatest challenges of our day.”

Justin Wright, Tennessee State Photographer

And yet Lee served notice that there were areas of concern that he intended to move state government to address. Among them were:

Education: “More than a test score — it’s about preparing a child for success in life. A resurgence of vocational, technical, and agricultural education, and the inclusion of civics and character education, combined with reforms, will take Tennessee to the top tier of states.”

Poverty, urban and rural: “[W]e … have 15 counties in poverty, all rural, all Tennesseans. We have some of the most economically distressed ZIP codes in America — right in the heart of our greatest cities.”

Public Safety: “Tennesseans do want good jobs and schools, but they want safe neighborhoods, too. And while most neighborhoods are safe, our violent crime rate is on the rise in every major city. We can be tough on crime and smart on crime at the same time. For violent criminals and traffickers, justice should be swift and certain.”

And, as a necessary corollary to crime control and safety, “But here’s the reality, 95 percent of the people in prison today are coming out. And today in Tennessee, half of them commit crimes again and return to prison within the first three years. We need to help non-violent criminals re-enter society, and not re-enter prison.”

Jackson Baker

Governor Bill Lee addresses the crowd at the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville (top); Antonio Parkinson shakes hands with Lang Wiseman (below).

It is that part of the new governor’s commitment that has engendered excitement among his reform-minded constituents, as well as among legislators — many of them hailing from Memphis and Shelby County [see sidebar] — and among movers and shakers at large.

One of the latter is Hedy Weinberg, head of the Tennessee chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, who, in a luncheon address to the Rotary Club of Memphis last week, made a point of proclaiming her confidence in Lee’s bona fides on the subject of criminal justice reform.

She pronounced the governor to be “very committed to criminal justice reform” and went so far as to say, “we speak the same language” on that issue.

If Lee lucked out with that endorsement from the ACLU’s Weinberg, he had worse fortune on another occasion. In the immediate wake of the inauguration, the new governor went to a ceremony at Tennessee State University honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. There, he delivered a convincing testimony regarding his intention to provide more effective and humane solutions to post-conviction offenders seeking to re-enter society. He did well, but then, as veteran scribe Erik Schelzig chronicled it in The Tennessee Journal:

“… Lee then took a seat behind the lectern [and] Rev. William Barber II, the head of the Poor People’s Campaign, which is a revival of King’s effort that has mounted recent acts of civil disobedience in Nashville. … [Lee] most notably stayed seated when Barber called on anyone opposing President Donald Trump’s border wall and supporting Medicaid expansion to stand. Barber thundered that King would have favored a series of policies opposed by most Republicans, including a living wage, a ban on assault weapons, and universal health care (he denounced it as a “shame and a disgrace” for Tennessee to have failed to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act). “The crowd loved it.” But Lee, meanwhile, sat stoically and uneasily.
Asked about this in an interview with the Flyer, Lee acknowledged his discomfort and took a stab at presenting an alternative view: “The biggest challenge we have in health care is that we have skyrocketing costs that people can’t afford. So my plan focuses on reducing the cost of health care and improving the health of people, which would decrease costs as it improves people’s well-being. It’s about how we can make people healthier. A large percentage of our current health-care needs are associated with preventable chronic disease.”

Jackson Baker

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris (above) and newly elected Tennessee Governor Bill Lee have both made juvenile justice reform an issue in their approaches to government.

Medicaid expansion is not the only subject on which the state’s new governor possesses views that some would find contrary. School vouchers are another. Avowed progressives oppose it on grounds of separating church and state, and the suburban conservatives of Shelby County have soured on it as a threat to the tax-supported municipal school systems they now have a vested interest in. Even state Senator Brian Kelsey of Germantown, the arch-conservative supporter of voucher measures for 16 straight legislative sessions chose last year not to introduce his usual measure to divert public funds selectively on behalf of students at private institutions.

Lee is a resident of Williamson County, an expansive suburban area just south of Nashville, where House Speaker Glen Casada, who has proposed reviving voucher legislation, also hails from and where vouchers are regarded less warily.

The governor prefers to refer to the subject as a matter of school choices. “I think the choices for parents are very important. The most important thing is that every child have access to a good education. We need to strengthen our school system. Part of the way to do that is to allow parents to have choice.

“Education savings accounts, charter schools, public school choices: These are all things that I’m willing to look at to improve the opportunity for education for every kid.

“My interest in school choice — that’s a broad choice for all areas in the state. That’s an interest in elevating the quality and outcomes of our school system all across the state. Vo-tech and agricultural and CTE (that’s career technical education). There’s a lot of phraseology and terms around that, but primarily it is expanding opportunities for kids in our schools, more skills-attainment for our kids, and opportunities for success in life. My real interest there does lie in vocational- technical and agricultural-educational public schools system.”

Courtesy American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee

Hedy Weinberg

Somewhere in there are surely points for possible compromise.

Another controversial view ascribed to Governor Lee is an openness to the idea of “constitutonal carry” or the virtually unlimited (and unlicensed) privilege of citizens to carry firearms — a severe reduction that a neighboring state like Mississippi has already adopted.

Lee is not quite there yet. “All I’ve said is that I would sign a constitutional carry bill if one passed my desk. It’s not an issue that I’m leading on. I try to stay focused on things that we’re trying to present in a legislative package. These are around vocational education, around recidivism, and job development. Those are the things we’re focusing on.”

Other things that Lee focused on in the Flyer interview, which took place last Friday at the beginning of his first weekend as governor:

Possible consequences for state government of a federal government shut-down: “My understanding is that the most recent one is over, at least for some period of time. We won’t have to deal with it for several weeks anyway. But I certainly want to stay on top of things. I’ve had folks in our administration start looking for what effects could come, if a shutdown would resume or continue, but that’s about as far as we’ve got.”

Spending and governmental priorities: “I’ve asked every department to lay out what it would look like to cut two percent from their budgets. We certainly will take some of those cuts. My overall goal is to reduce government spending to the degree that we can — and certainly to minimize potential increases. All of those cuts are on the table to be taken, but even if not, they are valuable in determining priorities and what to do with the resources we have. But we have opportunities to cut in every department. I believe in limited government.”

His first actions as governor: “I put out executive orders that strengthened orders previously in place on ethics, transparency, and discrimination. My first executive order was one strengthening our aid to rural counties — particularly those 15 that are under the poverty line.”

The West Tennessee Megasite: “I actually spent about an hour today with the Economic Development Commissioner, with our deputy governor, and with my senior adviser Brandon Gibson, who is from Jackson. We were assessing the megasite, exactly where the asset is today, what is necessary to get it shovel-ready, what are the options, and what are the prospects. It’s very important to me and to the state, so I’m spending time here in my first week getting up to speed with a complete in-depth understanding of the megasite.

“I don’t have an idea yet of the additional funding required. One of the questions I asked today was how many dollars it would take to get it ready. I want to know what it takes for a tenant to occupy it, in short order.”

Plan to raise Shelby County to the rest of the state: “I met this morning with our senior team, including Deputy Governor Lang Wiseman. He’s from Memphis. We talked about economic opportunities, job creation, and economic incentives to attract industry into West Tennessee. When you think about educational reform, there’s no place more appropriate than Memphis as a place to do that. It’s one of the largest cities in the state, and it has some of the greatest opportunities for improvement in our educational system. The accelerated transformation of Shelby County is important if we want Tennessee to make it to a leading place in the country.”

Summing up: “I believe that Tennesseans are a unique group and that we have a real opportunity. There is more that unites us than divides us. That’s the way I ran my campaign, and it’s  the way I want to govern. Hopefully, that’s absolutely what will happen.

…

Justice  Reform: A Consensus Point

As Hedy Weinberg of the Tennessee ACLU observes, the Tennessee General Assembly has in recent years seen an increasing incidence of cooperation between legislators of the left and right on bills aimed at criminal justice reform. Though in an address last week to members of the Rotary Club of Memphis she noted such remaining stands of potential obstruction as the bail-bond industry, Weinberg hailed what she saw as a dawning era of bipartisan agreement on reform issues.

Governor Lee has singled out criminal justice reform as a major governmental aim and would seem to be actively seeking out partners.

One of the interested parties is Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, who has made juvenile justice reform a major issue in his own approach to government. Harris, who vigorously protested the decision of the U.S. Department of Justice to cease its monitoring activities over Juvenile Court, has called for the demolition of the antiquated existing facilities for housing juvenile offenders, and is attempting to persuade the Shelby County Commission to create a new assessment center for juveniles, and to pony up the sources for an upgraded new detention facility that offers the youth inside it access to fresh air, recreation, and abundant classroom activity. Only this week, he persuaded the commission to authorize the first financial component on what will be a $25 million facility and persuaded commissioners further to give it the working title of Youth Justice and Education Center.

Harris, as a Democratic state senator, pioneered in bipartisan criminal-justice reform efforts, sometimes in tandem with such opposite numbers as Republican state Senator Brian Kelsey of Germantown. He has also asked newly sworn-in District 33 state Senator Katrina Robinson, among others, to carry a remedial package of legislation on behalf of the county.

Robinson has jumped into the criminal-reform conversation in dramatic fashion, sponsoring a plethora of bills on the subject:

Senate Bill 62 would require the Department of Education to develop rules, to be adopted by the state board of education that include procedures for providing instruction to students incarcerated in juvenile detention centers for a minimum of four hours each instructional day.

SB 63 would expand career and technical education programs in the middle school grades and require the Board of Career and Technical Education to plan facilities for comprehensive career and technical training for middle-school students.

SB 65 and SB 85 would establish a center for driver’s license reinstatement and remove authorization to suspend, restrict, or revoke drivers’ licenses for nonpayment of fines, court costs, and litigation taxes for driving offenses, upon proof of inability to pay.

SB 69 would reduce the sentence a minor who commits first-degree murder is required to serve before becoming eligible for release from 51 years to 25 years. (This is one of several pieces of legislation introduced by the Shelby County delegation that indirectly reference the case of Cyntoia Brown, for whom outgoing Governor Bll Haslam recommended clemency as one of his last acts.)

Other legislative introductions related to criminal justice reform:

House Bill 17 by another first-term Memphis legislator, state Representative London Lamar, also related to the Cyntoia Brown case, would establish the presumption that a minor who is the victim of a sexual offense or who is engaged in prostitution holds a reasonable belief that the use of force is immediately necessary to avoid imminent death or serious bodily injury.

HB 47 by state Representative Antonio Parkinson would allow a person entitled to seek expunction from the record of a crime to pay an additional $250 fee for expedited expunction, to occur within 30 days of a court order granting expedited expunction.

HB 30  by state Representative Barbara Cooper would permit certain incarcerated persons who are allowed to enroll in courses offered by a community college or Tennessee college of applied technology pursuant to an approved release plan to receive a Tennessee reconnect grant.

The legislative session has just begun, with full committee and floor action commencing this week. The signs are clear that other Shelby County legislators and other bills on the subject of justice reform will be heard from before the deadline for introducing new bills.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Filling in the Blanks

CREDIT: JB

JB

GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee laid out his ‘Commitment to Memphis and Shelby County ‘ at the opening of his local headquarters on Poplar Avenue. on Wednesday. Among those present were (l to r) Geoff Diaz. Will Patterson, and Lang Wiseman. Wiseman is Lee’s local campaign chaiurnan.

Some weeks ago, the gubernatorial campaign of Nashville businessman/farmer Bill Lee sent out to local media — and presumably to some households and relevant institutions — a list detailing his plans for this area under the heading “Commitment to Memphis and Shelby County.”

This was before Lee had held any major public events locally and before the completion of his 95-day tractor ride, which occurred roughly at the time of last month’s gubernatorial forum here sponsored by the Federation of Republican Women and featuring Lee and the five other GOP candidates for Governor. At that event and at an earlier informal meeting with local citizens at a Millington pizza parlor, Lee demonstrated an easy way with voters and a persuasive manner on the stump.

What he didn’t do then — and still hadn’t fully done as of Wednesday, when he held a Memphis headquarters opening on Poplar Avenue across from Memorial Park — was dot all the ‘i’s” and cross the “t’s” on his platform for Memphis. He has made a start on it, however.

What the Commitment does contain (and printed copies of it were available at the newly opened headquarters) was promises of gubernatorial action beneficial to the local area in 10 specific categories. What it doesn’t do, in most of the indicated areas,  is spell out exactly what that action will be.

The nearest parallel to Lee’s itemized list was one made by then gubernatorial candidate Phil Bredesen at a meeting of the Memphis Kiwanis Club in the Skyway of The Peabody. Bredesen, at the time still serving as Nashville’s mayor, was explicit about his intentions. Among his pledges were one to create an independent Board of Trustees for the University of Memphis (something accomplished only recently by Governor Bill Haslam), another to develop the riverfront, and another to aggressively seek NFL status for Memphis. The rest of his list contained concrete proposals, too — sometimes in depth.

Bredesen would not carry Shelby County in that year’s Democratic primary — not with County Mayor Bill Morrisk, a local favorite,  as an opponent — and he also lost the county in the general election to another homeboy, then 7th District congressman Don Sundquist, running as a Republican. But he impressed a lot of people that day at The Peabody and won attention that stayed in people’s memory for eight years later, when he did get elected Governor. (With Governor Sundquist’s help, he had meanwhile landed that NFL franchise — for Nashville.)

It is not a slam on Lee to point out that his list deals mainly with abstract concepts and lacks Bredesen-style specifics. It is, after all, what it says it is: a commitment, and presumably he will have the opportunity later on to fill in the blanks. Meanwhile, his suggestions for action in buffing up law enforcement, attacking the opioid-addiction problem, and expanding workforce development and local infrastructure are certainly headed in the direction of concrete action. (For those interested, the “Commitment to Memphis and Shelby County” is reprinted at the bottom of this article.)

What Lee did do quite specifically on Wednesday was indicate something about the kind of support he will command in Memphis. Among the people playing key roles for him locally will be attorney Lang Wiseman, a former Shelby County Republican Chairman. Others will be Horace Tipton as Shelby County field director. “County captains” will include well-known activists Karyn Dunavant, Elaine Ervins, and Rieta Selberg. It is an impressive group, and one augmented at Wednesday’s meeting by former Tennessee Republican chairman Chris Devaney, who will serve as a campaign manager.

Considering the credentials of his helpers and and some other clear signs of professionalism in his campaign, Lee is clearly going to be a serious contender for the Republican nomination. He promised on Wednesday that he would be a frequent visitor to these parts, and almost certainly he will choose to flesh out more of his ideas for Memphis and Shelby County in the course of visits here over the next few months.

Here is the text of his “Commitment to Memphis and Shelby County”:

My vision is for Tennessee to be a leader in this nation, and in order to do that we need every part of our state to fully realize its potential.

Memphis and Shelby County are a critical and vital part of our state and a major asset to this country’s economy. Accelerated and transformative growth must be an absolute priority for the next Governor, because what happens in Memphis and Shelby County impacts everyone in our state.

Our next Governor must make a demonstrated commitment to ensuring the success of the entire West Tennessee region, and in order to do that we need a strong, vibrant and growing Shelby County. While Memphis and Shelby County face their own unique set of challenges, I am deeply impressed by the commitment, energy and vision of a broad range of community, business, and civic leaders I have been privileged to meet. Those leaders and all of the citizens there are working tirelessly to lift up their community, and they deserve a Governor who will be a true partner in their efforts. I will be that Governor.

Here are ten commitments I’m making to Memphis and Shelby County that I’ll keep when I become governor of Tennessee. Please let me know what you think here.

1)  commit that Memphis and Shelby County will play a significant role in our efforts to improve education, economic development, and enhancing public safety across West Tennessee.
We know there are unique challenges in Memphis and Shelby County, but also significant opportunity. As your Governor, I would treat all Tennesseans as equal shareholders in our state’s future and ensure that Shelby County is a key part in our vision for Tennessee.

2) I commit to being present in Shelby County and to make Shelby County a focus of my administration’s vision for our state.
I’ve visited Memphis and Shelby County dozens of times in the last year as I sought to more deeply understand the unique opportunities and challenges of the region. As a CEO, I know that you learn more outside of the office than you do at your desk. That’s why being present, available, and ready to listen in Shelby County will be a key priority for my administration.

3)I commit to working with local leaders to find tailored solutions for the challenges of Memphis and Shelby County.

No one knows Memphis like Memphians. Whether it’s education or economic development, there are no one-size-fits-all fixes, and my administration will understand that just because some things work for Nashville or Knoxville does not mean they are the right fit for Memphis. The state must support and align itself to the local vision, not supplant it. As Governor, my goal will be to support and enhance the local efforts that are working.

4) I commit to a regional approach for economic development that ensures West Tennessee is competitive with Arkansas & Mississippi.

We must make sure Shelby County is a key part of our plan for the West Tennessee region. As a border county, Shelby County suffers greatly from a burdensome tax code that makes it harder for businesses to stay. Businesses that move from Shelby County to Mississippi can see a substantial reduction in their franchise and excise tax-rate, of which Tennessee’s is the highest in the region. We will renew our focus on improving the environment for businesses in this state, recognizing that keeping and growing a business here is just as valuable as recruiting a business in from out-of-state.

5) I commit to supporting the comprehensive education reform efforts taking place and will continue to invest in ideas that work.

Shelby County has been a leader in locally-driven innovations to provide teachers with more flexibility, principals with greater autonomy, and students with more quality options. We will support and accelerate local efforts, working towards a system that will provide high-quality options for every parent in Shelby County.

6) I commit to true workforce development, making vocational, technical, and agricultural training a priority in public schools across Tennessee.

I employ 1,200 skilled tradesmen in my company, and we had to create our own training school to fill a dire need for vocational education as a state. The fact is, as a nation, we have neglected vocational education, leaving out a crucial ingredient for a healthy economy. If we want to keep jobs from leaving Shelby County, we’ll need to ensure that every student has the opportunity to explore and achieve their productive potential.

To do that, I will work with our private sector allies to provide training opportunities for more vocational education instructors, expanded apprenticeship opportunities for students, and invest in the critical technology our schools need to prepare for 21st century jobs.

7) I commit to engaging the faith community to bring their strengths to the public square to help address our state’s most important challenges.

Shelby County has a rich tradition of faith-based and non-profit charitable institutions leading community efforts. Our state government shouldn’t attempt to replace or dictate solutions without them. Instead, we should acknowledge the important role of faith and non-profit leaders and give them a seat at the table. So whether it’s a prison ministry, such as Men of Valor helping adults become leaders in their community, or a private-public partnership such as ARISE2Read supporting the next generation of literacy, we can and we should work with our faith leaders to deliver real results.

8) I commit to give law enforcement and prosecutors the support and resources they need to protect public safety.

A 600 officer shortage and an increased caseload for prosecutors makes the mission of law enforcement in Shelby County much harder than it should be. But in facing this challenge, Memphis and Shelby County leaders have managed to come together and do more with less, developing technologies and expertise that have helped in times of crisis. I will commit to making the investments necessary to ensure our law enforcement professionals have the tools they need to keep Tennesseans safe.

9) I commit to fighting the opioid epidemic with every tool at my disposal, including addiction treatment where appropriate and harsh punishments for drug dealers.

As we continue to rein in a system that allows for the over-prescription of opioid drugs, we are facing a new threat: New synthetic opioids that are exponentially more fatal than any prescription painkiller. Drug traffickers that come through Shelby County put the whole state at risk and bring crime and death with them. We will get behind our law enforcement and make Tennessee a state that drug traffickers fear, doing everything in our power to keep them out of Shelby County and our state.

10) I commit to help Memphis and Shelby County continue to build a world-class infrastructure that supports its economy and maintains its status as a national distribution hub.

From increasing the number of routes at Memphis International to executing the long-term vision for the Port of Memphis, we must continue to support infrastructure in Memphis as Tennessee’s gateway to the world. We can lead the nation in logistics and distribution, creating job opportunities and efficiencies for every Tennessean, but to do so we must continue to invest and build on the strategic assets of Memphis.