Tag: Mayor

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Opinion The Last Word

Dear Mr. Mayor

Paul Young (Photo: Brandon Dill | MLK50)

I have a single wish for newly elected Memphis mayor Paul Young, and it’s a big one. I hope Paul Young becomes the most memorable mayor in Memphis history.

Let’s not call Young’s election a mandate. Not by a long shot. In a city with a population of more than 630,000 people, a paltry 24,408 voters decided this town’s new CEO. That’s 4 percent of the citizenry firmly behind you, Mr. Young. Now get to it, and make 100 percent of us happy.

I’ve yet to meet Paul Young, but from what I hear and read, he’s been a capable leader at the Downtown Memphis Commission. Most importantly, he wants to lead on a larger scale and is young enough (44) to map out a long-term, big-picture agenda that can lift this city and region at a time when we need lifting.

Where to begin? I’ve got three recommendations, Mr. Mayor-elect. Start with the first of what will be an annual summit of Memphis clergy. Make it a two-day gathering of leaders from every church, synagogue, mosque, and temple in the city. And make it mandatory. (If a faith organization chooses not to attend, it will be made conspicuously absent with a publicly shared list of attendees. If you have nothing to say at this summit, it’s important that you hear what is said.) Why is such a gathering so important? There may be no time of the week taken more seriously by more Memphians than Sunday morning. And there’s certainly no more segregated time of the week in Memphis than Sunday morning. For at least two days, let’s ask leaders to share their thoughts, priorities, concerns, and, yes, wishes with their peers from different worship groups. And this is where the magic will happen: We’ll discover, I’m convinced, that most thoughts, priorities, concerns, and wishes are parallel to one another, guided by the same proverbial North Star.

We also need a summit of educators. (Maybe three days for this one.) If Sunday morning is uncomfortably segregated in this town, so are our children, public schools being predominantly Black and private schools predominantly white, and for more than two generations now. We simply have to make smarter efforts at blending Memphis youth, particularly across economic gaps that often feel too vast to bridge. If crime (read: guns) is a weight on the shoulders of this community, educators must be part of the solution. What kind of programs — involving both public- and private-school communities — can reduce the pull of street life and the desperation of poverty? We have too many bright people of impact in too many institutions of learning for there not be some worthy ideas we’ve yet to consider. Again, attendance is mandatory. We need every Memphis school rowing the same direction.

Follow these summits, Mr. Mayor-elect, with a sit-down in which you share what was learned with the Memphis Police Department. This won’t take two or three days, as it will be a time to tell (as opposed to ask) law enforcement how they can serve the community better. Because I promise you, the MPD will be among those thoughts and priorities for both clergy and educators.

Why do only 85,000 Memphis voters take the time to choose the city’s new mayor? Because apathy seeps. The feeling that a single vote won’t make a difference as crime numbers rise is a form of communal cancer. And a memorable Memphis mayor will battle that apathy every day he serves in office.

I interviewed Kerry Kennedy a few weeks ago. The daughter of Robert F. Kennedy is a 2023 Freedom Award honoree, a personification of the National Civil Rights Museum’s global mission. To gain ground in the fight for human rights requires the collaboration of myriad agencies (public and private) and human beings. It’s a reasonable starting point — collaboration — for a city like Memphis, and would be the kind of priority that makes a city leader unforgettable. In all the right ways.

Frank Murtaugh is the managing editor of Memphis magazine. He writes the columns “From My Seat” and “Tiger Blue” for the Flyer.

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Politics Politics Feature

Election Wrap-Up

Mayor-elect Paul Young and wife Jamila (Photo: Jackson Baker)

In the end, we still don’t know who our mayor-elect is, not entirely. We know his name, of course, and we’ll soon enough have a chance to catch up with his biography and intentions.

In any case, his vote total, though not a majority, was a convincing enough plurality as to make it clear that, running for a year or more against three other solid contenders (and 13 others on the ballot), Paul Young was the People’s Choice.

“I don’t care about politics,” candidate Young would say. “I just want to do the work.”

Well, there’s lots of it to do — regarding, to start with, crime, which we have too much of, and economic development, which we don’t have enough of, at least in the right places. And how the new mayor approaches those two subjects will determine a dozen other outcomes, all of them urgent.

Among the candidates we came to regard as the Top Four, Young was the one we were least familiar with at the start. Essentially he was known as someone who had performed credibly in a number of essential city and county appointive positions. A technocrat, if you will, and that he had so much backing among the influential minority (commercial interests, significant governmental doers) in a position to evaluate him was helpful in getting his campaign — and his fundraising — going.

Once launched, he sustained that campaign with nonstop energy and zeal. He was never off the clock. Needful of developing his name recognition, he made himself ubiquitous.

Given the relative closeness of the leading contenders, one can only wonder what might have happened: if Sheriff Floyd Bonner, previously known as a teddy bear and a top vote-getter in county elections, had not gotten branded, fairly or otherwise, as lax in his oversight of inmate safety; if former Mayor Willie Herenton had deigned to stoke his popularity with appearances in more public situations; if former county commissioner and NAACP head Van Turner had been able to activate his role as a Democratic avatar earlier and perhaps less abrasively.

Meanwhile, the city election remains unfinished.

There are three council positions which require a runoff, on November 16th, to determine a majority winner. In District 2, in northeast Memphis, voters must choose between former Councilman Scott McCormick, whose support base is significantly Republican, and Jerri Green, an advisor to Democratic County Mayor Lee Harris.

In District 3 (Whitehaven, Hickory Hill), the remaining candidates are activist Pearl Eva Walker and James Kirkwood, a pastor and former MPD official. And in District 7 (Downtown, Mud Island, parts of North and South Memphis), incumbent Michalyn Easter-Thomas faces businessman Jimmy Hassan.

In council elections already determined, the key outcome was in the District 5 race between former Councilman Philip Spinosa and activist newcomer Meggan Wurzburg Kiel. That was a classic showdown between conservative Spinosa (the winner) and progressive Kiel.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

September Surprises

Jesse Huseth and Meggan Kiel (Photo: Posted to X by Jesse Huseth)

The term “October Surprise” has long since been a part of the political lexicon as a way to describe last-minute campaign attacks directed by one candidate against another as an election cycle wends its way to its November conclusion.

There were two such instances in the city election this past week — one which only arguably qualifies and another which fits the definition perfectly. (And since this election ends in October, not in November, the term “September Surprise” is a more accurate fit.)

Certainly the revelation last Friday of an indictment by Nashville DA Glenn Funk of nine Shelby County Jail employees in the death last year of a Shelby County Jail inmate hit sheriff and mayoral candidate Floyd Bonner between the eyes.

And it may well have an impact on the election. At this point, to be sure, there is no directly traceable connection between any other candidate and Funk’s decision. There is no doubt, however, that Bonner’s chief rivals may feel some satisfaction from it. For the record, Bonner stood by his employees and proclaimed their innocence.

The other case was clearly premeditated by an opponent. This was an instance whereby District 5 city council candidate Philip Spinosa openly accused rival candidate Meggan Wurzburg Kiel of having advocated for “defunding the police.”

Kiel and her supporters wasted no time in calling a press conference debunking the accusation, which was based on a collective call by numerous Memphians, including Kiel, to rethink public safety procedures in the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 death.

It remains to be seen what the effect of either event will be on the election outcome.

A brief summary of mayoral endorsements:

Van Turner: State Rep. Justin J. Pearson; Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris; Congressman Steve Cohen; District Attorney Steve Mulroy; Stand for Children; Memphis For All; People for Fairness and Justice; Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood; AFSCME Local 1733

Paul Young: Shelby County Young Democrats; GenNext PAC; Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood; UpTheVote901 People’s Convention; West Tennessee Home Builders Association; Elliot Perry; Craig Brewer; NLE Choppa 

Floyd Bonner: Memphis Police Association; Memphis Fire Fighters Association; Shelby County Deputy Sheriff’s Association; ACRE (Association of City Retired Employees);West Tennessee Home Builders Association; MAAR – Memphis Area Association of Realtors

As the city election winds down, next year’s elections for state and federal office are already stirring.

As one example, Jesse Huseth, the Memphis businessman who earlier this year lost a close race to Lexie Carter for local Democratic chair, has his sights set on the District 97 seat in the state House of Representatives.

That’s the seat currently held by Republican John Gillespie, who originally won it in a tight race two years ago against Democrat Gabby Salinas, who went on to serve as Carter’s predecessor as party chair.

District 97, on the suburban eastern edge of Memphis, is adjacent to District 96, a formerly Republican bailiwick which went over to Democratic control with the upset victory in 2016 of Democrat Dwayne Thompson, who continues to hold it. Flipping 97 in like manner is now a Democratic priority.

That may not be easy. Gillespie, who is known to have broken with his fellow Republicans on key issues, has achieved a somewhat moderate reputation during his tenure and has passed significant legislation to curb the excesses of drag racing.

Categories
Politics Beat Blog

A Big Endorsement Day for Van Turner

Backing Van Turner on Friday were DA Steve Mulroy, state Rep. Justin Pearson, and County Mayor Lee Harris (Stand for Children)

Mayoral candidate Van Turner, who, according to polls, is in a tight race with other leading candidates, needed a boost. Over the last several days, he has gotten more than a few — mostly from major figures in the Democratic Party, which he once headed.

 On Friday, Turner was the subject of two endorsement ceremonies — the first, in front of City Hall, led by State Representative Justin Pearson (who had already announced his support for Turner) and included D.A. Steve Mulroy and Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris.

In part, Pearson said,  “This is one of the most important elections that will happen in a generation. And the support that Van Turner has received from leaders like D.A. Steve Mulroy, Congressman Steve Cohen, and so many others in our community prove that we need a leader who prioritizes the poor, the oppressed, those who have been pushed to the periphery of our society. We need a mayor who cares about all of them …

“We need a mayor who focuses on and is committed to not just building corporations well in downtown, which is part of my district, but he’s also invested in building a more just community. We need a mayor who’s a civil rights attorney, a father, a son, a leader of the NAACP, a vital ally for working-class people, reunions, a fighter for the poor, who is guided in order to make sure that Memphis is ahead of the individual.”

Later Friday morning, Turner was again the beneficiary of endorsements from important party figures. In a ceremony held at the home of Congressman Cohen, Harris, Assessor Melvin Burgess, and other leading Democrats weighed in on Turner’s behalf.

Van Turner with friends, including County Mayor Lee Harris and Congressman Steve Cohen (front row), and County Assessor Melvin Burgess, and former County Commissioner Reginald Milton. (courtesy of Rick Maynard)
Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Gibson Opens Up

Mayoral candidate J.W. Gibson with wife Kathy at headquarters opening (Photo: Jackson Baker)

In opening his headquarters on Quince Road in East Memphis last Saturday, J.W. Gibson — who is variously described as a businessman, as a developer, and as a philanthropist — sought to remedy one of the problems of his mayoral campaign.

The problem has been that, in a field overflowing with candidates of one stripe or another — a lawman, a local government veteran, a former mayor, a school board member, et al. — Gibson has lacked the focus that a single easy-to-digest descriptor might provide to distinguish him from his competitors.

He attempted to deal with that issue last Saturday by presenting a “six-point” plan and characterizing himself as a man of multiple dimensions, experienced in meeting a wide array of challenges.

“I’m a native Memphian, born in Dixie Homes, raised in South Memphis. I’m a Navy veteran, owner of three businesses, a wholesale distributorship, real estate development, and commercial printing.”

He proudly owned up to being the printer of the state’s lottery coupons. “Did y’all know that they were all printed here in Memphis?”

He identified himself with Memphis yet further by the very distinctive nature of his experiences — including, he pointedly noted, a successful, long-term “interracial marriage.” On hand last Saturday and prominently introduced were his wife Kathy and their two daughters, Savannah and Alicia.

Kathy Gibson is the president of Buckman Laboratories, one of the true ornaments of local industry. Buckman is a global specialty chemical company that conducts business in over 90 countries and employs approximately 1,700 associates.

Both the senior Gibsons are well known for the range of their contributions to numerous local arts programs and other causes.

Gibson’s six-point platform was unabashedly multiplicitous, as well. Among the points of it was the crime issue, the resolution of which depended on the coordinated activity of the entire community, he said, promising to invest in new crime-control technology and to hold a massive “crime summit” if elected.

Other platform points were economic and workforce development. Gibson lamented that the city had — some eight years ago, he said — divested itself of a workforce development program as such. (Others maintain that the city’s program was shifted over to the county under state mandate.)

Still another platform point was early childhood and youth development, apropos which Gibson proposed the restoration of direct city aid to Shelby County Schools — though not in the same measure as existed prior to the 2013 merger of city and county systems, followed by the creation of suburban municipal systems.

Gibson pledged to “bring back home” MLGW, which he called a “city division” but has enjoyed a partial autonomy of action. And he promised to create an annual showcase of Memphis music talent.

Last Saturday’s self-introduction was in the wake of a flurry of new yard signs advocating Gibson’s candidacy, and it will be followed up this week by ads on local TV.

Also hitting the tube this week was Sheriff Floyd Bonner with a 30-second biographical ad on all local stations pointing out that Bonner was the first African American to head the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department.

New TV ads were also purportedly imminent from candidates Paul Young and Van Turner, the latter of whom previewed one this week in online form.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

The Suspense Holds

Willie Herenton (Photo: Jackson Baker)

Now that Memphis city candidates have begun pulling petitions for various races on the 2023 city ballot, what have we learned? Not so much, not yet. And old questions remain.

When hopefuls began posting their financial disclosures for the first quarter of the year, Brian Harris was first up in Super District 8, Position 3. He declared receipts of $30,166 for the quarter, and the same amount as the figure for his cash on hand. He also listed the selfsame sum of $30,166 as having been raised entirely from contributions of $100 or less.

Only problem was — and still is — that if indeed all those facts are true, Harris is required to list and identify all contributions, no matter the size, over the total amount of $2,000, since unidentified contributions are capped at that figure. Any receipts over that amount have to be itemized. In Harris’ case, that means a minimum of $28,166 needs to be accounted for.

Attempts to reach Harris and unravel the mystery of his funding sources have so far proved unavailing — though in the long run the Election Commission, and through it the voters, is sure to find out what there is to know.

One declared adversary of Harris in Super District 8, Position 3, is Jerred Price. The local activist and entertainer of Almost Elton John fame declared receipts for that first quarter of $20,465, with cash on hand of $13,998.87. All contributions and payouts are duly listed, as required, including — almost quaintly — a disbursement of $10.50 as a bank service charge.

Several other candidates have pulled petitions so far for Super District 8, Position 3 — Davin D. Clemons, Yolanda Cooper-Sutton, Roderic Sydney Ford, Damon Curry Morris, Paul Randolph Jr., and Robert White Jr. — but none of them have yet released any numbers.

So far, there remains no indication that former Councilman Berlin Boyd has picked up a petition for 8-3 or for any other position, though he has long been rumored to favor a Super District race as his way back to the council. (As the incumbent for District 7 in 2019, Boyd was defeated in a runoff by Councilwoman Michalyn Easter-Thomas.)

The big race on the city council calendar this year will almost certainly be the contest for District 5. One contender for this seat, which bridges Midtown and East Memphis, is Meggan Wurzburg Kiel, a longtime mainstay for MICAH (Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope). As of that first-quarter disclosure, Kiel was already reporting cash on hand of $104,084.39, and she has continued to raise money since.

Kiel’s principal adversary will be yet another former council member seeking to return: former Super District 9, Position 2 Councilman Philip Spinosa, who, as of the year’s first disclosure, was reporting cash on hand of $14,721.60. Though that figure isn’t comparable to what Kiel reported at the time, Spinosa, like Kiel, has important connections and will ultimately raise a war chest commensurate with that fact.

Money will be an important indicator of candidate viability this year, but not the only one. One conclusion drawn by almost all observers of this year’s mayoral field is that one candidate sure to draw beaucoup votes will do so sans benefit of significant fundraising.

That would be former five-time Mayor Willie Herenton, mentioned in this space last week. Herenton finished second to incumbent Mayor Jim Strickland in 2019 without raising any money to speak of, and, especially with his new hard anti-crime platform, he remains an elephant in the room for this election season.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Herenton for Mayor … Again?

The Memphis Mayor’s race already has a fair number of announced candidates, some well known, some not. But it may be about to attract a candidate who is renowned to many Memphians and deeply controversial to others.

This would be none other than Willie Herenton, who has run for Mayor six times, winning five of those contests in the period 1991 to 2007 and losing one in 2019. Herenton’s first victory, in 1991, made him the first elected Black chief executive in the city’s history.

On Tuesday of this week the former Mayor dropped a video post on his Facebook page that pretty directly suggests he intends one more run for the mayoralty, this year

The post — a heavily stylized mix of sound and images — begins with an announcer’s voice saying, “This is the one you’ve been waiting for,” and continues with repeated reminders of a time, during Herenton’s mayoral tenure, when he ordered an impetuous reporter out of his work space, saying, in a refrain that is visually noted several times and recapitulated directly once from an old audio, “Get the hell out of my office!” 

The video ends with panels (here combined) that say, in succession, “Campaign Coming Soon, and “2023.”

Recently we noted in this space that Herenton has imminent plans to publish a political and personal memoir entitled From the Bottom. Asked this week, in an exchange of texts, about the book and about his possible campaign plans, he responded, “Working hard to meet some deadlines for the book,” and he promised to reach out soon so “we can talk politics.”

See the video here.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Dates Certain

Rick White (Photo: Courtesy Rick White)

From the intensity of both behind-the-scenes action and up-front newsmaking, it would almost seem that the 2023 city election — especially the mayoral-race component of it — is a matter of immediate import.

The fact is, however, that for all the present abundance of action, we are still four months from the first day that candidate petitions can be picked up at the Election Commission. That day will be Monday, May 22nd. The next key date in the city election process will be a filing deadline of Thursday, July 20th, at noon. Early voting will begin on Friday, September 15th, and election day will be Thursday, October 5th. Should a runoff be necessary in a district race for city council, that date will be Thursday, November 16th.

A key date of sorts just passed last week: The January 15th cutoff for financial receipts, which must be disclosed by the January 31st deadline. Sometime next week, as the results of this first round of disclosures get known, the actual pecking order of mayoral candidates should become clearer.

Early leaders in the money race are thought to be Sheriff Floyd Bonner and Downtown Memphis Commission CEO Paul Young, with former County Commissioner and NAACP head Van Turner also doing well.

• Meanwhile, in the wake of reports that former City Councilman John Bobango is considering running for mayor, another white candidate is letting his interest in a mayoral race be known. This is Rick White, a realtor and relative unknown, who says he intends to devote much of his time to the message that the citizens of Memphis are the responsible parties in any potential strategy for resolving the city’s crime issue.

In what sounds like a paradoxical sentiment, the mayoral aspirant says, “Whoever is mayor isn’t nearly as important as telling the citizens that it is they, and not an official, who can do something about crime.” Conveying that message would be an important element in his campaign should he run, White said.

• Add the name of Frankie Dakin, aide to Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, to the list of those thinking of running for the key District 5 City Council seat.

• Though the outcome of Tuesday’s special Democratic primary in state House District 86 could not have been known by the deadline (Tuesday noon, roughly) for this week’s print edition, it will have been posted subsequently in the Flyer in the form of an online article.

Like us, the Shelby County Commission was up against a deadline on the matter. As commission chairman Mickell Lowery notified members at the tail end of Monday’s regular commission meeting, January 31st is the final date for submitting legislation in the General Assembly; whereas, the commission’s next regularly scheduled meeting would not come until February 6th.

Whoever ends up representing District 86 in the state House should have the opportunity to formally file bills by the appointed General Assembly deadline, Lowery said.

Accordingly, the chairman announced a special called meeting of the commission on Wednesday of this week, for the express purpose of making a formal appointment of the top vote-getter as the state representative-elect. As Lowery noted, Tuesday’s leader would be eligible for that status because there were no Republican primary entrants for the position, making the Democratic primary winner the de facto winner of the seat and a proposed March 14th general election date moot.

Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. raised the issue that, depending on how close the election turned out to be, it might be difficult to designate a certifiable victor as soon as Wednesday. Nevertheless, the special called meeting date stands.

The District 86 seat was filled for 26 years by the late Barbara Cooper, who died last October after winning the Democratic primary for the seat in August. This week’s special election to name a successor was called after Cooper’s formal — and posthumous — reelection in November.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

POLITICS: New Mayor, New Council?

CREDIT: jb

Naming “crime, cronyism, and corruption” as major issues in
this year’s mayoral election, candidate Carol Chumney addressed the
Germantown Democratic Club Monday night, pledging if elected to “get a good
team” in order to bring renewed efficiency to Memphis city government.

Subsequently, city council member Chumney fielded at least
two questions from the membership (which includes several Memphis voters who
live in Cordova) about her reported difficulties with the mayor’s office and
fellow council members.

One member asked: What about her “relation building” and
“leadership style”? Would these be obstacles?

Chumney responded that she had developed good relations
with fellow legislators while a state House member for 13 years and said, “City
government has been a little different because there’s been quite frankly some
corruption. Many times I would be the only one who would stand up and say
anything. Some folks are going to get mad at you. I’m a strong leader, I will
tell you that.”

When another member followed that up by asking if the city
council would back her proposals if she were elected mayor, Chumney said, “We’re
going to elect a new city council.” Noting the virtual turnover of membership in
the county commission in last year’s elections, she expressed confidence that
city voters would follow suit. “It’s going to happen here. They’re going to vote
and vote in a new team.”

Pledging to renew cooperation between city and county
law-enforcement teams, Chumney said, “It’s disrespectful to expect the police to
go two years without a pay raise while asking them to risk their lives for us.”

She repeated her objections to Riverfront Development
Corporation proposals, including the recently approved Beale St. Landing
project, and called both for the city’s retention of The Coliseum and for
“something classy” in the downtown Pyramid.

Chumney said she’d heard “disturbing rumors” about the past
management of Memphis Networx and reported plans for its pending sale and
promised “to get to the bottom of it.” She said the council’s authority over a
prospective sale was uncertain but said she was seeking authoritative word on
that from the state Attorney General’s office.

  • Germantown is becoming an important campaign venue for
    candidates running for office in adjacent Memphis. A week or so earlier members
    of the Republican Women of Purpose organization heard a presentation at the
    Germantown Public Library from Brian Stephens, city council candidate in
    District 2, the East Memphis-suburban seat being vacated by incumbent Brent
    Taylor

    Stephens has been active in an effort to strengthen laws
    regulating sexually oriented businesses (S.O.B.’s in the accepted jargon) and
    specifically to make sure that veteran topless-club entrepreneur Steve Cooper
    does not convert a supposed “Italian restaurant” now under construction in
    Cordova into an S.O.B.

    He discussed those efforts but offered other opinions as
    well, some of them surprising – a statement that “consolidation is coming,
    whether we like it or not,” for example – and some not, like his conviction (a
    la Taylor) that tax increases are not necessary for the city to maintain and
    improve basic services.

    In general, Stephens, who seems to have a head start on
    other potential District 2 aspirants, made an effort to sound accommodationist
    rather than confrontational, stressing a need for council members to transcend
    racial and urban-vs.-suburban divisions and expressing confidence in the ability
    of currently employed school personnel to solve the system’s problems.

  • Also
    establishing an apparent early lead over potential rivals is current school
    board member Stephanie Gatewood, running for the District 1 council seat
    being vacated by incumbent E.C. Jones. Gatewood’s fundraiser at the Fresh
    Slices restaurant on Overton Park last Thursday night drew a respectable crowd,
    and her membership in Bellevue Baptist Church on the suburban side of District 1
    provides an anchor in addition to an expected degree of support from the
    district’s African-American population.

  • One night
    earlier, Wednesday night, had been a hot one for local politics, with three
    more-than-usually significant events, and there were any number of dedicated
    and/or well-heeled visitors to all three:

    –Residents of the posh
    Galloway Drive area where U of M basketball coach John Calipari resides
    are surely used to long queues of late-model vehicles stretching every which way
    in the neighborhood, especially in election season when Calipari’s home is
    frequently the site of fundraisers for this or that candidate.

    But Wednesday night’s event, a $250-a-head fundraiser for District 5 city
    council candidate Jim Strickland, was surely a record-setter –
    out-rivaling not only Calipari’s prior events but most other such gatherings in
    Memphis history, including those for senatorial and gubernatorial candidates. A
    politically diverse crowd estimated at 300 to 500 people showed up, netting
    Strickland more than $60,000 for the night and bringing his total “cash on hand”
    to $100,000.

    –Meanwhile, mayoral candidate Herman Morris attracted
    several hundred attendees to the formal opening of his sprawling, high-tech
    campaign headquarters on Union Avenue – the same HQ that, week before last,
    suffered a burglary – of computers containing sensitive information, for one
    thing – a fact that some Morris supporters find suspicious in light of various
    other instances of hanky-panky currently being alleged in the mayoral race.

    — Yet a a third major political gathering took place Wednesday night, as Shelby
    County Mayor A C Wharton was the beneficiary of a big-ticket fundraiser
    at The Racquet Club. Proceeds of that one have been estimated in the $50,000
    range – a tidy sum for what the county mayor alleges (and alleged again
    Wednesday night) is intended only as a kind of convenience fund, meant for
    charitable donations and various other protocol circumstances expected of
    someone in his position.

    Right. Meanwhile, Wharton declined to address the most widely speculated-upon
    subject in Memphis politics: Will he or won’t he enter the city mayor’s race? As
    everybody knows, and as the county mayor has informally acknowledged, he is the
    subject these days of non-stop blandishments in that regard, and there’s very
    little doubt that these have accelerated since a dramatic recent press
    conference by Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton alleging “the 2007 Political
    Conspiracy.”

    While some of
    Mayor Wharton’s intimates at the Wednesday night affair were keeping to the line
    that the chances of his running for city mayor were minimal to non-existent,
    their answers to inquiries about the matter were delivered after what we’ll call
    meaningfully inflected pauses. The door may be shut for now, but it clearly
    isn’t padlocked.

    jb

    Chumney in Germantown

  • NASHVILLE
    — The name of McWherter, prominent in Tennessee politics for most of the latter
    20th century, will apparently resurface in fairly short order, as Jackson lawyer
    and businessman Mike McWherter, son of two-term former governor Ned
    McWherter    , is making clear his plans to challenge U.S. Senator Lamar
    Alexander    ‘s reelection bid next year.

    Apparently only one thing could derail Democrat McWherter — a renewed Senate
    candidacy by former Memphis congressman Harold Ford Jr., who last year
    narrowly — lost a Senate race to the current Republican incumbent, Bob
    Corker    . “I don’t think I would compete against Harold. But I don’t think he
    will run,” McWherter said in an interview with The Flyer at Saturday’s
    annual Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner in Nashville.

    The 52-year-old activist sees Alexander as a slavish follower of President
    George W. Bush.

    “With one or two exceptions, he’s done everything the president has wanted him
    to do. He’s toed the party line,” said McWherter, who has recently paid courtesy
    calls on ranking Democrats, both in Tennessee and in Washington, D.C., informing
    them of his interest in running next year and soliciting their support.

  • Keynote speaker
    at the Democrats’ dinner in Nashville was presidential hopeful Bill
    Richardson    , whose situation somewhat paralleled that of former Massachusetts
    governor Mitt Romney, who earlier this month had been the featured
    speaker at the state Republicans’ Statesmen’s Dinner, also in Nashville.

    On that occasion, Romney – who had been invited before the entrance of former
    Tennessee senator Fred Thompson became likely – was a de facto lame-duck
    keynoter, and, mindful of the attendees’ expected loyalty to favorite-son
    Thompson, cracked wanly, “I know
    there’s been some speculation by folks about a certain former senator from
    Tennessee getting into the presidential race, and I know everybody’s waiting,
    wondering. But I take great comfort from the fact than no one in this room, not
    a single person, is going to be voting for — Al Gore.”

    That bit of verbal bait-and-switch got the expected laugh, and so did a joke
    Saturday night by New Mexico governor Richardson, who uttered some ritual praise
    of native Tennessean and former presidential candidate Gore and then, when the
    crowd warmly applauded the former vice president, jested, “Let’s not overdo it.
    I don’t want him in this race!”

    jb

    • Categories
    Politics Politics Feature

    A Conciliatory Mayor Herenton and His New Council Take the Oath

    CREDIT: courtesy WMC-TV

    Despite advance forecasts on CNN that Memphis would be in
    for severe weather on Monday, such was not the case. They probably should have
    checked with our mayor. The weather outside was mild and sunny, as was the
    weather inside at the Cannon Center, where Willie Herenton, flanked by his
    doting 86-year-old mother, took the oath of office for a fifth time and said, “I
    pledge to you to start afresh.”

    That meant dispensing with “old baggage,” Herenton said, after sounding a note
    that was both Lincolnian and Biblical: “Somewhere I read, ‘A city – or a house –
    divided against itself cannot stand.’ God help us all.”

    The reference to the Almighty was anything but perfunctory. It was vintage
    turn-of-the-year Herenton. As he had on previous New Year’s occasions, the mayor
    left no doubt about the nature of his political sanction. “God always chooses
    the individuals to lead His people,” he said, and vowed, “Here am I. Send me,
    Lord.”

    Tinged as that was with the grandiosity of yesteryear, it was, in context, good
    enough for new council chairman Scott McCormick, who, in follow-up remarks, said
    a thank-you to God himself, and responded in kind to the moderate portions of
    the mayor’s address. “He now has an approachable council,” said McCormick. “The
    roots of mistrust are behind us.”

    And, who knows, it may be true. After all, as McCormick noted, it was a new
    council, with nine new members out of the 13, and, of the four remaining, none
    were among those who had made a point of tangling with the mayor.

    There were omens of another sort, of course – for those who wanted to look for
    them. There were, for example, ambiguous words from Shelby County Mayor A C
    Wharton, who was drafted from the audience by moderator Mearl Purvis to formally
    introduce Herenton.

    Buried in the middle of Wharton’s otherwise friendly and flattering sentiments
    (from “your country cousin,” as the county mayor styled himself) was this sentiment addressed both to Herenton and to the audience at large: “The last time I checked, Midtown was in
    Shelby County, Boxtown was in Shelby County, Memphis was in Shelby
    County….”

    Whatever the meta-message of that, it had the sound of simple friendly teasing.

    And there was another vaguely suggestive verbal thread. In each of the oaths
    taken by Herenton, by the 13 council members, and by city court clerk Thomas
    Long was an archaic-sounding passage pledging that the sayer would “faithfully
    demean myself” in accordance with the proprieties and “in office will not become
    interested, directly or indirectly” in any proposition which could lead to
    personal profit.

    All well and good, but, applying that first verb in its current lay sense, too
    many members of the former council had been charged in court with conduct that
    society – and the lawbooks – might regard as “demeaning,” and too many had
    developed a personal “interest” in the issues they were asked to vote on.

    Still, it is a new council, it’s a new year, and it’s certainly a good
    time to “start afresh,” as Mayor Herenton said. So go ahead: Hold your breath.

    And, hey, for what it’s worth, the temperature did drop down into the 30’s a scant few hours after the swearing-in.