First-quarter deadline for Memphis mayoral candidates’ financial disclosures was March 31st, with reports due at the state Registry of Election Finance by April 10th, Monday of this week. It will take a while for all of them to be collated and made public, but, when available, presumably this week, they will be a useful key to the competitive status of various candidates.
Likely leader in revenues raised and on hand will be Downtown Memphis Commission CEO Paul Young, who has been the beneficiary of several recent big-ticket fundraisers. Two of Young’s main competitors — NAACP president and former Commissioner Van Turner and Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner — will probably show lesser revenues than might ordinarily be expected.
The obvious reason for that is such public doubt as has recently been raised by uncertainties regarding possible residency requirements for Memphis mayor — though the Shelby County Election Commission has, amid litigation by Turner and Bonner, removed a note from its website citing an opinion from former SCEC chair Robert Meyers proclaiming a requirement for a five-year prior residency in the city. Meyers based his opinion on a city-charter provision dating back to 1895.
Turner, Bonner, and former Mayor Willie Herenton, who is not known to have launched a significant fundraising campaign, have all maintained residencies outside the city at some point in the past five years. Herenton is not a party to the ongoing litigation, regarding which separate suits by Bonner and Turner challenging the Meyers opinion and seeking clarification have been combined in the court of Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins.
During a status conference on the suits last week, Jenkins established May 1st as a date for ruling on the litigation. He had previously rejected a motion by attorneys for the SCEC to include the city of Memphis as a codefendant along with the Commission. Jenkins decided that the city had not officially endorsed the Meyers opinion, though city attorney Jennifer Sink had forwarded it to the SCEC. For her part, Sink has said she has no intention of formally claiming the Meyers opinion as the city’s own.
• In calling a special meeting of the County Commission for this Wednesday on the issue of reappointing the expelled state Representative Justin J. Pearson to the House District 86 seat, Commission chair Mickell Lowery made his own sentiments evident.
After noting that he was “required to make decisions as a leader,” Lowery said, inter alia, “I believe the expulsion of state Representative Justin Pearson was conducted in a hasty manner without consideration of other corrective action methods. I also believe that the ramifications for our great state are still yet to be seen. … Coincidentally, this has directly affected me as I too reside in state House District 86. I am amongst the over 68,000 citizens [actually, 78,000] who were stripped of having a representative at the state due to the unfortunate outcome of the state assembly’s vote.”