Meggan Kiel – Memphis Flyer

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.

Election fever is beginning to show not only at the level of mayoral hopefuls but among city council aspirants as well.

A key race will take place in council District 5, focused on Midtown and East Memphis, where former Councilman Philip Spinosa will be seeking a return to office. It won’t be easy for Spinosa, who’ll be opposed by newcomer Meggan Wurzburg Kiel, whose fundraiser Monday evening at the East Memphis home of Frank and Jeanne Jemison turned out well over a hundred supporters. The attendees ran the gamut from the well-to-do, many of them prominent in business and civic circles, to familiar activists of the political center and center-left.

Kiel ran through her extensive résumé, which includes service in a variety of educational missions among inner-city youth and a prominent role in the Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope (MICAH).

She noted that the council was “kicking the can down the road” in setting exact district boundaries, but urged those present to be ready on May 22nd, when candidate petitions can first be drawn, and “we will sign the petition together and have a really good time picking up officially the campaign.”

• On Saturday, some 100 or so cadres of the Shelby County Republican Party had a dissent-free reorganizing convention in which chairman Cary Vaughn, who was re-elected by acclamation, called for “turning the page” and distancing the party from the monolithic influence of former President Donald J. Trump.

As Vaughn commented to the crowd, “We need boots on the ground. We need new people. … We can’t get there with the same core group. … We have to truly look at how we market the Shelby County GOP. … We have to work on the depth chart, right?”

The chairman cited a recent conversation of his with an African-American acquaintance, who told him, “We as African Americans want to be a part of the Republican Party in Shelby County.” Vaughn quoted the man as saying many Blacks were “pro-life, pro-God, pro-business, pro-traditional marriage, [and] believe in core values. But we’re not coming over under the Trump brand.”

Said Vaughn: “We have to find a way to say, look, there is room for everybody at the table with the Shelby County GOP. Now maybe we tear down the silos just a little bit so that we can come together [and] move this party forward.”

That didn’t sit well with Terry Roland, an absentee Saturday and Trump’s local election chair in both 2016 and 2020. Roland reacted with fury. “There are more Trump [voters] than not” among the county’s Republicans, he said, “and we aren’t taking a back seat to anyone. … Most of us won’t support anyone else, so I’m done with the Shelby County party after 36 years.”

• It is remarkable that Congressman Steve Cohen of Memphis’ 9th District was the only Tennessean now serving in Congress that MSNBC could find to say something both sensible and sensitive in the wake of Monday’s fatal school shooting in Nashville.

In a lengthy interview, Cohen empathized with the victims and their families, expressed the need for significant gun-safety legislation (while despairing of finding enough Republicans on Capitol Hill to support it), and even doubted the safety of himself and others in the House, given the inclination of some GOP members to try to smuggle weapons onto the floor.

Nashville is a majority-Democratic city, in some ways more so than Memphis, but gerrymandering by the legislature’s Republican supermajority has contrived to split the state’s congressional districts in such a way that Republicans — like Andy Ogles, who sends out family Christmas cards showing everyone toting a firearm — are guaranteed to represent all the larger districts containing fragments of Nashville.