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Politics Politics Feature

Still in the Game

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

It would seem that mayoral candidate Herman Morris, whom some have sought to write off, remains a force to be reckoned with.

A generous crowd of attendees turned out for the former MLGW head at a Racquet Club fund-raiser May 24th, where Morris showed off his gracious wife Brenda and his two academically excelling sons. He may have over-promised somewhat, though — calling himself the only potential mayor “with a real first lady.” John Willingham, for one, has a potential “real first lady,” and so, presumably, do many of the 14 or so others in the race.

Even so, Morris has served notice that he’s in the mayor’s race for the long haul, with at least a chance to be regarded down the line as the major alternative to incumbent Mayor Willie Herenton. (That presupposes a foldo from City Council maverick Carol Chumney, though — and that’s not guaranteed to happen.)

Morris’ chief liability would seem to be that he isn’t entirely comfortable while greeting individuals or crowds. As his handlers say, though, there’s time — four months plus — for Morris to grow into the role.

The fund-raiser was the second of two timely events scheduled for challenger Morris last week. The first was a Tuesday night appearance with Willingham in a unique two-candidate mayoral forum sponsored by the East Shelby Republican Club.

The crowd at Pickering Community Center in Germantown (strange place that, for a Memphis mayoral forum!) seemed somewhat predisposed to Willingham, a longtime club member himself. The former commissioner, who is given to verbal prolixity the way Britney Spears is given to nights out, profited from the one-minute-per-answer rule imposed by moderator Stan Peppenhorn.

Another reason for his relatively strong showing was that Willingham, no fool despite his sometime air of eccentricity, knew the subject matters asked about in greater detail — whether they concerned governmental subjects at large or Willingham hobby-horses like the FedExForum “Garage Gate” scandal which he did as much as anyone to uncover.

Morris came off as able and responsive, though his answers were generally delivered in over-broad outline, even in the case of a brief discourse on the utility he once headed.

Sometimes that penchant worked to his advantage, as when he began an answer to a question about prospective new taxes by saying, “We don’t need any.” (Really that’s all his audience wanted to hear, and any explanation as to why that was the case was so much icing on the cake.) Similarly, Morris deftly dispensed with a question about term limits with the line: “Good idea. Three terms too late!”

Quips, Ideas, and Red Flags: The most intriguing new idea came from Willingham, who indicated that it might be “worth it” to look into public financing of an on-campus football stadium for the University of Memphis if the school and the state of Tennessee could provide as much as two-thirds of the funding. Morris seemed more open to a Fairgrounds site at some point down the line.

All in all, though, Morris may have done what he needed to for the long haul of a race that, after all, ends in October. His very reason for being there was to indicate to the attending Republicans that he was amenable to their concerns — a point reinforced as well by the presence of his co-campaign manager, party veteran John Ryder. (The other co-chair is former officeholder Minerva Johnican, a longtime Democrat.)

And though Shelby County Republican chairman Bill Giannini has publicly said there was “no chance” that Morris would get an endorsement from the local GOP, the chairman has also asserted that there was “no chance,” either, that Willingham could get elected — a belief widely held in political circles, even among members of Willingham’s own circle.

An End-Game Strategy: Under the circumstances, Morris needs only to hold on long enough — meanwhile building up name identification, credibility, funding, and support — to become identifiable in the public mind as the logical alternative to incumbent Mayor Herenton, who polls suggest is plumbing the depths of unpopularity right now.

Presupposing that there is no bounceback for Herenton (which cannot be ruled out), Morris’ hopes depend largely on a stall developing in the campaign of Chumney, who was the leader in early mayoral polls but whose go-it-alone reputation may at some point cost her.

In any case, the Willingham-Morris mano a mano — ridiculed in some quarters for not being more inclusive — served its purpose as a friendly intramural sparring match, put on for the edification of Republicans looking for a candidate to get behind. One note of caution for both men: One influential Republican commented afterward that Chumney, who has a following among grass-roots sorts alienated from politics as usual, might get as many GOP votes as “both these guys put together.”

STATE POLITICS

“Tired Blood”: Another legislative week begins with the ever-surprising saga of state senator Ophelia Ford unresolved, and, as things now stand, unlikely to be.

After weeks in which her chronic absenteeism from the ongoing legislative session in Nashville and a mystery illness were the main facts discussed about her, Ford made up for lost time in the last couple of weeks with some conspicuous acts of commission.

There was her odd performance week before last in a subcommittee hearing on the Department of Children’s Services’ handling of investigations into child deaths. Ford, member of a family known for its funeral home business as well as for its total immersion in politics, may have mistakenly chastised the DCS for negligence in the matter of death certificates (not a departmental concern), but it was her manner, seemingly both confused and overbearing, that gave rise to doubts about her sobriety.

When the senator was hospitalized the next day after falling off a bar stool in her Nashville hotel, those doubts were magnified, especially when brother Joe Ford, chairman of the Shelby County Commission, talked of a likely alcohol problem and proposed to journey to the state capital personally in order to get his sister into rehab.

Nor was that all. Next a Nashville cabbie complained of being manhandled by an “intoxicated” Ford, though the driver has declined so far to press charges.

For all that, Senator Ford’s situation seemed to have stabilized as this week got under way. Denying an alcohol problem, she issued a statement attributing her recent problems to clinical “anemia,” which she also described by the popular name “tired blood.” She also insisted that she intended to continue serving in her office, at least until the election year 2010, and meanwhile Commissioner Ford apparently dropped his rehab plans.

One factor in staving off a more drastic resolution is the fact that Ford’s vote could be crucial in determining the outcome of several key issues as the legislature winds down this week and next. Senate Democrats were of no mind to sacrifice one of their own, and Senate Republicans were not pressing the issue.

Kurita resolution advances: Having passed the first major obstacle by getting a favorable vote on her proposal to elect Tennessee’s constitutional officers in her own chamber last week, state Senate Speaker Pro Tem Rosalind Kurita hopes to gain approval by the House this week.

If successful, she would then need to get two-thirds approval in both bodies next year in order to put the proposal, in the form of a constitutional amendment, on the statewide general election ballot in November 2010. The offices affected would be lieutenant governor, attorney general, treasurer, comptroller, and secretary of state.

While visiting Memphis the week before last, Governor Phil Bredesen took a stand against the proposal, contending that in all instances (save, possibly, the office of lieutenant governor) the proposed change would put the affected officials under too much direct pressure from “special interests.”

In any case, Kurita’s success so far was a counter of sorts to the fact that key Senate Democrats still resent her vote in January in favor of Republican Ron Ramsey as Senate Speaker and lieutenant governor.

Down to the Wire: Voters in state House District 89, centered on upper Midtown, go to the polls this Thursday to determine the winner of two special primary elections.

Democrats choose between Kevin Gallagher and Jeanne Richardson, each of whom — to judge by endorsements and turnouts at their events — would seem to command a decent-sized share of the party base.

Two relatively unknown Republicans — Wayne McGinnis and Dave Wicker Jr. — vie for their party’s nomination.

The two winners will compete in a special general election on July 17th. — JB

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Politics Politics Feature

A C on Charter Change

If Shelby County mayor A C Wharton had his way, he’d appoint most of the constitutional county officers whose status is now judicially uncertain and allow the popular election of the assessor and sheriff, though he’d want to strip away the independent budget control now enjoyed by the sheriff.

The county mayor made his personal preferences clear Friday in an interview with the Flyer, after attending a noon session of the Urban School Leadership Conference at the city’s Teaching and Learning Academy on Union Avenue.

Five currently elected county offices had their status made flexible by a state Supreme Court ruling earlier this year in a Knox County case. Since then, Wharton, county commission members, and other officials have been reviewing the status of these positions for possible redefinition under the county charter.

Besides the sheriff and assessor, the positions in legal limbo are those of trustee, county clerk, and county register.

“I do think there are some offices that are largely business-type offices that should be appointed,” the mayor said. Those, he indicated, were the county clerk, the register, and probably the trustee, though Wharton remains undecided about the latter.

Eliminate sheriff’s budget control

“I feel very frankly that the sheriff ought to be elected and answer to the wishes of the people. And the assessor … I also think the individual in that slot ought to be completely immune from political pressure,” the mayor said.

On a key issue affecting the sheriff’s fiscal independence, however, Wharton demurred. “I think he ought to be elected under the charter, not under the state constitution,” Wharton said. Did that mean that the budgetary control currently enjoyed by the sheriff should be transferred to the central county administration? “That’s correct,” the mayor answered.

“It’s not the multiplicity of the positions per se that makes it difficult to head the county in one direction,” he elaborated. “It’s just the plain business functions — it’s where we bank, where we invest, how many people we hire. When you have seven or eight people trying to make those decisions, it’s very difficult.”

In the case of the trustee, those issues have been acute in the recent past, Wharton feels — a factor in his ambivalence about the position. “I’m not fully decided on that, but I do think more of the functions ought to be more clearly delineated in the charter and not have to rely on the state law. See, that’s what happens now: The trustee says, ‘I’m not a county officer, and I don’t have to go through your purchasing procedure, and I don’t have to do this, and if you don’t give me enough positions, I can sue you.”

Conceivably, the trustee’s position could remain elective, the mayor said, but “when it comes down to the housekeeping functions, those ought to come under the charter, just like everything else.”

“Basically office-type positions“

Summing up: “I’m not completely decided on the trustee. I’m inclined to believe that ought to be an appointive position. With the assessor, I am decided that should be an elective position; the sheriff I think ought to be [elective]. But again, those business functions, you don’t have that in city governments around the state, and they function quite well. Those positions are basically office-type positions.”

Ideally, as Wharton sees it, the mayor’s office would be responsible for hiring the county clerk and register and likely the trustee, with the county commission responsible for confirming the appointments.

Any change in the county charter would require an amendment to be voted on by popular referendum. It could be placed on a Shelby County ballot by citizen petition, by action of the county commission, or possibly through the aegis of a charter review panel.

• The Democratic primary race for the vacant state House seat has heated up (again) with candidate Kevin Gallagher‘s charge that only he is a longtime resident of District 89. Opponent Jeanne Richardson counters that Gallagher’s flyer mail-out on the subject is loaded with inaccuracies. Meanwhile, the dangerous-looking guy on the flyer is apparently just a stock photo Gallagher (or a surrogate) got by Googling “angry citizen.” (Richardson hopes people think it’s Gallagher himself.)

Among the things that Gallagher charges in the flyer that went out late last week are that he owns his home in the district while Richardson does not, that he managed former state senator Steve Cohen‘s successful 2006 congressional campaign while Richardson “could not vote for Steve Cohen for state Senate” because she lived outside the district, and that for similar reasons she was never able to vote for former District 89 representatives Beverly Marrero or Carol Chumney.

Says Richardson: “The only thing that’s completely accurate is that I wasn’t able to vote for Beverly Marrero, whom I support, however.” She insisted that while she lived for some years with a former husband on Mud Island, she rented her current residence in District 89 back in Februrary, lives there (in the Evergreen Historical District), and intends to buy the house.

Richardson says further that she lived at three prior District 89 addresses before moving to Mud Island in 1990 (on Pope, Crenshaw, and North Drive) and that she indeed voted for Cohen for the state Senate during that time frame and not only voted for Chumney (in 1990) but hosted a fundraiser for her in the district that year.

Gallagher’s flyer notes that the house Richardson now rents is owned by her campaign treasurer, Amanda McEachran. Richardson concedes the point but says she moved there (with family members) before she made up her mind to run (“It was even before Beverly won her state Senate race [for District 30], and I couldn’t have made plans to run by then”). She also says that she is endeavoring to buy the house and that she is completing the sale of her former Mud Island residence.

For his part, Gallagher contends he belongs to “the third generation of Gallaghers to live in this district and is raising the fourth generation” in it. His flyer is headed “Know the Facts! Only One Democrat in the Race for State Representative is Actually From the District.”

For the last day or two, both he and Richardson have been making their rounds while packing folders with papers supporting their respective claims. The to-do involving residence recalls a similar issue raised by Marrero in 2004, when she won her own special election for District 89 to succeed Chumney, who had been elected to the City Council. In her primary against opponent Jeff Sullivan, she charged that Sullivan had voted from a district residence he had not yet moved into.

Richardson and Gallagher are generally conceded to be running neck-and-neck in the Democratic primary. Each can claim impressive endorsements: Richardson boasts Marrero and Chumney, while Gallagher has the public support of Representative Cohen and county commissioner Deidre Malone.

Mayoral candidates Morris, Willingham in Mini-Battle

Even as political adepts and voters alike begin to express an interest in broadening the current field for mayor, two aspirants for the job of Memphis’ chief executive are engaged in a mini-competition of sorts for the official favor of the local Republican Party.

Former MLGW head Herman Morris and ex-county commissioner John Willingham were scheduled for a joint appearance this week before the East Shelby Republican Club, an influential local organization in the GOP matrix.

Morris, who is trying to hit some imagined political middle (calling himself both a “lower-case” Republican and a “lower-case” Democrat), has Republican establishmentarian John Ryder as a campaign chairman. Willingham is a longtime party member, though he has almost always been on the maverick side of GOP controversies and in his several previous races has most often been denied the party’s imprimatur.

Both are probably in for a disappointment. County Republican chairman Bill Giannini told a meeting of the monthly Dutch Treat Luncheon Saturday that Morris had “no chance” of being endorsed and, while he was not so explicit about Willingham, expressed his opinion that the former commissioner had no chance to win and should exit the race. After the meeting, Giannini told the Flyer he did not think the local party should endorse anyone.

(Some Democratic backers of Morris, meanwhile, believe his interest in a Republican endorsement, whether he gets it or not, would diminish, not enhance, his chances.)

Despite recent polls showing City Council member Carol Chumney leading incumbent mayor Willie Herenton and the rest of the declared field, including FedEx executive Jim Perkins, the current consensus among political observers seems to favor the mayor’s chances in October.

But almost everybody thinks that could change with new arrivals in the field — notably Shelby County mayor A C Wharton, who is widely considered a likely winner if he chose to run. — JB

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Opinion Viewpoint

Poor, Poor Alberto

If the House Judiciary Committee session last week starring Attorney General Alberto Gonzales produced few revelations about the suspicious dismissal of eight (or nine or more) U.S. attorneys, the hearing did clarify a critical political reality: No matter how discredited he is and no matter how much damage he continues to inflict on the Justice Department, this attorney general will not resign.

What the hearing established most clearly is that most Republicans remain united behind Gonzales despite the clear evidence of his incompetence, dishonesty, and contempt for Congress. Unlike their counterparts in the Senate, none of the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee even posed a sharp question to him, let alone urged his resignation. Instead, they acted in partisan lockstep, expressing sympathy for the poor attorney general’s ordeal, pretending that there is no scandal and no stonewall, and insisting that the investigation should end.

The Senate Republicans who upbraided Gonzales last month, such as Arlen Specter and Tom Coburn, certainly have their faults. But they and their colleagues cut an Athenian profile compared to the Republicans in the House, who cannot seem to comprehend why a politicized law-enforcement system is a danger to them as well as their enemies.

Obviously, Republicans have paid no attention to the eloquent warnings of their committee’s chairman, John Conyers, explaining why this scandal jeopardizes the most important asset of the Justice Department — namely, “its reputation for integrity and independence.” Then again, listening to them for hours was a powerful reminder that many of them may simply be too stupid to comprehend what Conyers was talking about.

Consider Florida representative Ric Keller: “Tell me what your top two priorities are going to be over the next 20 months that you’d like to accomplish,” he inquired sunnily.

“I’ll give you three,” answered Gonzales, who went on to recall his meeting with the president on September 11, 2001, which made him want to keep America safe. He also mentioned his aversion to violent crime and gangs and then held up his arm to show a wristband that was given to him by a man whose daughter had been murdered by a sex offender. That wristband reminds him that he wants to keep America’s children safe, too.

Keller followed up with equal rigor: “As a prominent Cabinet member, U.S. attorney, or U.S. attorney general, you could leave today and make $1 million a year at a law firm pretty easily, but you’re staying on and want to stay on. Is it because of your passion for those three things, violent crime, terrorism, and getting after child predators?”

Much of the Republican questioning was similarly unedifying. Texas representative Louie Gohmert, a former state judge, spent his time rehashing the false comparison to the Clinton administration’s request for the resignations of all of the U.S. attorneys after Bill Clinton took office in 1993. “Was that a crime?” he demanded indignantly. “No,” said Gonzales.

And let’s not forget Virginia’s Randy Forbes. Apparently, Forbes meant to arouse sympathy for the beleaguered attorney general because he has so many, many employees to oversee. First, he asked how many people work for the Justice Department, and the attorney general replied that there are about 110,000. Then he asked how many of those employees are lawyers — and inadvertently revealed that Gonzales did not know this most basic fact about his department.

“Ten thousand to 15,000,” said the attorney general — a differential of 50 percent. But then again, his entire defense, as he reiterated repeatedly under questioning from the Democrats, is that he didn’t know what his former aides Kyle Sampson and Monica Goodling had done in his name when they compiled the hit list of U.S. attorneys. After all, he had signed a secret document turning over his authority to those two junior political operatives, whose only qualification to bully their betters was their connection to Karl Rove.

Before last week’s hearing, The New York Times reported that Gonzales believes he has “weathered the storm” and can continue in office despite his diminished status in the White House and on Capitol Hill and the widespread public belief that he is covering up a serious scandal. And he is right, unless Democrats and the handful of responsible Republicans have the courage to press their investigation to its logical conclusion: Gonzales’ impeachment.

Joe Conason writes for Salon.com andThe New York Observer.

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Politics Politics Feature

Laying It On the Line

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

It was in the suburbs and rural areas of West Tennessee that Bob Corker probably gained a decisive edge over Democratic opponent Harold Ford Jr. during the U.S. Senate election of 2006. Or so most post-election analysis indicated.

And Oakland, Tennessee, a fast-growing municipality in Fayette County, where the freshman Republican senator held a town meeting on Monday, is both suburban enough and rural enough to qualify as an integral part of Corker’s constituent base.

Residents of Fayette County are also, as Corker made a point of noting Monday, second to none in the fervor of their patriotic feeling.

So when Corker, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, focused on Iraq in his remarks at the town meeting, it may safely be assumed that he was talking turkey, putting his true sentiments on the line.

One thing the senator made clear right away was his commitment to full financial and moral support to commanding general David Petraeus and the ongoing “surge” effort in Iraq, but Corker insisted that positive results were needed this summer, before the Senate takes up the issue of supplemental appropriations in September.

“We need to give General Petraeus the time he needs through this summer … to turn what has been a downward spiral … into an upward spiral for the people of Iraq,” Corker said. He employed the phrase “through this summer” over and over as a frame for his — and the Senate’s — commitment to the current military effort.

At one point, an audience member wondered if media reports from Iraq, “which I tend to think are more liberal in the presentation of the information we get,” could be trusted.

Corker’s answer was careful and measured. Petraeus had “tremendous concern” about prospects in Iraq, he said. The senator noted that he had discussed the war effort with Petraeus three times — in Washington, during a time of “energy and enthusiasm” before the general undertook his present field duties, again during a visit by Corker to Iraq, and once more during a recent briefing by Petraeus on a return visit to Washington.

“And I will tell you, he is very concerned,” Corker repeated.

There had been progress made in outlying provinces, where tribesmen had signaled their exasperation with an al-Qaeda presence, Corker said, but the picture in Baghdad was far bleaker, both in terms of mounting military confrontations and increased bombings and from the standpoint of the Iraqi government’s own insufficient effort, both military and political.

“Iraqi culture just doesn’t move at the same pace that we do,” said Corker, noting that the country’s government had been slow to move toward political reconciliation of the three basic Iraqi populations: Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds.

“We’ve insisted on reforms, but there is tremendous hatred among the Iraqi people. These things are not happening yet,” Corker said.

“It’s a tough situation, and I know that, as you mention, the media paints it out to be a tough situation, but it actually is a tough situation. There are some successes that are taking place over in the hinterlands, if you will, that are away from the urban area of Baghdad. I don’t think that’s exactly what you wanted to hear.”

The senator was asked after the meeting if he supported the efforts of the 11 Republican members of Congress who met with President Bush last week and cautioned the president to let Petraeus, rather than himself or anyone else associated with the White House, serve as principal spokesperson on the war.

“I think that General Petraeus is the man on the ground. … I really do think at this point in the war’s evolution, it’s so politicized, that General Petraeus is respected by Republicans and Democrats, and I think people view him as somebody they can trust. … Politics are very thick right now, and he [Petraeus] is above politics, and I really do think that he’s the best possible spokesman.”

Asked about a possible presidential bid by former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson, Corker made it clear he would be supportive of a Thompson candidacy. “I think Fred is going to run. He’s a great communicator, and not just our country, but the world, needs a great communicator.”

During the town meeting, Corker also emphasized his concerns about developing Tennessee’s biofuels industry as a partial solution to the nation’s energy needs and indicated his commitment to rethinking how health care is financed.

The visit to Oakland followed several earlier appearances by Corker in Memphis.

• Steve Cohen is no half-hearted booster of Kevin Gallagher for the open District 89 state House seat. That was the word last weekend from the 9th District congressman himself — disappointing though it may be to some of the boosters of Jeanne Richardson‘s Democratic candidacy for the seat.

There were claims here and there, even after Cohen’s yard on Kenilworth sprouted a Gallagher campaign sign a week or two ago, that Cohen intended to give only pro forma support to Gallagher, who was campaign manager for his successful run last year in Memphis’ 9th congressional district.

Not so, says Cohen, who went on to suggest, without elaborating, that if things got “nasty” in the race between the two Democrats, he would feel compelled to intervene on Gallagher’s behalf more directly than he has to date.

“I’m focusing on my congressional duties,” said Cohen, who professed to have no problem with Richardson’s candidacy, largely directed by his sometime associate David Upton, but acknowledged that the “hard core” of his former campaign staff was involved in the Gallagher campaign. The congressman also confirmed that he had made a substantial contribution to Gallagher’s campaign coffers and had encouraged others to do so.

District 89 was formerly represented by Beverly Marrero, who earlier this year was elected to succeed Cohen in state Senate District 30. The Democratic primary race between Gallagher and Richardson is regarded as nip-and-tuck by most observers.

Marrero and the previous District 89 representative, City Council member and mayoral candidate Carol Chumney, have both added their names to an impressive endorsement list compiled by the Richardson campaign.

Gallagher and Richardson will get their first direct opportunity to confront each other one-on-one next Sunday, May 20th, at a forum hosted by the Memphis Stonewall Democrats at the Gay & Lesbian Community Center at 892 S. Cooper.

Two candidates — Wayne McGinnis and Dave Wicker Jr. — are also vying in the Republican primary, which has so far attracted conspicuously less attention. Both party primaries will be held May 31st, with the winners competing in the special general election on July 17th.

Early voting in the District 89 primary race began Friday at Election Commission headquarters at 157 Poplar and will continue through Saturday, May 26th.

• Cohen’s predecessor, former Memphis congressman Ford, now chairman of the conservative Democratic Leadership Council, was in Nashville Monday morning, where he, DLC founder Al From, and several prominent Tennessee political figures announced that the DLC’s “National Conversation” would be held this year in the Tennessee state capital.

Ford pronounced himself “very pleased” that the event would be held in Nashville, which was headquarters for his unsuccessful U.S. Senate run last year. “The South is a region with enormous opportunity for New Democrats, and we look forward to showcasing our ideas here,” Ford said.

The official DLC release added: “The National Conversation will provide a forum for an exchange of ideas on some of the most pressing challenges facing our country, including security, making America competitive in a global economy, poverty, and energy.”

Governor Phil Bredesen, honorary chair for the event, took part in the announcement, as did three honorary co-chairs: congressmen Jim Cooper and Lincoln Davis and Nashville mayor Bill Purcell. The event, which will take place July 28th-30th at the Opryland Hotel, is expected to attract some, if not all, of the active Democratic candidates for president.

• State House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, a Democrat, has been opposed by a succession of Republican challengers in recent years. He’ll apparently have one more to deal with in 2008: activist Jeff Ward, a longtime Tipton County activist and leader of the statewide organization TeamGOP, who said this week he intends a race for Naifeh’s seat.

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Opinion

On Polls and Votes

Two things that are often not what they seem to be: close votes in the Memphis City Council and polls showing the standing of Memphis mayoral candidates five months before the election.

Last Friday, a committee of the council voted 3-2 to withdraw funding for the $29 million Beale Street Landing project. But that doesn’t mean the proposed riverboat landing and architectural monument at Beale Street and Riverside Drive is dead. The full council will have opportunities to replace the funding, perhaps as early as this week.

One of the three votes against Beale Street Landing was cast by Carol Chumney, who also happens to be leading Mayor Willie Herenton and challengers Herman Morris and John Willingham in the election polls.

Neither the committee vote nor the polls matter very much, but here are four reasons why I think Chumney will continue to make news this summer.

First, she is independent to a fault, which suits her fine, even if her colleagues see it as counterproductive and grandstanding. Her supporters see a diligent council member who is demonstrably not better off financially for having been a public servant.

Second, she favors upending the status quo. She is a radical in a way that has nothing to do with feminism or war or national issues and everything to do with local issues and priorities.

Third, when she takes a position, you may not agree with it but you know what it is. Her refusal to join in the censure resolution of Joseph Lee because it was irrelevant was unpopular but turned out to be correct.

And, fourth, unlike her fellow council members and the Memphis business establishment that supports Herenton with its money but not its mouth, she accepts the fact that this year you are either with the incumbent or you are against him. You’re in as a mayoral candidate or you’re out. And she’s in.

Does this mean that Chumney would be an electable and effective mayor or that she is even an effective council member? Not necessarily, although my personal view is “no” on the first count and “yes” on the second.

But it does mean that Chumney, by being Chumney, brings clarity to issues and helps put them in clearer perspective?

Beale Street Landing, for instance, is a signature Herenton project. The Riverfront Development Corporation (RDC) is a Herenton creation staffed by former Herenton division directors and their spouses and supported by a board of Herenton appointees. Herenton and the RDC say the landing would bring more local and out-of-town visitors to Tom Lee Park and downtown. Chumney calls it a “boondoggle” in the tradition of Mud Island and The Pyramid.

Both Chumney and her colleague Scott McCormick, one of the two committee members who supported Beale Street Landing, correctly see that the funding vote is really a referendum on both the project and the RDC. Without a big project — the Front Street Promenade, the land bridge, relocating the University of Memphis law school, Beale Street Landing — the RDC is the “Riverfront Maintenance Corporation.” You don’t need three former division directors and a full-time PR person to do that.

Beale Street Landing and the RDC will probably survive because the City Council is also hooked on big projects. They make headlines and photo opportunities. They get federal funds. They create jobs and goodies and opportunities to repay favors to campaign contributors and fellow council members. This is the stuff of politics and, sad to say, the news business. On New Year’s Day, Herenton proposed a new stadium and a new program to fight blight. Heard much about blight since then?

Many of the votes that make headlines at the City Council never amount to anything — think Lee’s non-censure and the investigation of MLGW, the non-removal of Edmund Ford and Rickey Peete, the non-reuse of the Fairgrounds and The Pyramid, the non-annexation of 2006, and the 2007 efficiency study that will wind up on the shelf. So much of what goes on at the council is just for show.

Herenton knows that, just as he knows that a telephone poll putting his support at 20 percent or less reflects “free” votes that don’t really count. The vote that counts will be in the October election.

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Politics Politics Feature

Bringing Closure

It took a good deal of jawing, maneuvering, and bargaining back and forth, but the Shelby County Commission ultimately passed a Living Wage Ordinance Monday.

The vote was seven ayes, four nays, and one recusal. What the ordinance does is mandate a minimum wage of $10.02 (with benefits) or $12.01 (without benefits) for employees of county government as well as “of businesses receiving service contracts” from county government.

The ordinance, sponsored by Commissioner Steve Mulroy, was amended by its author to exclude locally owned small businesses employing fewer than 10 employees. “That was the best way to ensure passage. It’s not perfect, not ideal, but it was a matter of being realistic and getting something done,” Mulroy said.

The measure requires only the signature of county mayor A C Wharton to become law.

• The newly elected chairman of the Shelby County Election Commission is Myra Stiles, who was returned to the commission as a Democratic member last month, following the second of two brief intermissions in her longtime service, which began in 1987.

Stiles has been administrator of the law firm Farris Mathews Branan Bobango & Hellen, PLC since 1982 and previously served as special assistant to the late William Farris, chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party in 1978-81.

She has also been president of the Democratic Women of Shelby County and of the Tennessee Federation of Democratic Women.

• Though some consider as evasive his action last week in deflecting a move to purge lawyer Richard Fields from the local Democratic committee, others grant new party chairman Keith Norman points for finesse.

What Norman did was, first, allow committee member Jennings Bernard to make his case against Fields (for previous actions benefiting Republicans, essentially) and member Fields to respond — both briefly. Then, committee members were allowed to ask point-blank questions of either.

Afterward, Norman cited local party bylaws and state Democratic Party rulings to the effect that Fields’ alleged offenses occurred prior to his election to the committee in late March. The chairman then declined to allow a vote on Bernard’s resolution of expulsion. In effect, what Norman had done was allow a pro forma venting of opinions before closing out the potentially explosive issue.

• Though Jeannie Richardson is compiling an impressive endorsement list, and both she and her chief sponsor, activist David Upton, are going door to door in her special Democratic primary campaign for the vacant state House District 89 seat, opponent Kevin Gallagher got a major boost to his campaign last week.

Confirming what Gallagher had long predicted, 9th District congressman Steve Cohen made his own endorsement known by posting a Gallagher campaign sign prominently in his front yard. Cohen is also said to have made a major financial contribution to Gallagher, who managed the congressman’s own campaign last year.

• Some call it a masterstroke for Memphis mayor Willie Herenton, some call it an acknowledgement of a major blemish on his administration, and others merely note that Herenton did what he had to do last week by firing both MLGW president Joseph Lee and the utility’s general counsel, Odell Horton Jr.

Already an albatross after months of various accusations against him for an assortment of alleged misdeeds, Lee became the subject of renewed controversy during an imbroglio over whether taxpayers should pay his legal fees. (Horton’s evident openness to that prospect proved fatal to his own tenure.)

But the last straw for Lee was MLGW board member Nick Clark‘s formal complaint that Lee had attempted to blackmail him. Compounding that, a crime in itself if true, was that the alleged threat was based on patent misinformation about Clark’s past.

Two of Herenton’s mayoral opponents acted quickly to prevent the issue from ultimately going away, as a few observers predicted would happen.

Former MLGW head Herman Morris called a press conference to propose a “moratorium” on filling Lee’s position (held provisionally by former city CAO Rick Masson) until after this year’s mayoral election, while City Council member Carol Chumney issued a reminder that a much-discussed recent resolution of hers that was not acted upon by her fellow council members had specified that only Herenton could discharge Lee.

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Opinion Viewpoint

Don’t Go for the Gun

The carnage at the Virginia Tech campus last month has inevitably revived the arguments about gun ownership in this country.

Advocates of arming the population as a means of preventing gun violence take the view that guns in the hands of citizens will always be effective in neutralizing the threat posed by an armed assailant, when nothing could be further from the truth.

There was a time, not too long ago, when I was the proud owner of several guns. I had lived my whole life in fear of guns and with the belief that their use and ownership should be severely controlled. So, to confront my fears and prejudices, I embarked on an episode of my life that saw me accumulate and familiarize myself with the use of a variety of firearms.

I was the proud owner of several exotic shotguns (for sport-shooting purposes) and managed to acquire more than a few Glock, Beretta, Smith & Wesson, and lesser-known handguns. I even had the big daddy of handguns, a .357 Magnum (the kind Clint Eastwood made famous in his “Go ahead, make my day” scene in Dirty Harry).

I joined a local gun club. I was living the fantasy every boy of my generation envisioned when he got his first toy gun. I even went to the trouble of being trained in the use of the handguns and getting a carry permit issued by the state. I carried a concealed weapon in the belief that in this Wild West town I needed protection from crazed criminals.

Then, I was robbed at gunpoint not 500 yards from a police station (a fact I throw in only to show that no place is totally safe from a determined criminal). The robber surprised me as I was entering a store late at night and already had his gun drawn and pointing at me from no more than five feet away, much the same way the assailant in Virginia was already brandishing one (or more) of his weapons when he confronted his victims.

As it happens, I was “carrying,” and I gave a fleeting thought, during what seemed to be the longest few seconds of my life, to wondering whether I could, O.K. Corral-style, outdraw him. But I realized, thankfully, I probably couldn’t shoot him before he shot me (or worse, that we would both die in a hail of bullets), and I abandoned that thought as I threw him my wallet.

Since I’m writing about the incident, I obviously did the right thing — not to mention that I’m not sure I could have shot another human being, even at the risk of my own life. And I’m not sure whether I could have hit my target. I must admit I still have moments when I regret not having at least tried to defend myself, but then I realize: Charles Bronson I’m not.

Even law-enforcement personnel, who are thoroughly trained in the use of firearms, will tell you that in the heat of the moment, the likelihood of hitting your target diminishes substantially.

The proponents of a ubiquitously armed citizenry assume that merely carrying a gun equips the person carrying it to use it effectively and rationally, when the fact is, increasing the number of guns being carried in the population will only create more guns available to be stolen or used for some unintended purpose (i.e., suicide, crimes of passion, accidental firing, bystander injury, etc.).

My gun-toting days are now behind me, primarily because of my recognition of the uselessness of doing so, born of my experience with an armed assailant. I don’t regret familiarizing myself with the world of firearms, but my experience taught me guns aren’t the solution to gun violence, they’re the problem.

Marty Aussenberg writes the “Gadfly” column in “Political Beat” atwww.memphisflyer.com, where a longer version of this essay first appeared.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Feeling the Sting

When, as virtually the last matter taken by the prosecution in former state senator John Ford‘s Tennessee Waltz trial, a $50,000 Rolex watch came into evidence, Ford and his support group, which included numerous members of his immediate and extended families, seemed of good cheer.

As was chronicled here last week, Ford felt sunny enough after that day’s testimony to engage in banter with the two FBI agents, Mark Jackson and Brian Burns, who had testified to being the originators of the entire Tennessee Waltz sting — the means whereby Ford and several other state legislators and other public officials had been induced to accept money in return for legislative favors.

If the watch — a gift from developer Rusty Hyneman that prosecutors were attempting to use as “predication” (proof of Ford’s disposition toward corruption) — had an outer-space element (it was partly made of material derived from a meteorite), so had the sting devised by Jackson and Burns and acted out by three other principals, FBI agents “L.C. McNeil” and “Joe Carson” (the names were pseudonyms) and undercover informant Tim Willis.

The premise of the sting was that a computer-recycling firm calling itself E-Cycle (it was an FBI shell company, as things turned out) needed expert assistance from the likes of Ford and was willing to pay for it — in the senator’s case, to the tune of $55,000.

Aided by defense attorney Mike Scholl, Ford felt that he had a strong prospect for nothing worse than a hung jury (indeed, Scholl would base his closing argument on an appeal to each juror to “act as an individual”).

The very fact that he felt like engaging in humorous asides with the professed architects of his then-pending peril was evidence that Ford and his supporters saw the predication case to be weak enough that he might indeed catch a break from one or two jurors.

Evidently Ford was right, but not right enough. When jurors fell to deliberating on Wednesday, following closing arguments, they did deadlock on the charge of extortion — an indication that Scholl’s claim of entrapment had found some sympathetic ears.

Equally tenuous were the three counts of witness intimidation — all ultimately resulting in not-guilty findings, at least partly because the main witness against Ford on that count, Willis, had seemed disingenuous or worse during a hard day of cross-examination by Scholl.

But the charge of bribery was buttressed by what seemed an endless series of videotapes showing Ford being handed money — $55,000 altogether — by McNeil, who had made sure to connect the payoff to specific talk about legislative action by Ford.

Ford’s mood had conspicuously turned gloomy by Thursday afternoon, when jurors and other trial principals were reconvened to hear Judge Daniel Breen‘s ruling on a definition requested by the jury: What precisely was the meaning of the term “under color of official right”?

When the judge ruled that it referred to actions by a public official, the feeling had almost palpably spread to all followers of the trial that some tide had turned against Ford. In fact, the question had to do with the extortion count, but its import was more general, and, as it turned out, there was no disagreement among jurors on the bribery charge.

Whatever sentiment there was that racial or political factors might have influenced the Tennessee Waltz prosecution (and on the latter score there was and is a considerable amount of suspicion; see City Beat, p. 14), the jury of six blacks and six whites did its duty by the evidence confronting their eyes and ears.

Hypothetically, all of this could come undone in the course of some appeal. In any case, John Ford has very little in the way of a breathing spell. Though he remains free on bond, he is up for trial again next week in Nashville, on charges relating to accepting money in return for legislative favors — this time on behalf of a real company.

• Shelby County assessor Rita Clark, the Germantown homemaker and Democratic activist who surprised herself and everybody else by winning her maiden political race in 1996, then went on to win twice more, won’t run again in 2008.

Clark announced her decision to members of the Shelby County Commission during budget hearings on her department Monday morning.

Asked to accept a 5 percent cut for the next fiscal year, Clark declared such a thing “impossible” and then went on to tell the commissioners she would not run for reelection and didn’t want to saddle her successor with a departmental budget that was too small.

Elaborating on that later on, Clark said, “My budget now is the same as it was when I came into office. There’s no way we could continue to provide an appropriate level of service with less.”

Although she had worked in other candidates’ political campaigns, Clark had never made a race of her own until 1996, when the late Democratic eminence Bill Farris prevailed on her to run against incumbent assessor Harold Sterling.

Clark was widely regarded at first as a pro forma candidate — someone to maintain her party’s presence on the ballot. She ultimately proved to be much more — fighting a hard mano-a-mano campaign against Sterling by questioning his hiring of a personal trainer and an out-of-county assistant.

She won in an upset, going away, and in the process her continued success suggested to many Democrats that, all other factors being equal, someone of her race and gender made an ideal countywide candidate.

To date, no other Democrat — except for Mayor A C Wharton — has been able to crack the Republican monopoly on countywide offices.

Commenting Monday on her decision not to seek reelection next year, Clark cracked wryly, “It’s just time. I’m afraid if I ran again, my husband would oppose me. And I couldn’t beat him.”

• Both Democratic candidates for the vacant District 89 state House seat, Kevin Gallagher and Jeannie Richardson, held campaign fund-raiser/receptions last week, as that campaign begins to mount in earnest. Two Republicans are also competing for their party’s nomination: Wayne McGinnis and Dave Wicker Jr.

Responding to at least one Gallagher supporter’s published skepticism concerning her residence (and the identity of her Midtown housemates), Richardson, a former inhabitant of Mud Island, said, “The people who live here with me are my son, my daughter, and my granddaughter, and I do hope they’ll all be active in my campaign.”

Both parties’ special primaries will be held May 31st, with the two winners facing each other in a July 17th general election.

• Still feeling their oats are a group of local Memphis bloggers who have been sought out of late for audiences by political figures like state Senate speaker pro tem Rosalind Kurita (D-Clarksville) and Memphis mayoral candidate Herman Morris.

Now, the group, whose efforts are pooled under the umbrella site memphisliberalblogosphere.blogspot.com, have been asked for another sit-down — this time by teacher Bill Morrison, a Democrat who ran a game but ultimately unsuccessful race for Congress last year against 7th District incumbent Marsha Blackburn, one of the Republican Party’s stars.

Morrison evidently plans to take on another behemoth — this time City Council incumbent Jack Sammons.

Both Sammons and his friend and fellow Super-District 9 council member Tom Marshall are presumed to be candidates for reelection, but each is also rumored to be still considering a race for mayor.

• It is still too early to write “finis” to the mayoral field. As of Tuesday morning, 14 petitions had been pulled from the Election Commission, and only one person — former Shelby County commissioner John Willingham — had actually filed.

Incumbent mayor Willie Herenton, presumably to cover his flank, made a point this week of dispatching a letter to Shelby County mayor Wharton, his erstwhile campaign manager, advising him that “no circumstances” would prevent him from running again and adding significantly, “I trust that your support will be evident.”

Without Wharton, who is still under pressure from potential backers to make a race, the “top tier” of mayoral candidates is generally considered to consist of Herenton, city councilwoman Carol Chumney, former MLGW head Morris, and Willingham. Some regard former FedEx executive Jim Perkins as belonging in that list, and there is talk also of a candidacy by entrepreneur/businessman Darrell Cobbins.

Categories
Opinion

Keeping It Unreal

So the government fired five shots at John Ford and hit him once, federal prosecutors kept their Tennessee Waltz winning streak unbroken, and the E-Cycle FBI Actors Repertory Company closed another Memphis performance.

This one was a little shaky. Prosecutors said they are sending out a strong message of deterrence. But four years after its inception, Operation Tennessee Waltz still looks more like a sting targeting Democrats in Memphis and Chattanooga than a purge of “systemic corruption” in state government. Its success is due to secret tapes of a handful of public officials taking bribes from a fake company that their colleagues were too honest, too smart, or too irrelevant to deal with.

Or maybe they just know how to Google.

Type “Joe Carson” and “FBI undercover” in a Google search and you find that Joe Carroll, whose FBI undercover name is Joe Carson, starred in at least two FBI undercover productions before Tennessee Waltz. In “Operation Lightning Strike” from 1991 to 1994, he posed as a big shot for Eastern Tech Manufacturing Company, a phony business seeking crooked contracts in the aerospace industry in Houston. His undercover name? Joe Carson. The sting resulted in indictments and a mistrial.

In 2001, Carroll and the FBI resurrected “Joe Carson” in a Maryland undercover operation targeting state lawmakers. His phony Atlanta-based company was seeking crooked deals with Comcast for fiber-optic contracts. A former state senator, Thomas Bromwell, is under federal indictment but has not yet gone on trial.

Give the FBI, Carson, L.C. McNeil, and Tim Willis credit for pulling off a two-year Tennessee undercover operation, including the 2004 and 2005 legislative sessions, without a leak. The Ford tapes were so powerful that the defense barely tried to explain them away. They left no doubt that money was exchanged for special legislation. The sting worked, but it hasn’t yet exposed corruption in real deals in high places.

Operation Tennessee Waltz started in 2003, after FBI agents investigating phony contracts in Shelby County Juvenile Court found evidence of “systemic corruption” in state government. Seven of the 11 Tennessee Waltz indictments were announced at a press conference in Memphis on May 26, 2005. The investigation, convictions, and guilty pleas since 2003 have produced no indictments for bribery or other wrongdoing by any full-time state employee, lobbyist, or contractor. On tape, Ford boasts that he is the man who “does the deals” and “control[s] the votes,” but his trial was all about E-Cycle and legislation that never got beyond committee.

“Systemic corruption,” it seems, is a product of Shelby County and Hamilton County, two of the 95 counties in Tennessee. Five Memphians have been convicted or pleaded guilty. In a conversation with agent McNeil in 2004, Barry Myers, the bag man who later became a government witness, explained why lawmakers were wary of the free-spending black millionaire: “To be honest with ya’, most of the money I used to pick up come from white folks, white males, established businessmen that would send money to Kathryn, Lois, Roscoe, and John. That’s where the real money came from.”

Who spent the “real money” for “the big juice” — Ford, Roscoe Dixon, Kathryn Bowers, and Lois DeBerry? We don’t know. The payment of “consulting fees” by real companies is at the heart of Ford’s pending case in Nashville, which is not part of Tennessee Waltz. He has a hearing on May 3rd. Eli Richardson, assistant U.S. attorney in Nashville, said “it remains to be seen” how the Memphis case will mesh with the Nashville case, which apparently relies on old-fashioned evidence and witnesses.

“The conviction in Memphis opens up all kinds of possibilities for plea negotiation that didn’t exist before,” said Bud Cummins, a former federal prosecutor in Arkansas. “But there is not a whole lot of pressure on the government. They are still holding most of the cards. My best guess is they’re pretty intent on going to trial.”

Ford could appeal his Memphis conviction and request a sentencing delay until after he is tried in Nashville. If he is sentenced and goes to prison before his appeal is resolved, he could still be tried on the Nashville charges.

“We try people all the time who are sitting there in prison clothes,” Cummins said, although Ford would probably be unrestrained and in civilian clothes in the courtroom, with a federal marshal standing behind him.

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News The Fly-By

For Thought

CREDIT: Michael Drager | dreamstime.com

I’ve recently started working on my five-year plan. I think it’s all the business and planning forums I attend. I’m always hearing “if you don’t know where you want to go, how can you ever get there?” (I also hear a lot about “low-hanging fruit” and benchmarks, but I digress.)

My five-year plan covers everything: housing, transportation, spawn, salary, lifestyle. And in many ways, it has to. If you have children, that affects what kind of transportation you use. And where and how you live certainly depends on how much money you make.

I mention this because in the last week or so, it just seems that the more things change in the city, the more they stay the same.

The city administration formally presented the results of a $700,000 efficiency study to the City Council last week, but even though it found $19 million in potential savings, Mayor Willie Herenton didn’t seem interested in implementing them. About 80 percent of the savings came from the fire department.

“We have known for some time that there are opportunities to reduce costs, but that wasn’t what we wanted to do,” said Herenton. “The consultants can come in and study, but we’re the ones who have to run this.”

Outdoor retailer Bass Pro initially said it was interested in the Pyramid late December 2005, but it still hasn’t made a commitment. An article in last week’s Commercial Appeal quoted city CFO Robert Lipscomb saying people needed to have patience. Maybe this is what we get for dealing with a retailer that caters to fishermen, a group of people known for both their patience and their tall tales.

Also this week, Save Libertyland announced that they had been given the Zippin Pippin. The activist group is interested in donating the roller coaster back to the city, if the city will preserve it and keep it on the Fairgrounds property. If the city agrees, the only difference from a few years ago would be the Mid-South Fair made $2,500 off of it and now the ride doesn’t have any cars.

Is this progress?

What if I told you that in five years from now, the Fords will still have a family member on a majority of the local legislative bodies? Or that Herenton was still mayor? Or that the Pyramid was still sitting vacant?

Would that be acceptable?

In Curitiba, Brazil, now a world-renowned city for its solutions to sprawl, poverty, limited public funding, and other urban problems, planners started working on the city 40 years ago. Now it’s been a “showpiece of urban planning,” — more than 40 other cities have developed transportation systems based upon Curitiba’s rapid bus system and leaders from all over the world have visited the city to learn how it transformed itself.

But the smallest step was perhaps the most important: Planners met weekly, even daily, not to work on the plan but to remind and refresh themselves of the goals they were working toward.

I’m not sure how proactively the Memphis region is thinking about the future. There are areas of foresight, of course. The chamber is looking at Brooks Road and the concept of the aerotropolis. Germantown has a plan for itself called Germantown 2020. Within the entire county, the office of planning and development has a comprehensive planning section that is charged with providing direction for future growth by developing policies and strategies.

In the long-term, the most critical factor for the community’s future is perhaps transportation. The decisions that are made about roads and highways eventually affect where housing and retail are located and at what densities. And those decisions are made very far in advance.

The Memphis Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is currently working on Destination 2030, a plan for the Memphis area’s transportation needs for the next 25 years. But if the MPO is talking about what Memphis will need for the next quarter-century, the rest of the region needs to be thinking about that, too.

Look at the future Highway 385 — it’s going to extend Memphis’ reach past the Shelby County line and into Fayette County. Pretty soon, citizens might start debating the merits of the Shelby County school system versus the Fayette County school system.

But in the short-term, I think the most critical factor is what the public wants. Maybe it’s more trashcans on downtown streets. I’d like to see that, as well as eye-catching recycling bins set up in government buildings, public schools, and the airport. Maybe it’s The Pyramid torn down.

The bottom line is this: Either we think about what we want for our city or we’re just along for the ride.