“Even if you pass away, it’s worth it.” That was Donald Trump this past weekend, advising his supporters to brave life-challenging cold and weather elements to cast votes for him in last Monday night’s Iowa presidential-preference caucuses.
That was pure déjà vu. I was on hand for the equally wintry New Hampshire primary in 2016 when Trump, arriving at his final Manchester venue amid blizzard-like conditions, told the crowd to turn up and vote for him on the morrow even if they faced real danger in the process. “I don’t care if you crash your car, so long as you vote for me first,” he told them.
And he wasn’t joking either time. What a pal!
(That Manchester speech was also the one where Trump publicly approved a woman attendee’s description of his rival Ted Cruz as a “pussy.”)
There is, in fact, something existentially challenging about these dead-of-winter presidential showdowns, as there was in the famous Green Bay-Dallas “ice bowl” game in 1966, played in minus-13-degree weather for the NFL championship that last pre-Super Bowl year.
To be sure, both Iowa and New Hampshire are predominantly white states with traditionalist populations. Doing well with such voters is another basic challenge candidates should manage as a preview of their national viability.
I hold to what may be a minority view that Democrats have erred in backing away from Iowa and New Hampshire as early tests in presidential balloting, preferring the demographic diversity of South Carolina as a more Democrat-friendly kickoff site. This ignores that Jimmy Carter’s 1976 win in Iowa and Barack Obama’s there in 2008 convincingly prefigured their later successes with the national electorate.
It is surely the purpose of a mirror to tell you the truth when you look at it, not to contain an idealized pre-prepared portrait of yourself.
• Meanwhile, Memphis city government prepares for follow-up rounds after a reorganization session at city council last week raised more questions than it answered.
One matter is whether the council, at its meeting next week, will complete the acceptance of Mayor Paul Young’s cabinet appointments, particularly that of holdover Police Chief CJ Davis, who was on the wrong side of a 7-6 preliminary vote at the council’s first meeting of the year last week.
Another issue, coming before the city council in February, is what to do regarding a third and enabling vote for a proposal to extend lifetime healthcare benefits to anyone who will have served at least two terms on the council after 2015.
Outgoing Councilman Martavius Jones introduced the proposal in the late stages of the previous council term, and it was approved in two of three required readings before that term expired.
It is up to the newly installed city council to vote up or down in a third reading of the proposal next month, and momentum against the measure is increasing, augmented by reminders from former council members like Shea Flinn and Kemp Conrad of the state comptroller’s crackdown on city benefits during the administration of former Mayor AC Wharton, resulting in a rollback of city employees’ benefits. (These were later substantially restored to first responders after voter approval of a sales-tax hike.)
“If we don’t learn the lessons of the past, we’ll be risking financial instability and state intervention again,” says Conrad.
It isn’t necessarily momentous that Mayor Paul Young will face a delay in having his newly announced appointments approved by the city council. But it isn’t incidental or meaningless, either.
As the week began, it had become common knowledge that, upon their formal presentation to the council last Tuesday, the courtesy of “same-night minutes” was likely to be denied to some — if not all — of the appointees.
“Same-night minutes” is the shorthand for a parliamentary process whereby actions taken by the council in a given session are approved by an immediate second vote by the council to become instantly effective and to avoid follow-up action at the group’s next regular meeting, when the minutes of the preceding meeting would normally get formal approval. It’s a “hurry-up” process, as a means of hastening the effective date of a council action, making it, in effect, instantaneous. It is employed when the avoidance of any delay is considered a paramount factor.
The process is also invoked, as previously suggested, as a courtesy of sorts — as in the case of most mayoral appointments.
As it happens, the Young appointees were to be presented to the council almost a year to the day from that awful moment in January 2023 when Tyre Nichols was beaten to death by an out-of-control unit of the SCORPION task force, which had been created by Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis as a would-be elite enforcement element of the Memphis Police Department.
That fact, along with the well-known circumstance of an increased rate of violent crime in Memphis during the last year and the MPD’s status under a Department of Justice investigation, is enough to have flagged Davis’ reappointment for special attention.
It was clear when Davis spoke to the Rotary Club in November that she — and her mayoral sponsor — wanted to regard her appointment as a certainty. She prescribed a year’s worth of policy points with the air of one who could speak to their achievement. Yet there was something vague, tentative, and not quite jelled about her presentation — as there was when she recapped her intentions again last week at a crime summit called by Young.
Meanwhile, there was head-scratching at City Hall as to Young’s inability — or indecision — regarding his naming of a COO and a CFO, though he had reportedly scoured the city governments of Nashville and Chattanooga for prospects.
The resultant highlighting of Davis’ appointment against a backdrop of Strickland-era retainees left his cabinet-level choices looking somehow incomplete and provisional.
Pointedly, council chairman JB Smiley, determined, it would seem, to assert council prerogatives, began running a poll on X to gauge public acceptability of Davis’ appointment, and no council members have seemed anything but resolute when sounding out on the issue.
None of this augurs well for a new administration which is still seen — at best — as enveloped with an aura of the unknown and untested.
It remains to be seen whether the situation reflects more of a sense of unreadiness on the part of the new regime or an aroused determination on the council’s part to assert its own authority.
Either way, it certainly amounts to a rough start.
Unsurprisingly, Paul Young evoked two parallel concepts in his inaugural address as mayor. He spoke of the specter of crime and its continuing threat to the community. And he spoke of that community’s crying need for a restoration of unity. More surprisingly, he rooted that unity in a memory of an almost forgotten Memphis, of a city that once was officially celebrated not only as one of the nation’s safest places but, formally, several times, as the nation’s cleanest city.
“We all feel it, the city feels like it is in a crisis. The chaos has taken a toll on our collective psyche; it threatens to derail all of the progress of what Memphis can be, we are Memphis, and the future depends on what we do right now. … Together, we can make history, we can make America’s largest majority minority city … America’s safest city. We can make that America’s cleanest city, we can make that America’s city with the fastest growing economy … it’s not going to happen tomorrow, but it will happen.”
And this is a man who asked us to remember that he entered the mainstream of life as an engineering student, who converted that aspect of his being into a knack for social and civic engineering, and who has spent many of his professional years in city and county jobs that called for the re-engineering of housing and neighborhoods — and, indeed, of urban attitudes.
Let us hope that he is thereby ideally equipped to help us remake ourselves as a people.
Another member of what we might consider a new breed of public officials is District Attorney General Steve Mulroy. The DA, too, in a year-end piece written for Tom Jones’ Smart City blog, took note of the times:
“2023 was a challenging year for us. At year’s beginning, we became global news with the Tyre Nichols tragedy. Though nothing can undo the trauma of that event, we can derive some consolation from the fact that we — all of us — handled the case swiftly, fairly, transparently, and peacefully. Memphis didn’t burn, and neither did any of the other major cities with large protests following the release of the video.
“I’m praying that we learn some lessons about reform from this tragedy. We’re generally not good at nuance, but we need to understand both that the vast majority of police are persons of good faith, and also that there are issues of culture and process crying out for systemic reform. The crime issue has eclipsed this issue in the minds of many, but we can’t forget that Tyre Nichols isn’t an isolated incident. The problem isn’t fixed, and there’s work still to do.”
The DA expressed hope “that local leaders stop pointing fingers and start joining hands to make us safer … that our public discourse stops obsessing on sentence lengths and bail amounts (which will not make us safer) and instead focuses on how to increase our crime solve rate and our recidivism rate (which will).”
At his annual holiday gathering last year, an event which attracts people of many different minds, Mulroy at evening’s end presented, instead of his accustomed finishing limerick, a song, one which addressed the community’s prevailing air of controversy and divide. To the tune of “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” his verses ended with the refrain of “Let it go, let it go, let it go.”
One of the attendees at that party was Mulroy’s longtime friend Brian Stephens, founder and president of the public strategy group Caissa Public Strategy, well-known for espousing the hopes of conservative-minded groups and political candidates.
Asked about the gap between his own political views and those of his liberal host, Stephens texted back: “Lots of people trying to do their best. Different approaches. Different ways. But it’s all the same goal. Steve is a good man. I hope he feels the same for me.”
And that’s yet another way of saying unity, isn’t it?
Memphians had been flummoxed in late 2022 by two heinous crimes — the brazen kidnapping from her jogging trail and murder of schoolteacher Liza Fletcher and a maniacal killing spree by one Ezekiel Kelly, who videoed the shootings of his random victims on social media as he rambled around town that evening in a series of stolen cars.
These were horrific events, and they earned widespread national attention as well.
But the dazed citizens of Memphis had, as they say, seen nothing yet. Nor had the world. In the first weeks of the new year, a young amateur photographer and skateboard enthusiast named Tyre Nichols was stopped while driving home and mauled and killed by members of an out-of-control police unit called, ominously, “SCORPION.”
Understandably, such circumstances, coupled with a dismaying rise in shootings, car thefts, break-ins, and youth violence in general, ensured that public safety and crime control — on both sides of the law — would loom large in the year’s city elections.
Temporarily interrupted by legal confusion over possible residency issues, the mayoral race eventually saw an original field of 11 winnowed down to four main contenders: Sheriff Floyd Bonner, former Mayor Willie Herenton, NAACP head Van Turner, and Downtown Memphis Commission CEO Paul Young.
An early favorite, Bonner would see his prospects marred, fairly or not, by publicity regarding an apparent rash of inmate deaths in the county jail. The ultimate victor was Young, a veteran of several more or less technocratic city and county jobs, who had begun the race as a virtual unknown but caught fire, thanks to influential backing, formidable fundraising, and nonstop on-the-clock campaigning.
The outgoing Mayor Jim Strickland, a veteran of two terms, had been vexed by the issue in his turn. He had expended considerable time in recent months lamenting what he called a “revolving door,” whereby members of the judiciary and local prosecutorial authorities were, in his estimation, being lax about getting criminals off the streets and keeping them off.
But, in the course of several year-end farewell appearances as mayor, Strickland found a silver lining or two.
In prepared remarks, Strickland cited “city recruitment and retention programs and incentives to grow our [police] department” closer to a distant goal of 2,500. (Currently, the MPD is about 1,900 strong.) Altogether, 1,136 officers had been added to the force, and 1,301 had been promoted during his tenure, Strickland noted.
Other matters mentioned by Strickland in a wide sweep of claimed accomplishments included a variety of development projects, youth programs, and initiatives for the homeless, along with extensive re-paving, new LED street lighting, and more of the “basics” candidate Strickland had promised to be “brilliant” at when he first ran in 2015.
In the course of his remarks during an unveiling of his official portrait in City Hall, the mayor was openly emotional to the point of tears as he expressed gratitude for the opportunity to have served eight years in “the best job I ever had.”
And now that job is Paul Young’s for the having. One of the bases of candidate Young’s appeal had been his assertion that he didn’t care about the politics of things, that, rather, “I just want to do the work.”
That modest declaration was reassuring in the same way that Strickland’s expressed determination to see to the basics had been.
Young, too, will have to concern himself with the everyday and the commonplace of governing — and no doubt will do well at it.
But to return to our main theme, he will have to wrestle — and wrestle hard — with the overarching theme of public safety.
One reminder is that 2024 will see the trial of a second defendant in the 2018 murder on Front Street of then Chamber of Commerce president Phil Trenary, a random victim who was walking home to his condo after watching the conclusion of a 5K race Downtown.
What do you mean it’s almost January? If you’re anything like us, the encroaching new year has really seemed to have come out of left field. The churning news cycle means that we’ve had our heads down covering the arts, a mayoral race, the Tennessee legislature, and everything in between. But despite a packed 2023, there are plenty more stories on the horizon. With 2024 just around the corner, our writers take a look at what we can expect in Memphis news next year.
Breaking News
Paul Young
Paul Young taking the mayor’s seat will be the Memphis news story to watch in 2024.
Memphis hasn’t had a new mayor for eight years; hasn’t done things differently for eight years — for good or bad. So, Memphians can expect new ideas, fresh faces, and new approaches to the city’s same-old problems (but maybe some new opportunities, too).
Some could argue too much emphasis is put on the mayor’s office, much like the president’s office. But that office is where the city’s business is done daily, from police and fire to trash collection and paving. Yes, these ideas are later shaped by the Memphis City Council and, yes, the mayor is expected to carry out rules formed entirely by the council. But all of that is executed (executive branch, get it?) by the mayor and his team.
Young has already named a few key staffers. Tannera Gibson will be his city attorney and Penelope Huston will be head of communications, according to The Daily Memphian. Young told the Memphian, too, that he’ll keep the controversial Cerelyn Davis as chief of the Memphis Police Department.
Memphis in May
This next year could be make or break for the Memphis in May International Festival (MIM).
It ended 2023 with a whimper. The nonprofit organization posted a record loss of $3.4 million and record-low attendance for Beale Street Music Festival. Also, its longtime leader Jim Holt announced his retirement.
MIM leaders put Music Fest on hiatus for 2024. It also moved the Championship Barbecue Cooking Competition to Liberty Park.
Meanwhile Forward Momentum and the Memphis River Parks Partnership (MRPP) announced a new three-day music festival at Tom Lee Park (called River Beat) and a new barbecue contest, both in May.
It’s unknown if these new events could supplant MIM. Speculation, though, has the future of the nonprofit in question. It’ll be worth watching.
Tennessee General Assembly
State lawmakers are hard to predict.
Last year, for example, one GOP member spent countless hours persuading his colleagues to add firing squads to the list of options for the state’s death row inmates. Another wanted to add “hanging by a tree” to that list.
However, one can easily predict Republicans will seek to make life harder for the LGBTQ community. One bill paused last year, for example, would allow county clerks to deny marriage rites to anyone they choose (wink, wink).
The little-known but hard-working Tennessee Medical Marijuana Commission may approach lawmakers next year with a plan to get a state system off the ground. Dead medical cannabis bills have become too many to count over the years. But the hope is that the group’s expertise after years of study may help tip the scales.
Easy bets are also on bills that mention “abortion” or “trans.” — Toby Sells
Politics
Oddly enough, the city’s incoming chief executive, Paul Young, remains something of an unknown despite his extensive exposure (and his consistently adept campaigning) during the long and trying mayoral race that concluded in October. Nor will the aggressive ballyhoo of his preliminary activities — parade, concert, and inaugural ball, no less! — have shed much light on his intentions in office, though his inaugural address will be highly anticipated in that regard.
Major changes may be in the offing, though so far the shape of them is not obvious. Young’s announced reappointment of police director C.J. Davis at year’s end may be an indication that, in the personnel sense, anyhow, there may well be a continuum of sorts with the administration of outgoing Mayor Strickland.
The newly elected council, meanwhile, is expected to be measurably more progressive-minded on various issues as a result of the election than was its predecessor.
A city task force already launched — GVIP (Group Violence Intervention Program), which involves an active interchange of sorts between governmental players and gang members (“intervenors,” as they are designated) in an effort to curb violence on the streets. It will be picking up steam as the year begins.
And follow-up readings will still be required in 2024 on an initiative sponsored by outgoing Councilman Martavius Jones and passed by the council conferring lifelong healthcare benefits on council members elected since 2015, upon their having completed two terms.
(News of that move prompted an astounded Facebook post from former Councilman Shea Flinn, who served back when first responders’ benefits had to be cut and a controversial pension for city employees with 12 years’ or more service was rescinded. Said Flinn: “Do I have this correct? Because I don’t want to be gassing up a flamethrower for nothing!”)
The Shelby County Commission, having worked in tandem with Mayor Lee Harris in the past year to secure serious funding for a new Regional One Health hospital, continues to be ambitious, hoping to acquire subpoena power from the state for the county’s recently created Civilian Law Enforcement Review Committee and to proceed with the construction of a long-contemplated Mental Health, Safety, and Justice Center.
The commission is also seeking guidance from the DA’s office on the long-festering matter of removing County Clerk Wanda Halbert from office.
At the state level, almost all attention during the early legislative session will be fixed on Republican Governor Bill Lee’s decision to push for statewide application of the school-voucher program that barely squeaked through the General Assembly in 2019 as a “pilot” program for Shelby and Davidson counties. (Hamilton County was later added.) The program was finally allowed by the state Supreme Court after being nixed at lower levels on constitutional grounds. Democrats are universally opposed to its expansion, as, for the record, are the school boards in Shelby County’s seven school districts. Prospects for passage may depend on how many GOP legislators (a seriously divided group in 2019) are inclined this time to let the governor have his way.
Also on tap will be a series of bills aimed at stiffening crime/control procedures, some of which may also try to roll back recent changes in Shelby County’s bail/bond practices.
Oh, and there will be both a presidential primary vote and an election for General Sessions Court clerk in March. — Jackson Baker
Music
No sooner does yuletide appear than it’s gone again in a wink, as we turn to face a new notch on life’s yardstick. Yet even before 2024 dawns, Memphis has great music brewing on this year’s penultimate day, December 30th, from the solo seasoned jug band repertoire of David Evans (Lamplighter Lounge) to the revved-up R&B-surf-crime jazz-rock of Impala (Bar DKDC) to Louder Than Bombs’ take on The Smiths (B-Side).
Ironically, DJ Devin Steele’s Kickback show at the Hi-Tone is keeping live music on the menu with a six-piece band alongside the wheels of Steele. Down on Beale Street, bass giant Leroy “Flic” Hodges and band will be at B.B. King’s, and the Blues City Café will feature solid blues from Earl “The Pearl” Banks and Blind Mississippi Morris.
While New Year’s Eve seems particularly DJ-heavy this December 31st, there are still some places to ring in the new year with a live band. Perhaps the most remarkable will be when three of the city’s most moving women in music — Susan Marshall, Cyrena Wages, and Marcella Simien ringing in midnight — converge at the freshly re-energized Mollie Fontaine Lounge. A more up-close, swinging time will be found at the Beauty Shop’s meal extravaganza set to the music of Joyce Cobb. Orion Hill’s Mardi Gras Masquerade will feature Cooper Union (with Brennan Villines and Alexis Grace), and Blind Mississippi Morris will hold court again at Blues City as a gigantic disco ball rises up a 50-foot tower outside on Beale. For that Midtown live vibe, Lafayette’s Music Room’s elaborate festivities will feature the band Aquanet.
For many Memphians, the new year will begin with a look backward as a smorgasbord of bands — from Nancy Apple to Michael Graber to Oakwalker and beyond — gather at B-Side to honor the late Townes van Zandt on January 1st. The revival of the 1970 musical Company, opening at the Orpheum the next day, also honors an earlier era’s muse, but its five Tony Awards suggest that even today it “strikes like a lightning bolt” (Variety). And the historical appreciations continue: On January 14th, Crosstown Arts’ MLK Freedom Celebration will feature the Mahogany Chamber Music Series, curated by Dr. Artina McCain and spotlighting Black and other underrepresented composers and performers; and on January 20th GPAC will host jazz trumpeter, vocalist, and composer Jumaane Smith’s Louis! Louis! Louis!, blending his own compositions with those of Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima, and Louis Jordan — three giants of the last century.
Who knows, maybe reflecting on all this past greatness will teach 2024 a thing or two? — Alex Greene
Coming Attractions in 2024
2023’s dual WGA and SAG strikes disrupted production, so 2024 should be an unpredictable year at the multiplex. Studios are currently engaged in a high-stakes game of chicken with the release calendar, so don’t take any of these dates as gospel. In January, an all-star apostle team led by LaKeith Stanfield and David Oyelowo tries to horn in on the messiah game in The Book of Clarence.
February has the endlessly promoted spy caper Argylle, a Charlie Kaufman-penned animated film Orion and the Dark, the intriguing-looking Lisa Frankenstein, and Bob Marley: One Love left over from 2023, as well as Ethan Coen’s lesbian road comedy Drive-Away Dolls.
March is stacked with Denis Villeneuve’s return to Arrakis, Dune: Part Two; Jack Black voicing Kung Fu Panda 4; Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire; and Focus Features’ satire The American Society of Magical Negroes.
April starts with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and Alex Garland’s social sci-fi epic Civil War.
May features Ryan Gosling as The Fall Guy and Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse in Back to Black. On April 24th, we have a three-flick pile-up with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, The Garfield Movie (animated, thank God), and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. ALL HAIL IMPERATOR FURIOSA!
June brings us Inside Out 2, which adds Maya Hawke as Anxiety to the Pixar classic’s cast of emotions. There’s another Bad Boys film on the schedule that nobody has bothered to title yet. Meanwhile, Kevin Costner goes too hard with punctuation with Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter One. (Chapter Two drops in August.)
In July, there’s the horror of Despicable Me 4 and Twisters, a sequel to the ’90s tornado thriller that lacked the guts to call itself Twister$. Ryan Reynolds returns as the Merc with a Mouth in Deadpool 3, the first Marvel offering of the year.
In August, Eli Roth adapts the hit game Borderlands, which, if you think about it, could actually work. James McAvoy stars in the Blumhouse screamer Speak No Evil. Don’t Breathe director Fede Álvarez directs Priscilla’s Cailee Spaeny in Alien: Romulus.
September is looking spare, but Tim Burton, Michael Keaton, and Winona Ryder are getting the band back together for Beetlejuice 2, so that could be fun.
October looks a tad more promising with Joker: Folie à Deux, a psychosexual (emphasis on the “psycho”) thriller with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. There’s also the cheerful Smile 2, evil clown porn Terrifier 3, and a Blumhouse production of Wolf Man.
November sees a remake of The Amateur, Barry Levinson’s mob thriller Alto Knights, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 with Denzel Washington, and Wicked: Part One, led by Tony Award-winner Cynthia Erivo.
Then, the year goes out strong with Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim, an anime Tolkien adaptation from Kenji Kamiyama.
This time next year, we’ll be gushing over Barry Jenkins’ Mufasa: The Lion King, Robert Eggers’ boundary-pushing Nosferatu remake, and an ultra-secret Jordan Peele joint. — Chris McCoy
Memphis Sports
Here’s a one-item wish list for Memphis sports in 2024: Ja Morant videos that are exclusively basketball highlights. The city’s preeminent athlete stole headlines this year with off-the-court drama that ultimately cost him the first 25 games of the Grizzlies’ 2023-24 season. Morant’s absence was more than the roster could take, particularly with center Steven Adams sidelined for the season with a knee injury. More than 10 games under .500 in mid-December, the Grizzlies must hope the star’s return can simply get them back to break-even basketball. If that happens — and with the rim-rattling displays that have made Ja a superstar — the new year will have brought new life to the Bluff City’s flagship sports franchise.
And how about a first regular-season American Athletic Conference championship for Penny Hardaway’s Memphis Tigers? The AAC is a watered-down version of the league we knew a year ago (no more Houston, no more Cincinnati), with Florida Atlantic now the Tigers’ primary obstacle for a league crown. A controversial loss to FAU in the opening round of the NCAA tournament last March created an instant rivalry, one that will take the floor at FedExForum on February 25th. David Jones is an early candidate for AAC Player of the Year and sidekick Jahvon Quinerly gives Hardaway the best collection of new-blood talent since “transfer portal” became a thing.
With Seth Henigan returning to quarterback the Tigers for a fourth season, Memphis football should also compete for an AAC title and an 11th consecutive bowl campaign. AutoZone Park will hum with Redbirds baseball and 901 FC soccer throughout the warm-weather months, and the PGA Tour will make Memphis home when the FedEx St. Jude Championship tees off on August 15th.
But let’s hope 2024, somehow, becomes the Year of Ja in this town. The heart of Memphis sports echoes the sound of a basketball dribble. And one player speeds that heartbeat like no other. — Frank Murtaugh
Meanwhile, 901 FC can look forward to welcoming some unfamiliar opponents to the confines of AutoZone Park next season. A restructured United Soccer League means Memphis will bid adieu to the Eastern Conference and kick off its 2024 season as part of the Western Conference. That means that 22 of 901 FC’s 34-match schedule will be against Western Conference opponents, starting with a March 9th home season opener against Las Vegas Lights FC. There’s a new COO in Jay Mims, while we can expect plenty of new players to suit up before Stephen Glass leads the team out for its first game.
One thing that soccer fans will not be looking forward to, however, is a new stadium, with plans for a soccer-specific Liberty Park arena scuppered after $350 million in state dollars earmarked for sporting renovations did not include any provisions for 901 FC. — Samuel X. Cicci
As many readers may know, there is an ongoing cold-turning-hot war between Republican state Senator Brent Taylor and Shelby County DA Steve Mulroy over various matters of crime control.
Taylor has aimed several initiatives, rhetorical and otherwise, in Mulroy’s direction of late. Representing himself as a zealous advocate of strict law enforcement — a proponent of “aggressive” approaches as against “progressive” ones — Taylor has complained to the media and to Governor Bill Lee and other state officials and agencies, including the State Board of Professional Responsibility, that the Democratic DA has allowed the Memphis crime rate to skyrocket by undue emphasis on restorative justice concepts at the expense of law enforcement per se.
A fresh quote volunteered by the senator via text: “I am not trying to prove whose dick is bigger. But I am trying to show that more voters aligned themselves with my position of aggressive prosecutions.”
Whereupon he cited vote totals from his successful 2022 senate race versus his Democratic opponent — apparently unaware that his victory margin in that district race depended on fewer votes overall than were achieved by Mulroy in his defeat of Republican Amy Weirich in the DA’s race.
Similarly, the senator’s case against Mulroy on the law enforcement score is, to say the least, debatable. As is ever the case, some crime statistics are up; others are down. The senator acknowledges that the DA’s recently launched campaign against gang-led “smash-and-grab” assaults on local businesses has achieved some results. “We just need more arrests,” he says grudgingly.
Current points of contention between the two include the matter of bail-bond policy, which Taylor considers too lax, though current bail policy was arrived at jointly by Mulroy and Weirich, his Republican predecessor. Taylor also professes to be steamed by what he calls “collusion” between Mulroy and Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan in a pair of cases involving the reduction or elimination of sentences imposed on defendants. The senator vows to impose correctives in the forthcoming session of the General Assembly, one of which involves expediting the transfer of juveniles charged with capital crimes to Criminal Court.
Interestingly, in the several months before Taylor and Mulroy acquired their current offices, they had enjoyed a warm, and even cozy, degree of collaboration with each other.
That was in the period of 2021-22 when Taylor, who was already eyeing a district Senate seat that was about to slip out from under the legally vulnerable GOP incumbent Brian Kelsey, was head of the Shelby County Election Commission (dominated 3-2 by Republicans though ostensibly neutral). Mulroy, an activist Democrat par excellence, was pursuing one of his favorite causes, that of local voting via paper ballots.
On several occasions, Taylor, whose party members tended (at that time, anyhow) not to favor that idea, nevertheless exercised what Mulroy considered exemplary fairness in presiding over discussions, in matters of scheduling, and in his parliamentary decisions. In the process, the two of them, quite simply, became buds.
At the moment, that relationship seems fractured — broken on the shoals of partisan differences, political ambition, and state-vs.-local considerations.
The victories in last week’s city council runoff elections of three women over their male opponents further dramatizes an ever-increasing trend toward female dominance in the elective positions of both city and county governments.
To recap the results:
In District 2 (East Memphis), Jerri Green defeated Scott McCormick by a total of 1,752 votes to McCormick’s 1,696. In District 3 (Whitehaven), Pearl Walker won out over Rev. James Kirkwood with 781 votes to Kirkwood’s 767. And, in District 7, incumbent Michalyn Easter-Thomas defeated Jimmy Hassan by 966 votes to 504.
Besides reflecting the trend, the razor-thin victory margins of Green and Walker suggest a slight — but potentially crucial — prevalence of progressivism over conservatism in the council’s showdown votes to come.
Green is a Democrat who has been serving as chief policy advisor to Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, while McCormick had significant support among Republican activists; Walker, a community organizer, is an avowed progressive whose opponent was a former ranking MPD officer.
Arguably, the wins of Green and Walker somewhat offset the earlier general election victory of conservative former Councilman Philip Spinosa over progressive Meggan Wurzburg Kiel in District 5 (Midtown/East Memphis). That race had figured as a bona fide ideological showdown of sorts.
Whatever the ultimate political bent of the newly elected council, it will have a female majority of seven women and six men. That will put it in alignment of sorts with the Shelby County Commission, which has the same ratio, with a woman, Miska Clay Bibbs, serving currently as chair. And there is no doubting that the other women on the commission, activists all, are making their influence felt as well.
• Perhaps the most important official position held by a woman at the moment is that of police director, and one of the most frequently vented questions during the recent mayoral contest concerned whether C.J. Davis, who holds the job, could expect to be reappointed by the new mayor.
During the campaign, the mayoral contenders reflected a variety of opinions on the matter, most of them leaning to noncommittal statements of one kind or another.
The victor, Mayor-elect Paul Young, held to a position that he would commit himself neither to hires nor fires of major personnel.
Be that the case or not, Davis, who addressed a luncheon of the Rotary Club of Memphis last week, sounded confident in laying out an agenda for the new year — one that among other things, envisions a significant increase in the MPD’s hands-on corps of sergeants — that she would actually be the person to execute it.
Asked after her remarks about the likelihood of her continuing in office, Davis went the neither-confirm-nor-deny route but made a point of saying that she had enjoyed good relations with Young in their frequent contacts over the years.
• Davis’ speech to the Rotarians followed one to the same group last month by Greater Memphis Chamber president/CEO Ted Townsend, who made a point of downplaying the effect of recent crime outbreaks on the city’s economic development picture.
On a recent recruitment tour, looking for new business, Townsend said, “I didn’t get one question about crime. Not one. I was bracing for it. I prepared for it. I expected it.”
He acknowledged that one national headquarters company located here may have been influenced by “the C-word” and “were thinking about leaving, or wanting to go to Dallas. We fought hard. We set the value proposition, we said work with us, things will be improved. We have not given up on it. You don’t give up on it. … We should fight for Memphis and never give up.”
In the emailed responses below, the District 3 council candidates outline their plans and priorities.
Pearl Eva Walker, activist/community organizer: I’m running for city council District 3 because I believe in the power of public service to affect positive changes in our community. For the past 20 years, I have been working across our district to inform our community of its hidden gems, history, and opportunities.
I am committed to addressing the concerns of our district to improve the future for all residents of District 3. Once elected, I plan on helping with community organizing to strengthen neighborhoods, and [will] work to ensure the community stays well-informed. I will bridge the communication gap between the community, police, and leadership by engaging District 3 on multiple platforms to include a monthly newsletter with an option to share feedback.
As councilwoman, I plan to focus on three key areas:
1. Safer & cleaner neighborhoods: I will address public safety by working closely with local law enforcement to enhance public trust thus supporting community policing efforts [to] reduce crime and increase residents’ overall sense of security. Data shows that safer neighborhoods are cleaner, so addressing litter, blight, and illegal dumping must be a priority as it relates to safety as well.
2. Economic development: Just as I have been supportive of businesses and economic development in Whitehaven, I want to be sure we increase economic development across all of District 3. I will advocate for small business support and local job creation to boost our economy and revitalize our neighborhoods.
3. Youth programs and young adults: I am committed to improving our public education system by expanding access to after-school and youth-development programs to ensure our children have every opportunity to succeed. I also want to support our young adults 40 and under as District 3 has the largest millennial population in Memphis.
By prioritizing these areas, we can create a stronger, more prosperous District 3 that benefits everyone. Together, we can build a brighter future for our community.
Rev. James Kirkwood, pastor, former MPD official: While canvassing, I’ve noted the following are significant issues to the people: crime, city services, reducing poverty, blight, and the lack of youth engagement.
We must work together to move our city forward to becoming the city that welcomes people like it used to and encourages people to live, work, and visit. I love District 3, and it pains me that three of the highest crime zip codes (38115, 38116, and 38118) are in my district. My priority is to ensure District 3 is a safe place for all. I will rally the communities to support community policing to reduce crime. Colonel Davis at Raines Station and Colonel Adair of Ridgeway Station need the help of the entire community to create a safe district.
My game plan also includes working with our division director of Solid Waste and Street Maintenance to support a major District 3 cleanup alongside our churches and neighborhood watch groups to implement Councilwoman Rhonda Logan’s Code Green program.
People want to see District 3 grow and prosper. I will work to bring our CDCs together with investors and developers to turn our empty lots into booming businesses, emphasizing the importance of creating housing and fortifying small businesses. Poverty is also taken into consideration when addressing blight.
Children are our most valuable assets, and I am committed to their success [and will continue] to support organizations that work to engage youth programs that build character, cultivate dreams, and inspire hope for a promising future.
District 3, it’s time to make Memphis the city we love, one of the best destinations for living, working, and visiting.
I’ve been a member of an email chain gang for a year or so. The other emailers are, like me, older guys with a little time on their hands. And, like me, they love to discuss (read: argue about) politics. The basic drill is that someone emails an interesting or provocative link to a story from, say, The Washington Post or Vice or The Daily Beast, and the commenting and kvetching ensues.
Everyone in the group is relatively progressive. Nobody likes Trump, and everyone’s biggest fear is that he’s going to snare the GOP nomination and somehow stumble his way back into the presidency. You wouldn’t think six or seven guys on the same side could find that many things to argue about. You would be wrong. For example, a couple of the gentlemen are dead-certain that Trump will win the nomination. They see no way for anybody else in the GOP to take it away from him and they savor being the no-nonsense, realpolitik adults in the room. “Trump will be the nominee,” they say. Period.
Others in the group aren’t so sure. They speculate that the publicity surrounding Trump’s numerous legal difficulties will grow, and as evidence against him becomes more specific and more damning, it will become increasingly difficult for him to waltz to the nomination. The “maybe not Trump” contingent also likes to point out that Trump’s mental acuity appears to be waning of late and that his 90-minute rambles are losing their zip. How, they ask, do you win the presidency with no policy proposals, and with a campaign based on a platform of “it’s not fair”?
Then there are those who raise the possibility that Trump might encounter a major health issue. He and Biden are both of an age when they should think twice before ordering a multi-year magazine subscription. Or buying green bananas. How, they ask, can anyone state with certainty that these two geezers will be the nominees?
Finally, there’s my old friend, “Kevin,” the Sir Lancelot of the group, who delights in swashing the buckles and tugging the short-hairs of the realpolitikers with ire-provoking predictions. His favorite lately is that Trump will at some point realize the jig is up, that Jack Smith and/or Fani Willis have him dead to rights, and that all his lawyers and supplicants have flipped and will provide detailed evidence of his schemes to subvert the 2020 election and conceal top secret documents. According to Kevin’s theory, Trump will then see no way to bullshit himself out of his self-created mess and, confronting the likelihood of prison time or losing his fortune or both, will decide to fly off in his private jet … to Oman. Or as Kevin likes to write: “Trump will become the Werewolf of Oman.”
No doubt it’s a phrase that has a ring to it, but why Oman? According to Kevin, it’s because of a June 30th New York Times story that centers around a multibillion dollar Trump business deal with the government of Oman. From the Times article: “The Omani government is providing the land for the development, is investing heavily in the infrastructure to support it, and will get a cut of the profits in the long run. …
“Mr. Trump was brought into the deal by a Saudi real estate firm, Dar Al Arkan, which is closely intertwined with the Saudi government. While in office, Mr. Trump developed a tight relationship with Saudi leaders. Since leaving office, he has worked with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to host the LIV golf tour and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner received a $2 billion infusion from the Saudi fund for his investment venture. Under its terms, the Trump Organization will not put up any money for the development, but will help design a Trump-branded hotel, golf course and golf club, and will be paid to manage them for up to 30 years, among other revenue.”
Quite the tempting retirement option, you must admit. Trump spends his final years in Mar-a-Oman, golfing, schmoozing, and sending out social media posts about how he was hounded from the country he loves by “crooked Joe Biden and thug Jack Smith and racist Fani Willis.” No foreign policy decisions or immigration messes or economic headaches. Just mid-day tee-times and endless sunshine. Sing it with me, now … “Ahhh-ooooo, Werewolf of Oman.”
After what amounted to yet another paltry turnout in a local election, most people are turning their attention to more everyday matters — the car note, the mortgage, the approaching holidays, the prospect of yet another Rolling Stones tour, or what-have-you.
Not so for the class of political junkies, who form a major part of those who choose to peer into this space. Many of them are already looking forward to the election year 2024, or even to 2026. Some are still mulling over what happened in 2023. (We’ll get to that in a minute.)
The big deal next year, of course, is the race for the presidency, and most reliable pollsters, commentators, and news gatherers — not to mention the minions of social-media savants — are pretty much in unison about that. It looks to be Biden vs. Trump, and a clear majority of Americans seem to be nothing less than disconsolate about that.
There will be a statewide election, too, and no doubt there will be some interesting legislative races.
Democratic state Representative Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, she of the Tennessee Three, is already well into a campaign against incumbent Republican Marsha Blackburn for the U.S. Senate, and that definitely should generate some buzz.
Closer to home, 9th District Democratic U.S. Representative Steve Cohen says he’s running again, for a 10th term next year, and he’ll be heavily favored, though it’s probable that, as usual, some Republican will hazard a long-odds race against him. Ambitious Democrats will likely bide their time until such time, years hence, as Cohen might opt to retire, and contestants at that point might include Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, state Representative Justin J. Pearson, and state Senator Raumesh Akbari.
Cohen, incidentally, is as frustrated as other House members that the Republicans, who own a bare majority there, can’t seem to decide who, among their number, should be speaker to succeed the now-deposed Kevin McCarthy.
In case you’ve wondered, as I have, whether Cohen and other Democrats, in the interests of bipartisan government, would be willing to help break the logjam by casting votes for an acceptable Republican to be speaker, he says he definitely would, though he doubts that such a nominee could emerge from the GOP caucus.
Looking ahead to 2026, the aforesaid Lee Harris will be term-limited, and at least three Democrats are likely to be aspirants to the job of county mayor — Assessor Melvin Burgess, current County Commissioner Mickell Lowery, and recent city mayor candidate Van Turner.
Just as it was known for years that Turner would at some point seek the job of Memphis mayor, it was also known that he has from time to time considered running for county mayor. A veteran of two terms on the county commission, he certainly has credentials and he allows that, while he’s in no hurry to decide, such a race might be in his future.
For that matter, he hasn’t totally turned his back on the election just held. Turner’s name was among those mentioned as interested parties in the matter vented post-election by defeated council candidate Jerred Price, who wants county Election Coordinator Linda Phillips to give a more complete accounting than she has thus far of the reported pre-election theft of election codes from the parked car of an Election Commission employee.
Though he is not an active part of Price’s effort, Turner agrees that an investigation of some sort is in order.