Former city council member Janet Hooks, who had as many friends as people she met and influenced in the course of a distinguished public career, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 70, according to a brief statement released by family members.
The statement notes: “Hooks is highly respected for her dedicated years of service to Memphis. She served on the Memphis City Council for 16 years. Following her term, she served in interim Mayor Myron Lowery’s and Mayor AC Wharton’s administration as the Director of Parks and Neighborhoods. Hooks was appointed by the Shelby County Commission as Special Advisor to the Shelby County Clerk in 2023.”
No specific cause of death is yet known, though a family member said Hooks was undergoing a bout with Covid. Arrangements, said the family statement, “will be shared in the coming days.” Serenity Funeral Home is in charge.
The statement lists as survivors: “her husband, former Shelby County Commission Chair and County Assessor, Michael Hooks, Sr.; a daughter, Kristin Hooks; two sons, Michael Hooks, Jr., and Marcus Hooks; a daughter-in-law, Judge Kenya Hooks; and two granddaughters, Morgan and Miranda Hooks; and special second daughter, Tami Sawyer.”
Typical of community response to her passing was this from Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen: “I met Janet Hooks when she was dating my fellow Tennessee Constitutional Convention delegate Michael Hooks in 1977, and I attended their Mud Island wedding. In her roles as a member of the City Council and as an advisor to Memphis Mayors Myron Lowery and A C Wharton, she served the city well. Beautiful and friendly, she was a devoted spouse and was dedicated to her family. Hers was a life well lived.”
Mayor-elect Paul Young and wife Jamila (Photo: Jackson Baker)
In the end, we still don’t know who our mayor-elect is, not entirely. We know his name, of course, and we’ll soon enough have a chance to catch up with his biography and intentions.
In any case, his vote total, though not a majority, was a convincing enough plurality as to make it clear that, running for a year or more against three other solid contenders (and 13 others on the ballot), Paul Young was the People’s Choice.
“I don’t care about politics,” candidate Young would say. “I just want to do the work.”
Well, there’s lots of it to do — regarding, to start with, crime, which we have too much of, and economic development, which we don’t have enough of, at least in the right places. And how the new mayor approaches those two subjects will determine a dozen other outcomes, all of them urgent.
Among the candidates we came to regard as the Top Four, Young was the one we were least familiar with at the start. Essentially he was known as someone who had performed credibly in a number of essential city and county appointive positions. A technocrat, if you will, and that he had so much backing among the influential minority (commercial interests, significant governmental doers) in a position to evaluate him was helpful in getting his campaign — and his fundraising — going.
Once launched, he sustained that campaign with nonstop energy and zeal. He was never off the clock. Needful of developing his name recognition, he made himself ubiquitous.
Given the relative closeness of the leading contenders, one can only wonder what might have happened: if Sheriff Floyd Bonner, previously known as a teddy bear and a top vote-getter in county elections, had not gotten branded, fairly or otherwise, as lax in his oversight of inmate safety; if former Mayor Willie Herenton had deigned to stoke his popularity with appearances in more public situations; if former county commissioner and NAACP head Van Turner had been able to activate his role as a Democratic avatar earlier and perhaps less abrasively.
Meanwhile, the city election remains unfinished.
There are three council positions which require a runoff, on November 16th, to determine a majority winner. In District 2, in northeast Memphis, voters must choose between former Councilman Scott McCormick, whose support base is significantly Republican, and Jerri Green, an advisor to Democratic County Mayor Lee Harris.
In District 3 (Whitehaven, Hickory Hill), the remaining candidates are activist Pearl Eva Walker and James Kirkwood, a pastor and former MPD official. And in District 7 (Downtown, Mud Island, parts of North and South Memphis), incumbent Michalyn Easter-Thomas faces businessman Jimmy Hassan.
In council elections already determined, the key outcome was in the District 5 race between former Councilman Philip Spinosa and activist newcomer Meggan Wurzburg Kiel. That was a classic showdown between conservative Spinosa (the winner) and progressive Kiel.
Tennessee Attprney General Jonathan Skrmetti (Credit: Jackson Baker)
Speaking in Memphis on Tuesday, state Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti laid equal stress on the importance of citizens’ voting on controversial matters and on his own exemption, as an appointed official, from such direct accountability.
The AG’s remarks, in a luncheon speech to the Rotary Club of Memphis, could be applied to a new state law giving his office jurisdiction of post-conviction appeals in death-penalty cases. The state legislature, in April, passed the measure, and Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan deemed it unconstitutional in July, ruling that such jurisdiction is the province of locally elected prosecutors.
The case is now on appeal by the state in the state Court of Criminal Appeals, with a decision expected by spring. The outcome will affect the destiny of Larry McKay, currently on death row for a 1981 double murder in Memphis, as well as any other potential post-conviction appeals involving requests for re-trials based on new evidence, DNA testing, or intellectual disability.
Should Judge Skahan’s ruling be upheld, the McKay case and any other such local one will be the responsibility of Shelby County DA Steve Mulroy.
In what seemed an indirect reference to the case, Skrmetti told the Rotarians “it’s very apparent of late that the legislature has been very active, passing some controversial legislation. And there’s been a lot of litigation about that. More and more people are turning to the courts, when they disagree with things. . . [But] at the end of the day, Tennessee is a democracy. And so when people don’t like the laws that are getting passed, there is a very ready solution out there. And that is to persuade people to vote differently, to persuade legislators to act differently.”
A few minutes later, in a Q&A with Rotary Club members, Skrmetti made a direct reference to the post-conviction issue. “There’s litigation about that, and we should find out from the Court of Criminal Appeals, which way it’s gonna go,”
Further on the matter of accountability, Skrmetti said, “As for the elected versus appointed issue. I’m a big fan of that. I mean, I’m a big beneficiary of the appointment process. … There is a problem if you have an elected AG, because ultimately, the purpose of the attorney general is to represent the legal interests of the state. And that means pursuing legal strategies that further the policies that the state adopts. It’s a servant role. So it’s not my job to say what the law should be. It’s the legislature and the governor to decide … ”
In Tennessee, the state Supreme Court appoints the Attorney General.
Aside from its theoretical aspects, the issue of accountability is a significant one for practical reasons in Tennessee, where public officials and agencies — especially in Davidson (Nashville) and Shelby Counties — increasingly lament what seems to them to be efforts by state government to enlarge the authority of the state vis-a-vis local options. Given the current supermajority control of state government by Republicans, the issue has a partisan aspect as well.
In Davidson County, there is an ongoing showdown between the DA there, Glenn Funk, and Skrmetti’s office, which launched an investigation — involving a surprise raid of Funk’s office — of possible illegal wiretapping by the Nashville DA.
Asked about his occasional interventions in other states’ legal pleadings via de facto amicus briefs (usually in tandem with other “Red states”) Skrmetti said his decisions were based on measuring the impact of such cases on Tennessee.
And he cautioned: “There are people who have politicized things that absolutely should not be political. In the criminal justice realm. There are discrete instances where there’s clear politicization going on. There are also accusations of politicization that are misinformation where there isn’t predication to bring a case, and people are bringing in. But because everybody thinks the other side is weaponizing everything and creates this tit for tat escalation. I’m really concerned about that. And there are people who have abused their authority, and there is absolutely a double standard and enforcement.”
In an introduction to a recently published book on political scandals in Tennessee, former Governor Bill Haslam opines: “Scandals can have a lot of results. I hope this book can be a reminder that good government matters and that good government starts with politicians who are more concerned about the people they serve than serving their own political ends.”
To be honest, one of the results of scandals is that they don’t just shock. They entertain. And that is certainly one of the reasons for reading Welcome to Capitol Hill: 50 Years of Scandal in Tennessee Politics by two veteran statehouse reporters, Joel Ebert and Erik Schelzig.
Ebert’s coverage was for The Tennessean newspaper of Nashville (he has since moved on to a post at the The University of Chicago Institute of Politics). Schelzig toiled for the Associated Press, and for the last several seasons he has been editor of the Tennessee Journal, a well-respected weekly newsletter about politics and government in the state.
Though Nashville-based for their journalism, the two authors pay considerable attention in their volume to political personalities from our own end of the state — several of whom, as perpetrators or as observers, had much to do with the various misfirings and misdeeds reported on in the book.
An early section of the book is a list of “Cast of Characters” to be encountered in the volume. I suppose I’m more pleased than otherwise to find my own name to be listed there — basically because my journalism over the years put me in contact with many of the people and events featured in the volume.
There is, for example, the following quote derived from an erstwhile interview I did with former state Senator John Ford of Memphis, who is the central figure in the authors’ chapter entitled “John Ford and the Tennessee Waltz.”
Said the senator regarding a piece of relatively mild ethics-reform legislation that had just been passed by the legislature: “There’s conflict of interest, and there’s illegal. These crazy-assed rules and everything? Shit, I won’t be able to make a living.”
It is a matter of record that Ford, known for a fast temper and faster driving, and for having a hand, for better and for worse, in beaucoup legislation, ended up doing time for having received upwards of $10,000 from FBI agents masquerading as lobbyists working for a computer firm that ostensibly needed an enabling bill passed. He and several other legislators from Memphis were netted in a sting code-named “Tennessee Waltz” by the feds.
That chapter and several other others remind one of the old saw about truth being stranger than fiction. Indeed, the book as a whole is fast-paced and novelistic.
Baby boomers will surely remember and be regaled by the authors’ account of the late Governor Ray Blanton, who was discovered to be, not so secretly, profiting from the outright sale of pardons to convicted murderers and other felons willing to pay for a “Get Out of Jail” card. Things got so ugly that other major figures in state government contrived to get Blanton’s elected successor, Lamar Alexander, installed earlier than his scheduled inauguration date.
Of more recent vintage — and adequately covered in the book — were such sagas as those of state Rep. Jeremy Durham of upscale Franklin, whose predatory womanzing resulted in his being expelled from the legislature, and of Shelby County’s own Brian Kelsey, whose illegal shuffling of campaign funds resulted in a federal indictment and conviction, and a prison sentence that the once-renowned “stunt-baby of Germantown” is still, even as we speak, trying, Trump-like, to get postponed to some future-tense time.
And there is, as they say in ad-speak, More, More, More. The book (296 pages, Vanderbilt University Press) can be snagged for $24.99 from Amazon, or $14.99 for a Kindle edition.
Jesse Huseth and Meggan Kiel (Photo: Posted to X by Jesse Huseth)
The term “October Surprise” has long since been a part of the political lexicon as a way to describe last-minute campaign attacks directed by one candidate against another as an election cycle wends its way to its November conclusion.
There were two such instances in the city election this past week — one which only arguably qualifies and another which fits the definition perfectly. (And since this election ends in October, not in November, the term “September Surprise” is a more accurate fit.)
Certainly the revelation last Friday of an indictment by Nashville DA Glenn Funk of nine Shelby County Jail employees in the death last year of a Shelby County Jail inmate hit sheriff and mayoral candidate Floyd Bonner between the eyes.
And it may well have an impact on the election. At this point, to be sure, there is no directly traceable connection between any other candidate and Funk’s decision. There is no doubt, however, that Bonner’s chief rivals may feel some satisfaction from it. For the record, Bonner stood by his employees and proclaimed their innocence.
The other case was clearly premeditated by an opponent. This was an instance whereby District 5 city council candidate Philip Spinosa openly accused rival candidate Meggan Wurzburg Kiel of having advocated for “defunding the police.”
Kiel and her supporters wasted no time in calling a press conference debunking the accusation, which was based on a collective call by numerous Memphians, including Kiel, to rethink public safety procedures in the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 death.
It remains to be seen what the effect of either event will be on the election outcome.
A brief summary of mayoral endorsements:
Van Turner: State Rep. Justin J. Pearson; Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris; Congressman Steve Cohen; District Attorney Steve Mulroy; Stand for Children; Memphis For All; People for Fairness and Justice; Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood; AFSCME Local 1733
Paul Young: Shelby County Young Democrats; GenNext PAC; Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood; UpTheVote901 People’s Convention; West Tennessee Home Builders Association; Elliot Perry; Craig Brewer; NLE Choppa
Floyd Bonner: Memphis Police Association; Memphis Fire Fighters Association; Shelby County Deputy Sheriff’s Association; ACRE (Association of City Retired Employees);West Tennessee Home Builders Association; MAAR – Memphis Area Association of Realtors
As the city election winds down, next year’s elections for state and federal office are already stirring.
As one example, Jesse Huseth, the Memphis businessman who earlier this year lost a close race to Lexie Carter for local Democratic chair, has his sights set on the District 97 seat in the state House of Representatives.
That’s the seat currently held by Republican John Gillespie, who originally won it in a tight race two years ago against Democrat Gabby Salinas, who went on to serve as Carter’s predecessor as party chair.
District 97, on the suburban eastern edge of Memphis, is adjacent to District 96, a formerly Republican bailiwick which went over to Democratic control with the upset victory in 2016 of Democrat Dwayne Thompson, who continues to hold it. Flipping 97 in like manner is now a Democratic priority.
That may not be easy. Gillespie, who is known to have broken with his fellow Republicans on key issues, has achieved a somewhat moderate reputation during his tenure and has passed significant legislation to curb the excesses of drag racing.
Paul Young (left) and Van Turner (right). (Photo: Brad Vest for MLK50)
“So, who are you voting for for mayor?”
I’ve gotten asked that question a number of times in recent days. I wish I had a resounding answer, but the truth is, I still don’t know for sure.
It’s not like there’s a shortage of possibilities. There will be no fewer than 17 (!) mayoral candidates on the ballot. In case you don’t have them memorized, they are: Carnita Faye Atwater, Jennings Bernard, Floyd Bonner, Joe Brown, Kendra Calico, Karen Camper, J.W. Gibson, Reggie William Hall, James M. Harvey, Willie W. Herenton, Michelle McKissack, Brandon A. Price, Justina Ragland, Tekeva Shaw, Van Turner, Derek Winn, and Paul A. Young.
Early voting started last week and Election Day is October 5th, so we all need to figure it out soon, obviously. I’m going to run through my thinking process here. You are free to take it or leave it.
By process of elimination, I can get rid of 11 candidates, either because I’ve never heard of them, or I’ve heard of them and can’t imagine voting for them for mayor. Looking at you, Judge Joe Brown.
That leaves six possible candidates for my vote (your mileage may vary): Floyd Bonner, Willie Herenton, Michelle McKissack, Paul Young, J.W. Gibson, and Van Turner.
Though the mayor’s race is technically nonpartisan, Bonner appears to be the candidate supported by the Republican Party. You probably received a flyer from the self-proclaimed nonpartisan group, The 901 Initiative, recently. The “grades” that the (anonymous) group posted for all mayoral and city council candidates make it clear who they’re backing. Their roots are showing. The fact that many candidates didn’t participate in the survey didn’t stop the group from giving out (mostly bad) grades on those candidates’ policies. This is some bogus crap.
Bonner is a cop and probably a decent guy, but 55 people have died in Shelby County Jail on his five-year watch and I don’t trust Republicans these days (or that A- they gave Bonner), so I’m going to pass on ol’ Floyd.
Then there’s Herenton, who was elected the city’s first Black mayor in 1991 and won reelection four times. After winning his fifth term in 2007, he resigned in 2009 to run for Congress. He lost that race and ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2019, losing to current Mayor Jim Strickland. Now 83, he’s back again, with a platform that can be basically summed up as: “I’m Willie Herenton and they’re not.” He’s refused to participate in any forums or debates with other candidates, preferring to sit back and trust that his loyal base will come through for him. Sound familiar?
Here’s the thing: With so many candidates in the race, getting 15 percent of the vote might be enough to win, and some early polling has shown Herenton in that ballpark. I voted for Herenton three times, but he’s not getting my vote this time around.
And speaking of polling … here’s the latest (September 7th) from Hart Research and the nonprofit TN Prospers: Young (20 percent); Bonner (19 percent); Herenton (13 percent); Turner (9 percent).
Gibson (5 percent) and McKissack (3 percent) are long shots. I’ve worked with McKissack and like her, but neither she nor Gibson appear to have gained enough traction to win this thing, so I’m not going to vote for one of them and possibly help swing the election to Herenton or Bonner.
So what about Paul Young? He worked for Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, then headed the city’s Division of Housing and Community Development, and now is CEO of the Downtown Memphis Commission. Of the top three in that poll, Young wins my vote, hands down.
But … I’m vacillating because lots of smart progressives I know and respect are supporting Van Turner, including three who endorsed him last weekend: DA Steve Mulroy, County Mayor Lee Harris, and Congressman Steve Cohen. I’ve voted for these guys and I trust their judgment, but as I stated above, I don’t want to vote for someone who can’t win and thereby help swing the election to Bonner or Herenton.
So, as much as I like voting early, this time around I’m going to wait a little longer, hoping to see some more polling before I head over to Mississippi Boulevard Church to cast my vote. At this point, you might say I’m Young and restless.
Fatigue clearly shows on the faces of these mayoral candidates
at a late forum — (l to r) Floyd Bonner, J.W. Gibson, James Harvey,
Michelle McKissack, and Paul Young. (Photo: Jackson Baker)
As would be indicated by the collaborative content shared by the Flyer and MLK50 in this joint issue, public safety has clearly been the predominant topic in the 2023 Memphis mayoral race.
The four leading mayoral candidates have been quoted at length on the matter, but all the candidates have weighed in repeatedly on crime, its consequences, and methods for dealing with it.
Proposals have ranged from the obvious — more community policing and upgrading the MPD — to an ambitious call for a “crime summit” to a somewhat fringey proposal by one candidate to negotiate directly with gangs, presumably so as to cut deals with them.
Uniquely, this is the first mayoral contest in Memphis history in which all of the 17 candidates, including those acknowledged to be serious prospects for winning, are African-American.
That fact — which reflects the demographic nature of Memphis itself — coupled with what several polls have indicated is an extremely close contest, suggests that a revision may be overdue for the judicial settlement of 1991, which prohibited runoff voting in the mayor’s race. At the time, it was feared that a runoff would invite stacked opposition from whites to preclude a Black from winning.
In what amounted that year to a two-man winner-take-all race with a token third opponent, former schools superintendent Willie Herenton won a hairs-breadth victory over incumbent Dick Hackett, inaugurating a new era of Black prominence in city government.
Since then, only a plurality — like the one achieved by white councilman Jim Strickland in a multi-candidate race in 2015 — has been necessary for one to be elected mayor. (Strickland would be reelected with a majority over two opponents in 2019.)
But if racial factors in citywide elections (and countrywide ones, for that matter) have largely become irrelevant, the unspoken barrier to female candidates — the so-called “glass ceiling” — remains unbroken. The 2023 mayoral field includes two well-credentialed women, state House Democratic leader Karen Camper and Memphis-Shelby City Schools board member Michelle McKissack. Both have had their moments, particularly in a pair of televised forums last week, but neither ranks high in the latest mayoral polls.
All the polls anyone has seen so far are unofficial, of course, but all have shown former Mayor Herenton either the leader outright or in the near vicinity of the lead.
Some of Herenton’s potential vote derives from the historical memory of Memphians, especially inner-city ones, but he may also be gaining adherents because of his hard-line position on crime, the theme of the day, and his stated resolve to bring back the data-based policing methods of Blue CRUSH, instituted during his own last couple of terms.
The public-safety issue is paramount also in the mayoral campaign of Sheriff Floyd Bonner, who boasts a 42-year record in law enforcement and his ability to deal with the issue “from Day One” of his inauguration.
Most reckonings by political observers see a hotly contested three-way race between Herenton, Bonner, and Paul Young, the Downtown Memphis Commission CEO, who hasn’t been off the clock, campaign-wise, since he announced his intention to run roughly a year ago. Young has accomplished some impressive fundraising and leads all other candidates in that respect, with Bonner a reasonably close second.
Former County Commissioner Van Turner, a former Democratic chairman who led the local NAACP in recent years and was prominent in the effort to remove Confederate statues from Downtown, had some early stumbles but has come on somewhat of late, especially in the wake of recent endorsements from labor organizations and from County Mayor Lee Harris, DA Steve Mulroy, Congressman Steve Cohen, and the current political star of stars, state Representative Justin Pearson, who received international attention for his prominence in anti-gun protests during the spring legislative session.
Reportedly, Pearson, via independent expenditures licensed by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, is about to endow the cause with $100,000 for a last-minute ad blitz aimed at rousing local Democrats.
Like candidates Camper and McKissack, self-funding businessman/philanthropist J.W. Gibson did well in public forums last week, but in his case, as in theirs, it could be a case of too little, too late.
District 5 candidate Meggan Kiel at a meet and greet (Photo: Jackson Baker)
If female candidates are struggling in the mayoral race, they are more than holding their own in city council races. Indeed, it is theoretically possible for the council races to end with a female majority of one serving. And in tight multi-candidate races in districts one through seven, a runoff provision will mandate a majority winner and provide a second chance for some.
In council District One, incumbent Rhonda Logan is heavily favored over opponent Kymberly Kelley.
There are six candidates vying in council District Two, including Jerri Green, a former legislative candidate and current policy advisor to County Mayor Harris; ex-councilman and former Plough Foundation director Scott McCormick; and business consultant Marvin White.
District 2 council candidate Jerri Green campaigning for the legislature in 2021 (Photo: Jackson Baker)Jerri Green (Photo: Kelly Roberts)
There are no fewer than three female candidates in council District Three — longtime activist Pearl Eva Walker, Kawanias “Kaye” McNeary, and Towanna C. Murphy — contending with veteran political figure Ricky Dixon and the Rev. James Kirkwood, a former ranking officer in the Memphis Police Department.
District 3 council candidate Pearl Walker at Sidney Chism’s summer picnic event (Photo: Jackson Baker)
The two candidates in council District Four are not only both women, but both are also veterans of prior service on the council. Teri Dockery served as an interim council member during a vacancy, and Jana Swearengen-Washington is the incumbent.
District Five boasts a trio of candidates, one of whom, Luke Hatler, is still a student at White Station High School. The other two candidates — Meggan Wurzburg Kiel and Philip Spinosa — are locked into a serious and costly mano-a-mano in which each candidate has raised resources of more than $100,000.
Seeking return to council is Scott McCormick (r), here with state Representative Mark White and campaign treasurer Nick Scully. (Photo: Jackson Baker)
Kiel, though a novice candidate for office, is no stranger to civic affairs. She was one of the founders of the progressive activist group MICAH (Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope). Her opponent, Spinosa, is no newcomer, either. Elected to the council in 2015, he served part of a term and resigned to head up the Chairman’s Circle on the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce. He now works in logistics.
In one sense, the contest is a battle of initialized groups: MICAH vs. CAISSA, the latter being a PR group catering to centrist and right-of-center candidacies. There have been no direct encounters between the two candidates, and potentially volatile issues have largely been on the back burner, but Spinosa in a TV ad has accused Kiel of wanting to defund the police, a charge she has vehemently denied.
District Six is currently being served by incumbent Councilman Edmund Ford Sr., who is heavily favored over opponents Keith D. Austin II and Larry Hunter.
Anyone looking at the crowded roster of District Seven candidates might assume it to be an available open seat, but, in fact, incumbent Michalyn Easter-Thomas is in good shape to repeat. The superfluity of challengers owes mainly to what was a lingering prospect that her status as an employee of the Memphis River Parks Partnership, an adjunct of city government, might cause her to be declared ineligible. Among those taking a shot at the seat are Edward Douglas, Jimmy Hassan, Jarrett “JP” Parks, Dee Reed, Austin Rowe, and Larry Springfield.
All of the candidates in the council district races just discussed, even those who are distinct underdogs, might be nursing hopes of winning in the runoff stage of the election, which does not exist for the mayor’s race nor for the Super District 8 and Super District 9 seats.
These are winner-take-all, and there are no second chances for second-place finishers.
In two of them — 8-1, held by JB Smiley, and 9-3, occupied by Jeff Warren — there are no other candidates besides the incumbent. And in two others, the incumbents — Chase Carlisle in 9-1 and Ford Canale in 9-2 — have opponents, newcomers Benji Smith in 9-1 and Brandon Washington in 9-2, with only remote chances of winning.
Super District 8, Position 2, is actually an open seat, though Marion LaTroy A-Williams is a perennial, and Davin D. Clemons is considered something of a fringe candidate. Janika White, who was runner-up to Steve Mulroy in the 2023 Democratic primary for district attorney general, is virtually a sure winner, having been hand-picked essentially by current incumbent Cheyenne Johnson, who opted out of a reelection effort.
The other Super District seat, for Position 3, is an open seat as well and boasts a genuine contest involving six contenders — the foremost ones being entertainer-activist Jerred Price, former District 7 incumbent Berlin Boyd, and consultant Brian Harris. Also in the race are Lucille Catron, Yolanda Cooper-Sutton, Damon Curry Morris, and Paul Randolph Jr.
MEMPHIS, TN - July 26, 2023: Ten of the nineteen candidates currently running for Memphis Mayor attended the Memphis Mayoral Forum hosted by the City of Memphis Office of Youth Services, Memphis Youth City Council, and Memphis Ambassadors Program at Christian Brothers University. (Photo: Brad Vest for MLK50)
As we approach one of the most momentous mayoral elections in Memphis’ history, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism and the Memphis Flyer have partnered on a unique experiment. With public safety on the minds of the voters, we polled our readers to find out what questions they would ask the mayoral candidates, if they had a chance.
We received more than 130 responses, which our editorial teams boiled down into a set of common questions. Then, we chose the four leading candidates, based on a combination of polling and fundraising data.
Below are some highlights from Floyd Bonner, Willie Herenton, Van Turner, and Paul Young’s responses to your questions.
If you would like to see the candidates’ complete answers, the expanded interviews, edited for length and clarity, can be found on both memphisflyer.com and MLK50.com.
The killing of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police officers damaged the community’s trust in police. What steps would you take to rebuild that trust?
BONNER: It’s about being out in the community, talking with the public, getting them to understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can work collectively to keep it from happening again.
Floyd Bonner (Photo: Andrea Morales for MLK50)
HERENTON: I’m going to bring back Blue CRUSH. … You’ve got to have specialized police units, but they’ve got to be well-trained. They’ve got to be appropriately selected. And you gotta have accountability. … What happened in the Tyre Nichols situation? They had a group of officers that didn’t have extensive tenure as police officers, and they lacked supervision. I would have an organizational structure with a chain of command providing appropriate oversight.
Willie Herenton (Photo: Andrea Morales for MLK50)
TURNER: We will have to make sure that the training and the leadership is appropriately in place to ensure this does not occur again. We need to get back to some of the community policing that we used to have when I was growing up in Whitehaven. … We had a relationship where, if we saw something, we said something, and we were not afraid to contact the authorities or law enforcement.
Van Turner (Photo: Brandon Dill for MLK50)
YOUNG: I think that the ordinances that were passed at City Council were a step in the right direction.
Paul Young (Photo: Brandon Dill for MLK50)
How would you describe Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis’ performance as police chief?
YOUNG: I think she’s done a good job. Obviously the incident with Tyre Nichols and the SCORPION unit and what appears to be a lack of oversight is something that she has to own. I think she has owned the mistakes and tried to do the things necessary to right the course, and that’s what leadership is about. … The visceral hate that we’re seeing in our community between residents and officers is something that only goes away when you build relationships, and the chief has to be the tip of the spear when it comes to making that happen.
BONNER: I’ve been asked many times, would I let her go if I was elected? I don’t think that’s fair. All city directors will be evaluated in my administration, and decisions will be made accordingly.
HERENTON: In all probability, she would not have been my choice. … From what I’ve read in the press and from what I’ve heard, there were some troubling issues in her past that I probably would have had to carefully weigh. If I could have identified an individual that had the competency level that I could trust with that leadership role, I would have selected from within.
TURNER: I thought she was good as far as being transparent on the release of the Tyre Nichols tape, and the reprimand and termination of those five officers. I think perhaps there’s some room for growth and accountability as it relates to the use of this tactical squad being used for just a mere traffic stop and not for something that it was organized to do: to take down maybe a drug operation, to go after the heavily armed bad guys that were going to have AR-15 rifles and shoot back. … To deploy a team like the team that was deployed in the death of Tyre Nichols was a failure of leadership. She should be held accountable for this even occurring.
MPD has about 1,900 officers, but says it needs 2,500. Do you agree 2,500 is the right number? If not, why not? If so, how would you look to help?
HERENTON: It’s going to be very difficult reaching that 2,500 goal because I will implement the highest standards. I think they’ve lowered the standards, which is troubling to me.
TURNER: I think 2,500 first responders is the right answer. I don’t know if they necessarily all have to be rank-and-file police officers. … We need a full complement of first responders, but I would suggest that perhaps 200 to 250 of those first responders should be comprised of specialty units and of specialty officers who can emphasize de-escalation, address mental health issues, address nonviolent, nonthreatening traffic stops, and address some of the domestic [violence] issues that we see. We really have to look at a comprehensive strategy to resolve crime more effectively in the community.
YOUNG: I agree. I don’t know that many people would disagree. … Just like we have training programs in high schools for the trades, we could introduce them to public safety careers. I think we obviously should continue to recruit from other cities. I want our officers to be the highest paid officers in the region. I want them to feel like the big dog: When you work in Memphis, you’re on the premier force. You’re going to have the most resources, you’re going to have the best equipment, and you’re going to have all the support that you need.
BONNER: It’s going to take two to three years to get to where the staffing levels need to be right now. We can’t wait that long. … How would I go about doing our desk-to-duty plan? It’s taking some officers out of precincts, out of the public information office, and getting those officers back out on the streets. We have officers doing tasks that civilians could be doing — for instance, fixing the SkyCop cameras.
Currently, nearly 40 percent of the city of Memphis’ budget goes to police. Should residents expect that, under your administration, that share would go up, down, or stay the same?
TURNER: My budget would likely be the same if you look at the whole spectrum of public safety. But I would like to increase the budget as it relates to prevention and investments in disinvested communities, disinvested youth, disinvested community centers. I think that’s where we really have to pour a robust allocation of our investments into because what we’re doing now is not working.
BONNER: Right now, even with the budget the way it is, our police need more cars. … So there’s some things in the police department that we need to fix. … I can’t say that the budget would increase, but it’s certainly nice to stay where it’s at.
YOUNG: You would see incremental increases as a result of increasing the number of staff, but I don’t see it going up significantly or going down significantly. In order to truly make our community safe, we have to find ways to make additional investments in public safety that’s not necessarily MPD.
MPD is currently under a civil rights investigation by the Department of Justice. How do you plan to ensure that the Memphis Police Department treats all citizens fairly?
HERENTON: It is clear to me that we need to fix the culture of MPD. I’m committed to doing that. I know exactly how to get the culture straightened out and to make sure that we have transparency. We’ll have accountability, and we’ll have constitutional policing.
TURNER: We go to each community — and I mean each and every community — and we listen. … We focus on training and we make sure that our most senior officers are being utilized more than what they’re being utilized now. There were no senior officers [there] the night of the murder of Tyre Nichols, that was a misstep and a problem. … Third, we have to focus on recruiting the right individuals with the correct temperament, the right mind to serve and protect.
What public safety solutions have you seen work in other cities that you would seek to implement here?
YOUNG: Pittsburgh re-trained their officers on how to engage on police stops. They talk about the weather and make small talk to disarm. They do that to reduce the likelihood of a negative encounter. In Omaha, they put together a coalition of people from different agencies focused on holistic public safety. They’re using data to identify the young people that need other interventions, and they have a host of programs that are able to engage those young people when they’ve been identified.
Some cities have tried to respond to mental health crises with first responders who aren’t police officers. Is that a solution you’re interested in exploring for Memphis?
HERENTON: A lot of individuals out here have all kinds of mental disabilities that the policemen, if they’re not well trained, don’t know how to recognize. You have to broaden the training because they are running into some mental health issues that need to be addressed.
TURNER: I think that there’s a role for individuals who have that type of expertise to be used by law enforcement and by fire. Oftentimes, EMTs are first on the scene and there are issues that they have to address which concern mental illness. And they’re not equipped to do so. … We need a unit that will do it, that will travel with fire and police and make sure that mental health issues don’t result in death.
YOUNG: I’ve talked to people that have done it. The challenge you find is that when you have individuals responding to an intense scene or somebody’s having a mental health episode, with the proliferation of guns in our community, you still need a trained officer. Can we send mental health workers out with officers? Yes. Sending them out alone? No, I don’t think that’s wise.
How do you plan to engage with young people, to help them avoid gangs and criminal activity?
BONNER: It’s all about intervention and prevention. At the sheriff’s office, we have a Crime Prevention Unit that offers over 40 different programs for our youth. … We can’t sit in the office and let parents or kids come to us. We’ve got to get out in the neighborhoods to find out what we can do to help these kids be successful.
TURNER: A kid that joins a gang is looking for love, looking for acceptance, looking for protection, looking for a community. They find that in the gang because it’s not at home, it’s not at church, it’s not on the football team. You really have to disrupt that pattern of the gangs preying on these vulnerable youth because once they get ahold of them, it’s hard for them to let go, and it’s hard for that young person to get out of it. So we have to step in before the gangs get to them and provide that positive community for them. That’s why [I like] the Boys & Girls Club; it’s a positive community.
Memphis always ranks poorly in the number of roadway deaths. How would you help make our streets safer without relying solely on increased MPD enforcement?
YOUNG: We need drivers to be informed that the public right of way isn’t just for cars. It’s for people. People walk, they bike, and they drive cars. We need public service announcements that remind people that they have to share the roads. We also should be exploring design solutions.
BONNER: You increase traffic enforcement, attention to red lights, and things like that. We’re gonna have to take a long hard look at traffic patterns.
HERENTON: I’ve never seen the level of reckless driving, inappropriate driving behavior, as I’m seeing on the expressway and streets. I’m so happy to see the increased level of Highway Patrol in our city. I will support that 100 percent — to increase the presence of highway patrolmen. They do it right.
As mayor, what is a measure you would take to reduce car break-ins and theft?
TURNER: Part of addressing the issues is to not only require a permit to have a gun on your person, but require permits to have guns in your cars. Many times, they’re looking for guns and other valuables. … The uptick occurred when we allowed guns in cars without a permit, and every law enforcement person in the state was against what the assembly was doing. … You disrupt how they make money off of what they’re doing. You use good detective work, good policing to break up the chop shops.
BONNER: My wife and I’ve raised two sons in this community. We were responsible for their actions and where they were, but these young people that are out there that are breaking in cars, we’ve got to get down to the root problem of that. That could be a food issue; it could be a homeless issue. We’ve got to find out what those issues are, and then change the trajectory of those kids.
YOUNG: I had an opportunity to sit on a town hall panel with NLE Choppa a few months ago, and there was a young person who said he liked stealing cars. I asked why. He said, “I’m bored and I need some money.” Those are things we should be solving for! We have to find ways to engage youth, have them earn money, and have fun.
HERENTON: There’s some brands of cars that are [more] susceptible to car thieves than others. In fact, I think I read that our current mayor was joining with some other mayors who’re talking about suing automakers who make cars so easy to be stolen.
As mayor, what is a measure you would take to help get guns off the street?
BONNER: Aggressive policing, first of all. We’ve got to hold people accountable. But also, we’ve got to change the mindset whereby we don’t have conflict resolution anymore in the schools or anywhere. I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen with the churches and pastors, community organizations that are willing to step up now and really get the message out as to how serious this is in our city. Because a lot of time our youth don’t understand the consequences of pulling the trigger on a weapon. So when you talk about trying to get those guns out of their hands, we’ve got to find a way to talk to them and get them to understand that violence is never the answer to anything, but also holding them, again, responsible and accountable for their actions.
HERENTON: I think that the legislative body in Tennessee is going to have to exercise more accountability and responsibility as we look at gun violence and gun control. So I’m for a lot of the reform measures, but within the powers of the executive branch, which the mayor is in. We just have to operate within the confines of the Constitution and state legislature.
TURNER: Obviously, talking to the Tennessee General Assembly won’t work. When the states have failed us in the past, we’ve turned to the federal government. As a civil rights attorney, that’s what I’ll do. I will support litigation to make sure that we at least put all the issues on the table. … I will seek an injunction in federal court, and I know what would likely happen. But the important thing is that we will create a record. We will have experts who will have testimony. We’ll get all those folks on the stand who’ve been ill-affected by gun violence. And then we’ll take that record to the U.S. Congress and we’ll ask for the United States Congress and for the president to give us relief. We’ve had a ban on assault weapons before. It can happen again. We should not give up on this issue.
YOUNG: Gun buyback programs — making sure people are turning those things in. And making sure we address illegal guns. When people commit crimes with those types of weapons, we should make sure there’s a higher penalty.
Backing Van Turner on Friday were DA Steve Mulroy, state Rep. Justin Pearson, and County Mayor Lee Harris (Stand for Children)
Mayoral candidate Van Turner, who, according to polls, is in a tight race with other leading candidates, needed a boost. Over the last several days, he has gotten more than a few — mostly from major figures in the Democratic Party, which he once headed.
On Friday, Turner was the subject of two endorsement ceremonies — the first, in front of City Hall, led by State Representative Justin Pearson (who had already announced his support for Turner) and included D.A. Steve Mulroy and Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris.
In part, Pearson said, “This is one of the most important elections that will happen in a generation. And the support that Van Turner has received from leaders like D.A. Steve Mulroy, Congressman Steve Cohen, and so many others in our community prove that we need a leader who prioritizes the poor, the oppressed, those who have been pushed to the periphery of our society. We need a mayor who cares about all of them …
“We need a mayor who focuses on and is committed to not just building corporations well in downtown, which is part of my district, but he’s also invested in building a more just community. We need a mayor who’s a civil rights attorney, a father, a son, a leader of the NAACP, a vital ally for working-class people, reunions, a fighter for the poor, who is guided in order to make sure that Memphis is ahead of the individual.”
Later Friday morning, Turner was again the beneficiary of endorsements from important party figures. In a ceremony held at the home of Congressman Cohen, Harris, Assessor Melvin Burgess, and other leading Democrats weighed in on Turner’s behalf.
Van Turner with friends, including County Mayor Lee Harris and Congressman Steve Cohen (front row), and County Assessor Melvin Burgess, and former County Commissioner Reginald Milton. (courtesy of Rick Maynard)
Some months after the first major organized debates made it obvious which of the 17 declared mayoral candidates should be taken seriously, the six people who best answer that description were dueling again last Monday night at the studios of ABC24.
Those were Sheriff Floyd Bonner, former NAACP president Van Turner, businessman J.W. Gibson, state House Democratic Leader Karen Camper, school board member Michelle McKissack, and Downtown Memphis Commission CEO Paul Young.
The same lineup, more or less, was due to be involved in two more high-profile TV forums later in the week, at channels WREG-TV and WMC-TV. Missing in those engagements will be former Mayor Willie Herenton, who leads such polls as have been conducted but has stayed clear of all forums so far, including the one last Monday night.
Some of the brickbats previously thrown by one candidate against another were thrown again and doubtless will be again later in the week.
Bonner took barbs from opponents Turner, McKissack, and Young on issues ranging from excessive jail deaths to his reasons for wanting to leave his current job for that of mayor. McKissack was questioned about why the board of MSCS had not yet been able to put its recently tarnished past behind it. Gibson and Young got into a back-and-forth about whether the Downtown chief had been feckless about following through on projects the city was “on the hook” for.
And even the absent Herenton was taken to task, by moderator Richard Ransom, for the former mayor’s refusal to make himself publicly accountable, and by McKissack for affecting an air of old-fashioned paternalism.
• Meanwhile, the early voting schedule starts this Friday, September 15th, and will continue through Saturday, September 30th. Venues are listed below.
Times of accessibility are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. One exception: the Downtown Election Commission HQ will be accessible from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Abundant Grace Fellowship Church, 1574 E. Shelby Dr., Memphis 38116
Anointed Temple of Praise, 3939 Riverdale Rd., Memphis 38115
Briarwood Community Church, 1900 N. Germantown Pkwy., Cordova 38016
Dave Wells Community Center, 915 Chelsea Ave., Memphis 38107
Glenview Community Center, 1141 S. Barksdale St., Memphis 38114
Greater Lewis Street Baptist Church, 152 E. Parkway N., Memphis 38104
Greater Middle Baptist Church, 4982 Knight Arnold Rd., Memphis 38118
White Station Church of Christ, 1106 Colonial Rd., Memphis 38117
• Mayoral and council races will be reviewed in a special section of next week’s Flyer, in partnership with MLK50, and will largely focus on the issue of public safety.
