Tag: Shelby County Democratic Party

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Dissension Among Dems

Christos Georghiou | Dreamstime.com

It may be the proverbial tempest in the teapot, but the quarrels among Democrats, both local and statewide, continue to boil over.

The Shelby County Democratic Party (SCDP) may or may not have fully recognized official leadership as a result of contradictory recent actions taken by state chairman Hendrell Remus and the local party executive committee.

Remus started the turmoil by a surprise announcement, weekend before last, that he was removing local party chair Lexie Carter from her position as head of the SCDP. This was in the immediate wake of the local party’s annual Kennedy Day banquet, which drew a sizeable crowd of attendees and, according to Carter, raised $40,000 for party coffers.

Remus said the basis of his action was Carter’s failure to prepare an acceptable plan for the November election in response to his request for one in a questionnaire sent to Carter. As needy but overlooked Democrat campaigns, he mentioned specifically that of District 97 state representative candidate Jesse Huseth, who opposes Republican incumbent John Gillespie, and that of Gloria Johnson of Knoxville against GOP U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn.

But, according to Carter, the state chair’s action was more likely due to a series of conflicts that occurred between Remus and herself and others at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.

In any case, Remus’ action has not gone unchallenged. Both his decision and the authority to take it have been challenged, locally and at the state level.

Speaking for himself and what he said was a sizeable portion of the state Democratic committee’s membership, Erick Huth of Shelbyville, until recently a member of that committee from state District 14, said the party’s bylaws did not permit Remus to remove a local chairman without expressly granted permission from the state body.

Remus had said he vetted in advance his removal of Carter with several West Tennessee vice chairs of the state party, but, said Huth, such a claimed consultation, even if accurate, would not have authorized Remus’ removal action.

Huth, who in August lost an election to retain his state committee seat, said that fact enabled him to speak more freely about party matters, including what he said was Remus’ high-handed and ineffective conduct of his chairmanship.

“The state committee is badly divided, and that’s largely due to Hendrell,” he said.

An active state committeeman from Nashville, who chose not to be identified, confirmed Huth’s analysis of things.

For the record, Hendrell Remus has opted not to be a candidate for reelection as chair in state committee elections scheduled for January. According to various sources, Remus intends to return to Memphis, his former home base, in order to scout a possible future run for an elective position.

Meanwhile, the executive committee  of the local SCDP met late last week in Whitehaven and, in a highly argumentative session, engaged in disagreements among themselves as well as with state chair Remus about the whole brewing matter.

The local committee declined in its turn to accept Remus’ changes, which included the naming of four proposed temporary co-chairs for the SCDP.

These were former state Representative Dwayne Thompson, Memphis City Council Chair JB Smiley Jr., Shelby County Commission Chair Miska Clay Bibbs, and veteran party figure Danielle Inez. The proposed new co-chairs were invited to speak their piece on ideas for the party and the fall election, but their status as party leaders was not confirmed.

Instead, in the absence of both Lexie Carter and Hendrell Remus from the meeting, the local committee named as acting SCDP chair Will Simon, who is a current state party vice chair.

None of these changes, by the state chair or the SCDP committee, would seem to be anything but ad hoc expedients, as the situation simmers on.

New SCDP elections are scheduled for December. 

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State Democratic Chair Removes SCDP Chair Carter

Tennessee Democratic Party chair Hendrell Remus (Photo: Courtesy TN Democratic Party)

In a surprise action that recalls a similar circumstance eight years ago, state Democratic Party chair Hendrell Remus has removed local Shelby County party chair Lexie Carter from power.

The action took place Thursday following a Zoom call between Carter, Remus, and others. Invoking what the state chair said was the absolute authority of the state party over local parties, Remus said Carter had not measured up to the needs of a coordinated Democratic campaign for the fall election.

He mentioned specifically the campaigns for District 98 state representative of Jesse Juseth, who opposes Republican incumbent John Gillespie, and that of Gloria Johnson of Knoxville against GOP US Senator Marsha Blackburn.

Remus said he had sent a questionnaire to Carter asking for details of the local party’s readiness for election activity and received insufficient information in response.

Carter professed to be taken by surprise, having just, as she maintained, presided over the local party’s annual Kennedy Day banquet last weekend and raised upwards of $40,000 for party coffers. She alleged that a number of disagreements and confrontations had occurred between herself and Remus at the recently concluded Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Former local party chair and ex-County Commissioner Van Turner, who had assisted Carter in answering Remus’ questionnaire, raised concerns about due process in Carter’s removal and likened his action to the state Republican Party supermajority’s attempt to dominate over the actions of local government.

Remus said he would be appointing four ad hoc co-chairs to guide the SCDP until December, when a local party election will be held.

The new developments recalled the situation of 2016 when then state Democratic chair Mary Mancini disbanded the Shelby County party following years of local controversy, including charges of embezzlement.

The local party was reconstituted in 2017 with Corey Strong as chair.

More details to come as they are learned.

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Highs and Lows

Justin J. Pearson took “The Movement” to Germantown last Thursday. (Photo: Jackson Baker)

Back in the early fall of 2021, the Tennessee legislature, meeting in special session, voted to subject the powers of health departments in home-rule counties — like Shelby (Memphis) or Davidson (Nashville) — to veto-like controls by the state health department.

That action, taken at the still virulent height of the Covid pandemic amid controversies over masking and school shutdowns, was the most notable action of that special session.

Another important change was voted in with conspicuously less fanfare. The General Assembly, dominated then as now by Republican supermajorities in both houses, also struck down prohibitions against partisan elections for school boards, allowing school districts, anywhere in Tennessee, to have partisan school board primaries at their own discretion.

At the time, the Democratic and Republican parties of Shelby County opted not to avail themselves of the primary option.

That’s all changed now. The Democratic Party of Shelby County, chair Lexie Carter confirms, has informed the Election Commission that it intends to conduct primaries in March to determine official party candidates for the five Shelby County Schools seats to be voted on next year.

Shelby GOP chair Cary Vaughn, in noting that the county’s Republicans will not follow suit, said, “We are Republican strong [sic] through the municipalities and suburban areas pertaining to school board races. These communities know their leaders, and they know exactly who to support. We are giving them the freedom and flexibility to do so.”

The partisan primaries for other Shelby County offices stem from a 1992 decision by the local GOP, then marginally more populated, to try to steal a march on the Democrats.

• Some Shelby Countians have ulterior motives for this year’s scheduled special session of the legislature, set for this August after the spring’s gun massacre at a Nashville Christian school and intended to “strengthen public safety and preserve constitutional rights”

The headline of a message being sent around by various conservatives sets forth their desire: “Let’s Get Rid of Steve Mulroy Before Labor Day 2023!” Maintaining that violent crime has increased “geometrically” in recent months, the message proclaims that first-term Democratic DA Mulroy “as the top law enforcement officer in the county … is accountable for this increase.”

The message, being circulated petition-style, urges those who agree to go to a state government website and argue for including that premise — technically, an “impeachment” procedure, spoken to in Article VI, Section 6, of the state constitution and requiring a two-thirds majority vote of both houses — as part of the forthcoming session.

On its face, the effort lacks credibility, both in its premises and in its prospects. A “nothingburger,” summarized Mulroy, on the same day that he and Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis had announced a dramatic series of new arrests and indictments in a joint effort to combat organized “smash and grab” retail burglaries, and it has clearly not gathered any traction.

But it is apparently not the most ridiculous effort aimed at Mulroy. Still to be confirmed is the reality of an offer, allegedly being considered by a hyper-wealthy Memphian, notorious already from previous bizarre actions, to provide the DA with $1 million, plus an additional $200,000 offer for each year of his vacated term, to take leave of his office voluntarily now.

What’s the saying? “Fat chance.”

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Shelby County Dems Call for Resignation of House Speaker Cameron Sexton

Credit: Tennessee Democratic Party/Facebook

Shelby County Democrats called for Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) to resign Wednesday, and a watchdog group wants an investigation of Sexton’s government allowance for lodging. 

The Tennessee Democratic Party (TNDP) passed a resolution this weekend “demanding” Sexton’s resignation. The group also began a public campaign that will include billboards and a petition.  

“Speaker Sexton has got to go,” reads the petition. “Not only did he lead the racist charge to expel Reps. [Justin] Jones (D-Nashville) and [Justin] Pearson (D-Memphis), he may not even live in the district he represents.”

The House expulsion of Pearson and Jones drew national interest. This raised Sexton’s profile, with many criticizing him for allowing his party to use such extreme measures for a modest charge of breaking decorum rules. Sexton called the protest “an insurrection.” 

Reports then surfaced that Sexton secretly bought a Nashville home in 2021 and that his daughter attends a Nashville school, in a story first reported by the Substack Popular Information. This has drawn scrutiny on state residency requirements for lawmakers and put into question the per diem — the daily, taxpayer-funded allowance for food and hotel stays in Nashville — Sexton has claimed, even though he lives there.

Tennessee House Speaker’s multiple homes raise questions about per diem

A WKRN report then found that state Rep. Scotty Campbell (R-Mountain City) had been quietly found guilty by a state ethics committee of workplace harassment on charges of having inappropriate conversations with a 19-year-old legislative intern. Sexton did not move to expel Campbell, who resigned hours after confronted by a WKRN reporter about the situation.  

credit: State of Tennessee I How it started.
credit: State of Tennessee I How it’s going.

The Shelby County Democratic Party (SCDP) joined the state party’s calls for Sexton’s resignation Wednesday morning. The group’s major complaint was the expulsion of Jones and Pearson. They also listed the residency concerns, the non-action against Campbell, and a certain disregard for House rules. 

But they also complained about the “shocking comments” from GOP state Rep. Paul Sherrell’s (R-Sparta) during a debate on the death penalty. Rep. Scott Powers’ (R-Jacksboro) bill would have added firing squads to the state’s options for state executions.

credit: State of Tennessee

During a hearing of the House Criminal Justice Committee, Sherrell asked if Powers would add “hanging by a tree” to the proposal. He did not. Sherell issued a rare GOP apology about his statement the following day. Later, he was quietly stripped of his seat on the committee. 

SCDP said Sherell likely knew about the “racist nature of his suggestion.” Also, they said Oklahoma officials were recorded to have made similar statements. 

”Had even a censure been imposed on [Rep.] Sherrell, it might have discouraged the spread of such a senseless attack on a body of people harmed by such a callous and insensitive expression of hatred,” the group said in a statement. 

Also on Wednesday morning, the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Accountability (CFA) asked the Davidson County District Attorney General and the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee to investigate Sexton’s per diem requests for potential tax fraud. 

“Tennessee law makes clear that only those legislators who live more than 50 miles away from the Capitol are permitted to receive a lodging per diem,” CFA executive director Michelle Kuppersmith said in a statement. “Speaker Sexton is not above the law and must be held accountable for any possible violations.”

The group claims Sexton ”appears to have gone to great lengths to hide his new Nashville residency, purchasing the house through the ’Beccani Trust,’ with only his wife’s one signature was on the deed.” 

CFA analysis found that Sexton’s lodging per diems total about $79,954. They said the payments could violate Tennessee law. If so, it’s a Class B felony that could come with eight to 30 years in jail and $25,000 in fines. Sexton may have also violated federal tax law, CFA said, if he failed to report the money as taxable wages. 

CFA’s complaint reminds judicial officials that the Davidson County District Attorney general prosecuted then-Nashville Mayor Megan Barry for similar charges. Those were theft of property charges stemming from domestic and international travel expenses the mayor and her bodyguard, with whom she was having an affair, improperly charged to the city of Nashville.

CFA also mentioned that, at the time, Davidson County DA Glenn Funk said, “it’s the role of the district attorney to bring charges when crimes have been committed even if those crimes are committed by public officials.”

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Shaking Things Up

Outgoing Democratic chair Gabby Salinas (r) checks results of party convention with state Rep. Dwayne Thompson and Rose Mary Bradley. (Photo: Jackson Baker)

A smallish crowd of 166 people showed up last Saturday at First Baptist Church on Broad to take part in the first round of balloting for the biennial Shelby County Democratic Party reorganization. Two delegates from each of the county’s 13 Shelby County Commission districts were selected to form the party’s executive committee.

Norma Lester, who presided over last Saturday’s Democratic event, lamented that fewer members attended than had been expected. She attributed that fact to the lingering effects of the pandemic, during which in-person party events were relatively rare.

The party’s bylaws require that the two committee members representing each district be of different genders, and in one district, that allowed for an unprecedented result. On Saturday, the voters of District 11 elected the first transgender committee member, Brandy Price, to serve.

Some 100-odd members were also named to the party’s grassroots council. Members of both groups will convene via Zoom on Saturday, April 1st, to name a chairman to succeed outgoing chair Gabby Salinas. The three known candidates are businessman Jesse Huseth, longtime activist Lexie Carter, and Alvin Crook, a former Young Democrats chair.

Meanwhile, on this coming Saturday, March 25th, the county’s Republicans will hold their party’s reorganization caucus at the YMCA corporate offices on Goodlett Farms Parkway. Current GOP chairman Cary Vaughn has indicated that he intends to seek a second term as chair in order to continue his ongoing fundraising plan for the party.

• To say that the 2023 Memphis mayor’s race is in something of an uproar is a classic understatement. It is still two full months before the first date (May 22nd) to pick up candidate petitions at the Election Commission, and three of the race’s putative leaders, as identified in a recent poll, may be disqualified from even picking one up. They are Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner, NAACP president and former County Commissioner Van Turner, and longtime former Mayor Willie Herenton.

Bonner and Turner have both raised substantial amounts of cash, and, while less is known about Herenton’s receipts, his background in city government and historical cachet are such as to guarantee him a substantial vote base to begin with.

What makes the position of these three candidates tenuous is that none of them would qualify under residency requirements just posted on the Election Commission website. In its instructions to would-be candidates, the commission links to a legal opinion written by former EC chairman Robert Meyers. That opinion states explicitly that a city-charter provision of 1895 is still in effect and requires candidates to have lived in Memphis for five years “next preceding” an election.

None of the three candidates would fit that precise language, and these happen to be the three contenders who just finished on top in a local poll conducted by the Caissa Public Strategy group. The poll gives Turner a minuscule edge over the other two. Although Caissa normally handles candidates of its own, it so far has no mayoral candidate on its roster, and, though there are skeptics here and there regarding the poll’s reliability, most observers give it a fair degree of credibility.

Candidate Bonner has filed suit against the commission’s published criteria, and Chancellor Jim Kyle will consider the litigation, probably at rush speed. Meanwhile, other candidates, notably Paul Young of the Downtown Memphis Commission and wealthy businessman J.W. Gibson, have to be pinching themselves at their apparent good luck.

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Splitting Legal Hairs

Photo: Kasia Biel | Dreamstime.com

The matter of residency requirements for election to the office of Memphis mayor and service in that position has suddenly become enormously significant. It has, in fact, become the crux of the election matter, even as three of the most highly touted mayoral candidates have for several months already been competing and raising money feverishly for the right to serve.

Those candidates are Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner, NAACP president and former County Commissioner Van Turner, and former longtime Mayor Willie Herenton. Though each of them has lived many years in Memphis prior to this election year, each of them also has, at some point in the recent past, lived outside the city limits of Memphis and would be ineligible to serve as mayor under an 1895 city charter clause explicitly requiring mayoral candidates to have lived within the city for five years “next preceding” their election.

That charter would be amended in 1966, a year before Memphis held a city election for a newly adopted mayor-council form of government. The new charter did not use the words “next preceding” to define the terms of residential eligibility, nor did a judicial decree of 1991 regarding election criteria, nor did a subsequent 1996 voter referendum based on that decree explicitly define mayoral residency requirements in the sense of the 1895 charter.

Since then, there has remained a sense of ambiguity regarding the residency requirements for a mayoral candidacy, and an opinion last year by city council attorney Allan Wade became the de facto ruling on the matter.

Addressing queries from county Election Administrator Linda Phillips, Wade argued that the 1996 referendum — technically a home rule amendment — changed the residency requirements for city council members, eliminating any specific prior term of residency, and that the prior charter of 1966 linked the mayor’s residency requirements to those of the city council.

In another opinion made public last week, however, former Election Commission Chairman Robert Meyers, responding to city attorney Jennifer Sink, argues that voters in 1996 voted merely to change the residency requirement for city council, and were not aware that such a change would trigger the mayor’s residency requirements as well. His bottom line was that a mayoral candidate still had to abide by the need to have lived within the city for five years preceding an election.

Both opinions split more legal hairs than can be indicated in this space, but clearly the aforementioned candidates for mayor (and their opponents) have a vested interest in what a court might rule on the matter, and suits to force a definitive ruling can be expected, probably in short order.

• Partisans of the Shelby County Democratic Party will convene at First Baptist Church on Broad this Saturday to elect new members of the party’s grassroots council and its executive committee.

Those persons so elected will meet again at the same site on Saturday, April 1st, to elect a new party head to succeed current chair Gabby Salinas, who is not running for reelection.

The two known candidates for party chair are activists Jesse Huseth and Lexie Carter. They, or whoever else might seek the chairmanship, will take part in a public forum, probably on the intervening Saturday, March 25th.

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“Bogus Ballot” Deal Hits Snag

(courtesy of John Marek)

Word is that the Shelby County Democratic Party and sample-ballot entrepreneur Greg Grant are on the cusp of an agreement that would eliminate an ongoing injunction against Grant preventing him from using the term “Democratic” to describe his election ballots, which list “endorsements” and mug shots of candidates who pay Grant for the privilege.

Grant is one of several such entrepreneurs who circulate such “pay-to-play” ballots — often described by critics simply as “bogus ballots” — at election time. Among the others are former City Councilman Rickey Peete and perennial candidate M. Latroy Alexandria-Williams.

The injunction dates from February 2021 when special judge William Acree of Jackson levied it against Grant and others for using the words “Democratic” and “official” on their products. In April, the plaintiffs, who included the Shelby County Democratic Party and several others, singled out Grant for violation and asked Acree to assess a judgment or to impose a new temporary injunction (TRO).

Acree declined to issue a TRO, evidently accepting the argument of Grant’s attorney, Julian Bolton, that other ballot publishers had also, as Grant had, used variants of the word “Democrat” and “official” but were omitted from the new litigation.

Meanwhile, Judge Acree has plans to retire by the end of August, making moot the possibility of new legal actions from him after that point.

Faced with the prospect of having to re-initiate legal action from scratch against the bogus-balloteers, the Shelby County Democratic Party has reportedly offered Grant, the only currently active defendant, an agreement allowing him to continue issuing ballots under the name of “Greater Memphis Democratic Club” so long as he includes a disclaimer that he does not represent any organ of the actual Democratic Party.

Snags have occurred meanwhile. The Tennessee Young Democrats, who are a party to the suit, are not on board with the agreement, nor is plaintiff John Marek, nor, more immediately, is Grant, who is said to be resisting the idea of a disclaimer.

As Marek notes, the permanent injunction still holds, in the meantime, and is subject to enforcement.

.

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SCDP Gets Setback in Battle to Ban “Official Sample Ballots”

Once more, with for-profit sample ballots flooding the inner city on the eve of election, the Democratic Party cried “foul” and took what it regarded as the chief offender to court on Thursday..

Jake Brown represented the party, as he had back in February, 2021, when special judge William Acree of Jackson levied a permanent injunction against several  balloteers, prohibiting them from insinuating that their published for-profit publications had official connections to the Democratic Party, whether local, state, or federal. Brown was assisted on Thursday by John Marek, a lawyer and former candidate who had been a party to the Democrats’  prior action. 

In the earlier legal action, there had been several defendants. This time the plaintiffs named only one, veteran ballot entrepreneur Greg Grant.

And, while  Brown acknowledged that the crunch of time and the supposed singularity of Grant’s offenses were factors in limiting the party’s request for a temporary restraining order to Grant’s work, that act of singling-out damaged their hopes for immediate action

After some two hours of testimony from Brown, Marek, and Grant’s lawyer Julian Bolton, the judge — once again Acree —  declined to issue a T.R.O., evidently accepting Bolton’s argument that other ballot publishers had also, as Grant had, used variants of the word “Democrat” and “official,” but were omitted from the litigation.

Grant was named in the suit, Brown explained, because his artwork had featured a donkey, generally regarded as a Democratic symbol, along with the word “official,” under the auspices of Grant’s shell company, the “Greater Memphis Democratic Club,” as it was described on the ballot. “We didn’t like some of the other ballots, but his [Grant’s] is the one we’re objecting to,” said Brown.

Bolton was able to show that other, untargeted balloteers also used the word ‘Democratic” and/or “official” on their products.

All of the various entrepreneurs  sell spaces on their ballots to candidates, and that’s all the “endorsements” they get on the ballots, along with their mug shots, amounts to.

Thursday’s court session was held in Criminal Court, where special Judge Acree was hearing other cases, and he did set a date in June to arraign Grant on the charge of violating the injunction he issued last year. That would be criminal contempt, and it could involve jail time if Grant is convicted..

Meanwhile,with the May 3rd Democratic primary slated to come and go in in the  interim, there is evidently nothing to stop Grant or the other balloteers from continuing to mail out or hand out — and profit from — their versions of a sample ballot.

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Cracks in the Binary Box

Democrat Dwayne Thompson (left) and Republican John Gillespie talk over the current legislative session. (Photo by Jackson Baker).


If there is a single leitmotif that defines the coming disharmony of a local election in these parts, it is the struggle between members of the two parties — Republican and Democratic — for dominance. The 2022 election in Shelby County is skewed in this way, with all the structural advantages adhering to the Dems. Actually, there is a fairly accurate division of influence — with the demographics of the city (i.e., Memphis) favoring Democratic candidates and those of the suburbs tilting unmistakably and dependably toward Republicans.

Yet beyond the party leaderships there is here and there a breach in this binary circumstance. Take the 13 members of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners — apportioned 8 to 5, as of now, in favor of Democrats, with the 2022 election likely to make that division 9 to 4 in favor of the Democrats — on the strength of reapportionment that’s fetched up another seat, the new District 5 seat in Cordova, expected to go the Democrats’ way.

Up until now, the Republicans have for several sessions been holding their own by the simple device of finding two dependable Democrats who could be coaxed onto their side when need be. Democrats Edmund Ford and Eddie Jones (the most recent two such) have reasonably often opted to make common cause with the Republicans, so long as the right trades were made on other points elsewhere.

Within the 2021-2022 session the Democrats did some bargaining of their own, attracting East Memphis Republican Brandon Morrison, already prone to look for non-partisan solutions, to their side on some key votes — both procedural: she would become vice chair instead of the minority Republicans’ choice of Amber Mills in northern Shelby (District 1), and policy-wise: (she would display an open mind on key votes favored by the Democrats (e.g., county funding of MATA), Morrison even agreed to serve as vice chair of a committee to re-examine the virtues of Metro consolidation, that bane of the suburbanite.

That makes the current contest in District 4 (East Memphis, Germantown) between Morrison and political newcomer Jordan Carpenter simply a matter of arithmetic. Morrison’s current GOP colleagues — Mills, Mick Wright, David Bradford, and the term-limited Mark Billingsley — are backing Carpenter to restore as much of an unbroken Republican orthodoxy as possible. Even a bloc of 4 in what is likely to be a new Commission favoring Democrats by a 9-4 margin,  is, in their minds, worth something.

It remains to be seen if party loyalty or the principle of bi-partisanship will prevail. The Democrats, with their probable 9-vote supermajority, can indulge a certain equanimity on the matter.

* * *

The recent brouhaha over the endorsement of Republican state Senate candidate Brent Taylor, in District 31,  by Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, a nominal Democrat, indicates another way in which the binary party system is being breached. In their primary Democrats had been grooming Ruby Powell-Dennis, an educator and civil figure, to seek the seat, which up to now has been  held by the indicted and now withdrawn GOP incumbent Brian Kelsey.

The fact is, Memphis mayors, whose own elections are non-partisan, have frequently crossed the party line to espouse candidates of another party. Willie Herenton, a Democrat, did it twice on behalf of the statewide candidacies of Republicans Don Sundquist and Lamar Alexander.

Strickland was in the large crowd that gathered on Taylor’s behalf for a fundraiser last Thursday at the East Memphis home of Craig and Cathy Weiss. Spotting the Mayor, who was a full head taller than most of the attendees, Taylor quoted Strickland as having said the endorsement of Taylor was for the sake of “better outcomes for Memphis.” Addressing the Mayor, he jested, “I would ask you to say a few words but I think you’ve probably said enough. If you say any more, they may try to impeach you.”

That got an animated chuckle from the crowd. Then Taylor proceeded: “I know you took a lot of heat for it. But I love Memphis and I think you know I love Memphis, and that’s one reason he endorsed me.”

Taylor continued: “There’s a second thing. I just came back to Nashville on Monday and Tuesday where I met with Senate leadership and about half of the Senate. They are very excited about having me joining the Senate, primarily because they don’t understand Big Shelby. They don’t understand Memphis and its politics. And they’re excited to have me up there…. I will tell you that [the  Mayor’s endorsement] meant more among those senators than the endorsement of [U.S. Senators] Hagerty and Blackburn because they knew they needed somebody to help them understand Memphis and Shelby County.” 

Binary politics is under threat elsewhere in local politics. Shelby County’s Republicans caved in to the reality that they could not find a GOP candidate to beat Sheriff Floyd Bonner, the Democratic nominee; so they have in effect endorsed Bonner’s campaign as well. It was no accident that the huge crowds that gathered the weekend before last at the Sheriff’s campaign headquarters opening included as many Republicans as Democrats.

And conversations between the two parties — like one between Democratic state Representative Dwayne Thompson and Republican John Gillespie, both representing “purplish” adjoining districts — abounded as well.

It will take some time before the twain truly meet, but it has to be a good sign that they are talking.

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Salinas or Strong? Local Democrats Prepare to Choose New Chair

Gabby Salinas and Corey Strong (Photos: Salinas / Facebook; Courtesy Corey Strong)

Shelby County Democrats completed Phase One of their biennial reorganization on Saturday, conducting 13 separate caucuses via Zoom to elect delegates to this coming Saturday’s convention, which will complete the cycle with the selection of a new chair and other party officers.

Outgoing Chairman Michael Harris expressed satisfaction at the online turnout, which included some 550 registrants and 300 active participants, of whom roughly 100 were elected as members of the party’s Grassroots Council, along with 26 members to serve as SCDP’s executive committee.

Those elected to the two bodies will serve as the voting members at Saturday’s convention, which will take place on Zoom and will also be watchable on YouTube and on the website of the Shelby County Democratic Party.

The two declared contestants for the party chairmanship are Gabby Salinas and Corey Strong. Salinas is making her third try for a significant office, having in recent years won the Democratic nomination for two legislative seats, which she narrowly lost to Republicans in general election races. Despite these losses, she is in the unusual position, politically, of still being regarded as something of a face for the future. This is largely owing to her inspiring backstory as a dual survivor.

A native of Bolivia, Salinas came to this country with her family as a toddler to be treated for cancer at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. After successful treatments for the disease, she then survived a catastrophic automobile accident that took the lives of several family members. As an adult graduate of Christian Brothers College, Salinas would herself become a researcher with the St. Jude Department of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics.

Strong, too, has an interesting biography. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, he did active duty in Kabul, Afghanistan, and maintains his membership in the Navy Reserve with the rank of Commander. He possesses a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law and has an extensive history as a party activist.

After the Shelby County Democratic Party was recommissioned by the state party in 2017 after a period of being defunct, Strong was elected as chairman of the restored party and served until 2019. His term included the local party’s electoral “sweep” year of 2018.

• Former Senator Bob Corker, who was one of the few congressional Republicans (and one of the first) to have a public falling-out with the Trump administration, was quoted by the Nashville Tennessean as saying, apropos the current Afghanistan debacle, “It appeared to me that [President Joe] Biden basically continued the Trump policy.” Corker delivered similar sentiments in a weekend address at Monteagle to members of the Episcopal Churchmen of Tennessee.

As far back as 2011, Corker, who later became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed frustration with the American military effort in Afghanistan, seeing Pakistan to be the actual haven for Al Qaeda and other militant Islamic groups. “The fact is,” he told the Flyer at the time, “if you travel through Afghanistan, as I’ve done many times, and you talk to our military leaders, they’re unbelievably frustrated because they’re fighting a war in a country where our enemies are not.

“And on the other hand we’re providing aid to a country where our enemies are. To me­ — and this is what I really pressed hard in this last hearing — this is where our focus needs to be.”