Tag: Shelby County Democratic Party

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

State Party Head to Local Dems: Settle the Carson Matter!

Mary Mancini

There are, as it turns out, more guaranteed circumstances than the two most often noted: death and taxes. Right up there with those two, in terms of inevitability, is the fact of discord in state and local Democratic Party ranks.

The latest instance of such is contained in a letter dispatched to members of the Shelby County Democratic executive committee from state Democratic Party chair Mary Mancini. The letter deals with the long-festering case of former local party chairman Bryan Carson, who was forced to resign by the county committee in February of 2015.

The Mancini letter, in essence, mandates the terms of a resolution of the matter by the Shelby County party and provides a short deadline for doing so.

The executive committee’s action in early 2015 came after the county party had been fined by the state Election Registry for its failure to comply with financial reporting deadlines and after Carson had been unable to account for the disposition several thousand dollars in party funds. At issue also was the fact that the chairman had apparently switched bank accounts for the party funds without express authorization by the executive committee and had made several withdrawals from ATM machines without providing receipts.

The amount of the financial discrepancy has never been determined with exact accuracy, but a preliminary audit performed by committee members at the time of Carson’s resignation estimated the unaccounted-for amount to be at least $6,000. Another ad hoc investigating group on the committee has since arrived at a higher estimate for the missing funds, in the vicinity of $25,000, but there has never been absolute agreement on the committee on the validity of either sum.

Through his attorney, Robert Spence, Carson admitted no wrongdoing but offered to settle the dispute by compensating the local party for the $6,000 sum at the rate of $100 a month. There is disagreement as to whether the full committee was ever apprised of the offer, which in any case ceased to be active.

Compounding the confusion was the fact that Carson’s elected successor as chairman, Randa Spears, as well as the local party’s first vice chair, Deidre Malone, had both abruptly resigned their positions in April, each giving the press of other obligations as the reason for their departure. The Spears-led party had meanwhile missed another financial reporting deadline for this year and had been assessed a fresh $10,000 fine by the Election Registry.

At its regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Thursday, June 2, the executive committee elected a new chairman, Sheriff’s Department Lt. Michael Pope, and acted on a motion by defeated chairmanship candidate Del Gill to prosecute Carson for embezzling the larger estimated sum. That motion passed, fairly handily, but there has been no formal action on the matter by the committee since.

All of that formed the background for the Mancini letter, dated Friday, June 24, to the Shelby County executive committee, care of chairman Pope.

Mancini’s letter begins with a citation of party bylaws and state codes that, she says, assign her “both a supervisory and organizational role over each of the county executive committees that operate throughout the state.” The letter follows with a cursory and none too indulgent recounting of the Shelby County’s ongoing problems (“many years of dysfunction,” as she puts it).

Mancini then comes to the nut of the matter, prescribing a settlement in accord with the dormant offer made to the party by Carson through his attorney:

“With a looming election that is shaping up to be of monumental importance for our state and our country, and for the health of your organization and executive committee, it is my responsibility to inform you that you must agree to the arrangement that Mr. Carson pay the amount of $6000 at $ 100 per month for 5 years and be released from any additional claims and that Chairman Pope must sign all the necessary paperwork to honor that agreement or you will no longer be in compliance with your charter issued by the Tennessee Democratic Party.”

Ironically, perhaps, Mancini had in recent months been sounded out by disgruntled party members wondering if voluntary surrender of the local party’s charter might be a feasible option. She had always answered no to such inquiries.

The deadline for “signing the necessary paperwork and forwarding it to Mr. Carson’s attorney is Friday, July 1, 2016,” Mancini concludes.

Some party members are questioning Mancini’s authority to mandate an or-else solution of this sort, while others are ready to acknowledge that she has the right. In any case, there is no pending meeting of the executive committee until the regularly scheduled one of Thursday, July 7 and thus no opportunity for a committee vote before Mancini’s deadline.

Chairman Pope, however, has indicated he is prepared to accept Mancini’s mandate, but his authority to do so without a committee authorization is questionable. To say the least, confusion persists.

• Dynamic duo: During his first several congressional terms after being elected in 2006, 9th District U.S. Representative Steve Cohen cemented an alliance with venerable Detroit congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan), who then served as House Judiciary Committee chairman and regarded the Memphis liberal, a committee member, as something of a protégé and journeyed to Memphis on Cohen’s behalf.

When the Republicans captured control of the House after the election of 2010, the Conyers-Cohen tandem was not heard from with the same intensity, but it still existed. This week, after the landmark Supreme Court decision striking down the severe restrictions on abortion clinics imposed by a Texas state law, Conyers and Cohen reasserted themselves as a duo.

In a joint press release, Conyers, in his capacity as ranking member of the Judiciary Committee and Cohen, as ranking member of the Judiciary subcommittee on the Costitutional and Civil Justice, and Cohen, hailed the Court’s decision as a reaffirmation of “the fundamental cnstitgutional right of women to make their own decisdions about their health, their bodies, their families, and their lives.”

Said the two congressmen: “The Court correctly saw the Texas law for what it was, which was an attempt to severely restrict abortion rights and not one to protect women’s health” and that the Texas law “placed such substantial obstacles to a woman’s choice to have an abortion that its provisions were an “undue burden” on women’s constitutional right to choose….”

The Conyers-Cohen press release, one of several recently released by Cohen’s office, highlighted one of the incumbent congressman’s built-in advantages in generating media. Cohen has three opponents in the 2016 Democratic primary — Shelby County Commissioner Justin Ford, Larry Crim, and M. LaTroy Williams. Republican Wayne Alberson and independent Paul Cook will be on the November ballot.

• More fallout: The Court’s decision on the invalidated Texas statute, incidentally, will almost surely have repercussions in Tennessee, where the General Assembly in recent years had enacted laws with provisions almost identical to those in the Texas law, which basically required doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and imposed rigid standards on abortion clinics resembling those for hospitals performing outpatient surgery.

Laws passed by the Tennessee legislature in 2012 and 2014 had made similar specifications, which have been challenged in the U.S. District Court in Nashville.

• Promises, promises: The fact that a freshman seat In the U.S. House of Representatives — to be one of 435 — is the equivalent of landing an entry-level job in the federal government, the continuation of which is entirely contingent on the good will (or passing whims) of voters back home, is often lost sight of in the heat of campaigning. Candidates want to suggest that they can, all by themselves, shift national policy, and who can blame them?

Along this line, it will be hard for any of his competitors to beat two claims made by 8th District Republican congressional candidate David Kustoff in a TV commercial that just hit the airwaves over the weekend. The ad proclaims, of course, that Kustoff, the former U.S. Attorney for Western Tennessee, has impeccable credentials as a conservative and will, for example, oppose Obamacare, but it makes two additional claims that are unprecedented in their magnitude.

In the checklist of promises with which the commercial concludes, one learns that Kustoff will (drumroll) “end illegal immigration” and (thunder and lightning) “destroy radical Islamic terrorism.” Not to vote to do these things, mind you, but — well, just to do them.
Er…wow! •

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Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Steve Steffens’ Viewpoint “Tear Down the Shelby County Democratic Party and Start Over” …

The current party is a bunch of jackals fighting over the scraps left over after the Republicans have torn the state apart. They have no desire to do their own hunting.

Jeff

About Kevin Lipe’s Beyond the Arc post, “Dave Joerger out as Grizzlies Head Coach” …

While I was initially shocked by this decision, after reading all the “behind the scenes” stuff, I agree with it. I’ve always thought coaching changes set back franchises, but obviously we had a coach who wanted no part of our team. He’d been here nearly 10 years. Thanks, Dave. It’s time to move on.

Midtown Mark

The shedding of tears was also a shot at front office, “Oh, woe is me, it was so hard, all the injuries, they traded Jeff Green, they traded Courtney, then had a carousel of D leaguers… and, oh yeah, they picked Jordan Adams instead of Rodney Hood ….”

It was a shot at front office, and I’m not saying he was totally wrong on everything, but that’s what it was.

His remarks the next day were actually in line with all his prior behavior, including the tear fest. He was thankful for his players, but had disdain for front office since his sponsor Jason Levien left.

Juce

About Frank Murtaugh’s From My Seat post, “Preferred Playoffs: Hockey” …

I am a hockey fan, not the best place to live for that. The Predators are having a good run. I am a Leafs fan. So that is the same as saying, ‘Hey, I am delusional,’ but I grew up in Ontario, so that is my excuse. The playoffs in the NHL are called hockey’s second season for a reason. Often all bets are off. Guys who bag it during the season suddenly come alive. Sometimes the big guns go silent. Always love watching.

Paula Langley

On J.D. Reager’s Local Beat column, “A New Booker in Town” …

Here’s hoping that he’s successful at broadening the mix of performers to appeal to a wider audience. And to appeal to folks truly interested in hearing good live music, not just in drinking and socializing with a live band as merely a backdrop. Much needed at Lafayette’s. (Special request: Please bring back Castro Coleman, aka Mr. Sipp, the Mississippi Blues Child!)

Strait Shooter

On the letter about “Madam President” in Last Week’s “What They Said” …

We elected a black man as president because people said that this country is more than ready for a black man to lead us.

They are and were right, but should we have ONLY one candidate of that sex or color represented?

Surely there are more qualified women to run for office than someone who is under federal investigation for mishandling of classified material and who has let an embassy be sacked and the ambassador murdered and dragged through the streets.

Besides,we have already had a woman president. When Calvin Coolidge had his stroke, his vice president did not want to assume the duties, so Mrs. Coolidge sat in the president’s place and made decisions for the country.

towboatman

Towboatman,

Pssst … it was Wilson, not Coolidge who had the stroke. And if Mrs. Coolidge took over after Mrs. Wilson poisoned the president, well, we got ourselves an HBO series!

CL Mullins

About Joshua Cannon’s News Blog post “Ghost River Requests $66,455 for Tap Room, Renovations”

I love Boscos and Ghost River. Corporate (and a lot of other) welfare, not so much.

ALJS

About zoo parking …

The parking problem will not go away with the Band-Aid proposed last week. Memphis artist Roy Tamboli’s suggestion to see the parking quandary as an opportunity to innovate and enhance the park landscape has been the only solution with a flicker of ingenuity. Surely we have enough great architects and civic-minded business leaders to turn this dilemma into a show-stopping solution. Don’t leave it to the clumsily thuggish zoo PR team or the big-business-indebted zoo board and City Council. Find a Tamboli-like solution that will enhance and resonate for decades.

P.Hall

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Politics Politics Feature

Spring Training

It’s still a little less than two months — April 17th, to be exact — before candidates for city offices can even pull a qualifying petition from the Election Commission. And it’s nearly five months after that until the November 3rd election itself — seven month total.

For emphasis, let’s put that last figure in Arabic numerals: 7 months before Memphis voters can finish signaling their intentions on city offices — encompassing the lengthy span from now, when major league baseball teams are beginning spring training, to a date when the World Series is likely to still be happening.

And yet the roster is rapidly filling up for the most important race on this year’s election calendar — that for Memphis mayor. With the formal announcement of candidacy on Monday of this week by Memphis Police Association President Mike Williams, the number of well-known names still expected to be on the mayoral ballot has shrunk to two — City Councilman Harold Collins, who appointed an exploratory committee last fall and former Memphis School Board member and New Olivet Baptist church pastor Kenneth Whalum Jr.

[IMAGE-1]Whalum is forthright about his own plans, which to a great extent are based on an understanding with Williams, whose views on city matters overlap with his own. It boils down to this: “If Mike follows through and picks up a petition when the time comes and files, I won’t run,” says Whalum. “If he doesn’t, it’s 100-percent certain that I will.”

Already declared, besides Williams, are incumbent Mayor A C Wharton, City Councilman Jim Strickland, former County Commission Chairman James Harvey, current commission Chairman Justin Ford, and former University of Memphis basketball player Detric Golden.

And, while Ford, who has commission business to attend to, has not yet finished stockpiling his artillery, and Harvey has not yet begun to fight, the others are already doing battle. Strickland is speaking lots and firing away at Wharton on an almost daily basis via Facebook and Twitter; Williams and his supporters are active on the same social media; and the mayor is playing his bully pulpit for all it’s worth, materializing in numerous speech appearances and press conference formats that allow him to do double duty as city official and candidate for reelection.

And Golden, who has yet to demonstrate what his political base is, is turning up at public events, including those held by other candidates, and for well over a year has been conspicuous by driving around town in a car that is tricked-out with signs advertising his candidacy.

The mayoral-campaign activity so far is a form of spring training, and, like its baseball equivalent, it is a way of working the kinks out, finding a groove, and getting the jump on the competition. For that reason, Collins and Whalum won’t be able to procrastinate much longer on revealing their own intentions, and an announcement from one or both of them may well beat this issue to the printer.

There’s another reason why time is of the essence: money, which is a finite resource, especially here in hard-pressed Memphis, and won’t stretch far enough to cover every candidate’s needs. In a certain sense, it’s a matter of first come, first served, and the most accomplished self-servers so far are Wharton and Strickland. Both of them have been at it for a while — with receipts through January 15th showing a campaign balance for Wharton of $201,088 and for Strickland of $181,595.

The others have some catching up to do.

• As one of the first commenters to the Flyer‘s online coverage of the event said, “A very sad day, indeed, for the Shelby County Democratic Party in more ways than one.”

The event in question was the forced resignation on Saturday of Shelby County Democratic Party Chairman Bryan Carson, well-liked in his own right and the son of the widely admired Gale Jones Carson, a former local party chair herself and the longtime secretary of the state Democratic Party.

In a nutshell, the younger Carson had, on the fateful Saturday, faced a no-holds-barred interrogation into his oversight of party finances by the party’s executive committee — 76 strong, at peak, with roughly 50 on hand for the occasion, which was closed to the press and public. Saturday’s meeting followed two prior closed-door meetings with Carson last week by the party’s smaller 11-member steering committee, the second of which had resulted in a unanimous vote of “no confidence.”

All three meetings had been called out of a sense of crisis that developed from Carson’s repeated failure either to address party members’ concerns about the state of party finances or to deal satisfactorily with ominous promptings for an accounting from the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance. The bureau had already levied three $500 fines on the local party for late or incomplete submissions of financial disclosure statements and threatened another of $10,000, along with a showdown meeting in Nashville in March.

There were two immediate issues: The first was a disclosure statement that had been overdue since October 28th. Carson would hurriedly prepare one and submit it, such as it was, to the bureau on Wednesday, February 18th, the same day as his second meeting with the party steering committee and their vote of no confidence.

The other issue was even more troubling. It concerned an ad hoc audit, prepared at the request of the steering committee by Diane Cambron, wife of David Cambron, the local party’s first vice chair, and Dick Klenz, longtime president of the Germantown Democratic Club — both with unimpeachable reputations for fair-mindedness.

The audit showed that, since last September, Carson had made 63 withdrawals from the party’s bank account, in an amount totaling $8,437.89, and could produce no receipts for what he contended had been cash payments on behalf of the party. Even allowing for figures submitted in what Carson called a “self audit” (again, unaccompanied by receipts and made difficult to trace by virtue of the chairman’s having arbitrarily switched the party banking account), there seemed to be an amount of $6,091.16, which the Cambron-Klenz audit referred to as “unsubstantiated.”

Carson maintained in all three meetings with party committees that he had done nothing wrong and that the apparent discrepancies were the result of an overload of activity during the 2014 campaign year, coupled with the fact that he had been compelled, he said, to try to function as his own party treasurer.

That last was another fact that confounded committee members, who had thought that party member Jonathan Lewis was functioning as party treasurer. It turned out during the week’s discussions that Lewis had shied away from the service and had not registered with the state after being given a glimpse by Carson into the actual state of party finances.

In any case, the predominant mood of the party executive committee on Saturday was to reject Carson’s explanations, as well as his expressed wish to maintain at least a titular hold on the office of chairman (while handing over actual control to first Vice Chair David Cambron) through the party’s scheduled March caucus-convention rounds that are scheduled to produce a new executive committee and chairman on March 28th.

Vice Chair Cambron has been named acting chair, and he announced that one of his first acts would be to open a new party banking account this week, so as to provide a revised and reliable financing accounting from the ground up.

Beyond that, there has been no word from anyone speaking for the party to take further action or pursue legal remedies and no apparent appetite for doing so.

Various online commenters on the matter have made a point of noting that the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office has issued a warrant of “theft over $500” against Axl David, former treasurer of the Young Republicans in that Middle Tennessee county, for what Sheriff Robert Arnold called “several discrepancies in the management of Club funds.” But no one has demonstrated any analogy between that situation and the one in Shelby County.

Bryan Carson, meanwhile, apparently still intends to seek the open District 7 City Council seat in this year’s city election. In January, he finished one vote behind Berlin Boyd in a council vote to name an interim District 7 councilman to succeed Lee Harris, who had resigned to assume his new duties as a state Senator.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Chairman Carson Could Have Fate Settled at Saturday’s Meeting of Democratic Executive Committee

CREDIT: JB

JB

Bryan Carson

Weather permitting, the predicament of local Democratic chairman Bryan Carson may be resolved Saturday afternoon at a special called meeting of the Shelby County Democratic Party executive committee.

Within the last 24 hours, however, the executive committee meeting was declared closed to the media and the general public — apparently at the behest of an 11-member steering committee.

It was this steering committee that unanimously voted a “No Confidence” finding on Carson at a closed meeting held Wednesday night in the offices of a Teamsters Union local.
That meeting was held to discuss complications relating to Carson’s alleged failure to meet deadlines for financial disclosures that had been overdue to a state oversight agency.

On the same day of the meeting, Carson reported that he had submitted to the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance in Nashville a financial disclosure statement that had been due on October 28.

At Saturday’s meeting, to be held at 2:30 at the IBEW headquarters building on Madison, the full 73-member executive committee will be presented the particulars of Wednesday night’s meeting and possibly also the results of a financial audit conducted over the last month by a task force of the steering committee.

The executive committee will presumably have the option of accepting or rejecting the steering committee’s No Confidence vote and could take further disciplinary action, up to and including the termination of Carson’s chairmanship, which is due to expire in any case on March 28.

On that date, the SCDP will participate in its regular biennial convention, at which a new executive committee will be elected and a chairman named for the next two years. Carson has said he will not seek reelection but told the Flyer Wednesday night he intended to serve out his term.

Upon learning that Saturday’s meeting would be a closed one, executive committee member Steve Steffens expressed outrage at what he called “an appalling lack of transparency,” and said, “We’re a public body and should act like one.” Steffens objected further that the executive committee was apparently being asked to make a snap judgment on potentially complex materials that had not been shared with the committee previously.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Lester, Democratic Election Commission Member, Slams Justin Ford “Betrayal”

Norma Lester

The battle over the Shelby County Commission may have come to an end with last Wednesday’s preliminary vote to accept the committee appointments of chairman Justin Ford, but with that vote, by the Commission’s general government committee, due to be ratified by the full Commission on Monday,the fallout continues in other parts of the local political universe.

Even as Republicans hashed out their internal disagreements on the appointments issue at a GOP steering committee meeting week before last, Democrats showed signs of beginning their own internal debate on the issue.

Norma Lester, a vocal Democratic representative on the Shelby County Election Commission, has issued an “open letter” to her party-mates, expressing her view that Ford, who was elected chairman on the strength of his own vote, plus those of six Republicans, had subsequently fulfilled GOP wishes in the manner of the committee appointments.

Essentially, Lester’s public missive puts her in solidarity with Democratic Commissioner Walter Bailey, who has charged that Ford’s committee assignments were made as part of a “deal” with the Commission’s Republican contingent.
The text of Lester’s letter:

My fellow Democrats, in reflecting upon recent activities, I am of the opinion it is time to WAKE UP!!

Personally, I applaud Republican Leadership in holding firm to keeping members in line, for that is as it should be. I am also a strong proponent of bipartisan decisions, HOWEVER, when Republicans court Democrats to get in bed with them but see it as taboo to get in bed with Democrats that should send a resounding wake up call!!! Carefully read the following recent statements by Republican Commissioner Steve Basar who was “bullied” for doing the exact same thing Republicans had gotten Democrat Commissioner Justin Ford to do. What a slap in the face DEMOCRATS!!!!

“Commissioner Steve Basar spoke to the “bullying” tactics of his fellow Republicans after he voted with Bailey and five other Democrats during the last commission meeting, sending the appointments back to committee, an unprecedented tactic. Basar argued that when six Republicans and one Democrat vote together, “that’s a bipartisan victory” but when a Republican sides with Democrats, the Republican should be thrown out”. (Memphis Flyer, October 8, 2014)

Getting in bed with Republicans is NOT new and not a bad thing “IF” they are willing to do likewise. I am reminded of friends who not long ago did the same thing. There is however a difference in cutting a deal and blatant betrayal, which is what happened with young Ford and the basis for the contempt amongst fellow Democrats. His behavior far exceeds that of Democratic State Senator Rosalind Kurita several years ago which resulted in her being out cast! I was in the audience the day the Ford votes were taken and it honestly looked as if the six Democrat Commissioners were in need of resuscitation! It was overwhelming being blind-sided by one someone reneging on a “gentlemen’s agreement.” Deal cutting when necessary should be for the overall benefit of those you serve NOT for personal gain. That seems to be forgotten by far too many elected officials and unfortunately without consequences. Where pray tell is the trust factor?

I refuse to accept being treated less than equal and for those in leadership positions that choose to do otherwise, the Democratic Party needs to hold them accountable and Democrats as a whole should not forget! Business as usual should no longer be acceptable. We should never settle for anything less than fair and equal treatment! To do otherwise desecrates the blood and tears of those that paved the way for us. We cannot forget!!

Democratically Yours,

Norma Lester

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Jackson Baker’s column, “Insularity Breeds Defeat for Democrats” …

I said it before the election, and it has proven to be true: A reboot is in progress.

There is simply no way to ignore the concerns of young people, Hispanics, South Asians, or any of the many subgroups of people who would normally be attracted to Democratic positions at the national level, and expect to win elections. The message of hate, distrust, and identity politics has run its course.

Memphians, by and large, are bigger than that. Just travel to any other place in America, then come back home. Ask yourself, after talking to people one-on-one, where you can find such an open and welcoming populace. Is there poverty here? Sure. But we’re working on it. Is there crime? Yeah, but that’s improving too. Are there still remnants of structural racism that make it hard for minorities to get a fair shake? Indeed there are. But we’re on the ground floor of a change. And many of us who are trying to make our hometown a better place can see it … feel it.

No one is going to take the politics of division seriously anymore.

OakTree

About last week’s Fly on the Wall column …

WTF MF? I receive The Commercial Appeal the old-fashioned way, at my door, so I have not had to endure the “rough patch” the CA hit recently with its digital editions. However, after 25 years in print, I expect the Flyer to at the least print the crossword puzzle somewhere within the classified section as listed in the index. Not only was it not in the classified section, the darn thing was nowhere to be found between the front and back pages. Perhaps a little more editing and a little less web browsing is in order

Maryellyn Duncan

About Bruce VanWyngarden’s Editor’s Note on the recent election …

Without a doubt, the best assessment of what went wrong for Democrats on Election Day! As a Germantown Democrat, which makes me a rare bird anyway, I’m one of those white “cross-overs” the party leaders hate. But since they insist, as a Democrat I’m obligated to vote for whatever clown they run, and they will keep coming up short. Give us some decent candidates like Cheyenne Johnson and Lee Harris and there will be better results.

1956Gold

About the state of sex education in Shelby County Schools …

Jean-Baptiste Karr said, “The more things change, the more they stay the same”. There was a guest column in this past Sunday’s Commercial Appeal about the state of sex education in Memphis. I’m getting on in years, and sometimes memory fails me, but as I read this I remembered a letter I wrote to the CA editor 23 years ago:

“Last night, the Shelby County School Board voted in a sex education course that is the equivalent of putting blinders on our children and sending them out into the streets. The state of Tennessee has decreed that the board must adopt a sex education program that addresses the problem of AIDS by the end of the calendar year. This is a worthwhile goal. Where the state falls short is in allowing the schools to pick and choose their programs, as opposed to setting a standard. Memphis chose a new program titled “Sex Respect,” a curriculum touted as even more conservative than the much discussed “Family Life” program. The Sex Respect program does not make mention of contraceptives. It ignores the issue entirely. The basis of the program is pure and simple, abstain from having sex until you are married, and even then be careful. This is the moral equivalent of teaching someone how to drive and not mentioning that the car has lights because you don’t want them to drive at night. 

It is a fine thing to teach our young people the virtues of abstinence. But please, for their sake, tell them everything. Remember there may be some people out there inclined to behave in a manner inconsistent with your beliefs and these are the ones who are being deprived of valuable information that may cut down on both the spread of disease and the skyrocketing statistics of illegitimate birth.”

My, look how much more progressive we are in the 21st century. The more we as a nation try to move forward, the more ignorance stays the same.

Joey Hagan

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Henri Brooks and Joe Brown: Beyond the Storm

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

If, for partisans of the Shelby County Democratic Party, the period just before the current month got under way was the calm before the storm, what has happened since has been the storm.

Believe it or not, there are several Democratic candidates on the county general election ballot — including Deidre Malone, the party’s candidate for Shelby county mayor, who is running an intelligent, well-conceived campaign involving several ad hoc support groups; and Cheyenne Johnson, the incumbent Shelby County assessor, who is widely regarded as having served effectively, and who proved her appeal to a general public with an impressive reelection win just two years ago.

But two other Democrats on the ballot have monopolized all the attention of late, effectively drawing it away from Malone, Johnson, and other Democratic nominees. Worse, most of the publicity attracted by those candidates — Henri Brooks, candidate for Juvenile Court clerk, and Joe Brown, candidate for district attorney general — has been negative.

To be sure, both Brooks and Brown have seen a closing of the ranks behind them of core supporters — backers of Brooks, especially, have been active, filling the County Commission’s interim meeting room on Monday, making it S.R.O. for yet another showdown on her residential status — but general elections in Shelby County are not won solely on the basis of partisan support.

And both Brooks and Brown seem to have burned more bridges than they have built to swing voters, despite what had initially seemed good prospects for expanding their bases.

Brooks, a term-limited county commissioner, began the election year on a wave of relative acclaim, having almost single-handedly forced the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate conditions at Juvenile Court and subsequently to mandate reforms in the court’s procedure. Really, all Brooks had to do to sustain good election chances was to make nice in the way of most candidates, doing at least minimal outreach beyond her African-American inner-city constituency.

Instead, she managed to alienate considerable numbers of white and Hispanic voters in the course of a stormy commission debate about minority contracting on county construction projects (one in which her rhetoric undercut the tenable logic of her case); incurred a misdemeanor assault charge in a needless wrangle over a parking-lot space; and, finally, was discovered not to be inhabiting her listed residence, leading to serious efforts by fellow commissioners to declare her ineligible to serve and to vacate her seat.

Brooks has so far come out ahead in a series of skirmishes on the residential matter. She won a declaratory judgment last week from Chancellor Kenny Armstrong invalidating County Attorney Marcy Ingram’s finding that Brooks’ seat should be vacated. Armstrong ruled that only the commission could make such a finding.

And when the commission took up the matter on Monday, in the aforementioned jam-packed meeting room, no agreement on going forward could be reached by Brooks’ 12 colleagues. After a lengthy and contentious session, the commission concurred on a resolution to meet again on a still undefined date later this month, but there was a general consensus, at least privately, that Brooks would be able to run out the clock — on the basis of her attorneys’ appeals, if by no other means — and will be able to finish her term of office.

But that tactical victory, and the ongoing fuss about Brooks, could turn out to be Pyrrhic for her election chances.

As for Judge Joe Brown (as the former Criminal Court judge was billed during the 15 years of his nationally syndicated TV arbitration show), the aura of de facto ticket booster that his celebrity had initially gained him had already sagged due to an extended period of inactivity during May and June.

Brown had let it be known that, as of July 1st, things would be different. And he was right about that, if wildly wrong about which direction the difference would take. Speaking to a group of supporters last week, he responded grumpily to a TV station’s prodding him about the deleterious effect of an ongoing divorce on his surprisingly scanty campaign finances.

A supporter filmed and posted online Brown’s angry, rambling suggestion that the media should turn its attention instead to the matter of what he called the “down low” sexuality of his opponent, incumbent District Attorney General Amy Weirich, whose lifestyle is regarded as that of a conventional wife and mother. 

Brown’s unsubstantiated remarks generated a predictable and virtually universal outrage, but he declined to disavow them, calling himself an “entertainer” running for office.

Doubtful as it is that swing voters will be amused, they were “summoned” by the newly visible Brown to a meet-and-greet this Wednesday night at the Central Train Station on Main.

• Interestingly enough, County Commissioner Justin Ford was scheduled to be the host for another meet-and-greet on Wednesday — this one for aunt Ophelia Ford‘s reelection campaign in state Senate District 29. 

It will be remembered that Commissioner Ford won his primary race in the new Commission District 9 in something of a stealth manner against two highly active opponents, former school board member Patrice Robinson and Memphis Education Association President Keith Williams. During most of the spring primary campaign, there was talk in both of those two campaigns that the race was between the two of them, that Ford had been redistricted away from his main source of support in the South Memphis environs of N. J. Ford Funeral Home, and so forth.

When votes were counted on the evening of May 6th, however, it was Justin Ford who came out ahead, having put on something of a late rush and, perhaps as importantly, riding the residual cachet that belongs to the Ford name.

Reports of a decline in the Ford political dynasty have been somewhat exaggerated. Take a look: There is a Ford on the County Commission, another (Edmund Ford) on the City Council, and, however battered by bad publicity, adverse revelations about her attendance (more of which is likely to come) and doubts about her competence, Ophelia has so far managed to remain in the state Senate.

There is no doubt that City Councilman Lee Harris, is running a smart, vigorous, and apparently well-supported and financed campaign to unseat Senator Ford, and he has the further advantage of the free media that comes from being in the public eye as a highly active member of the council.

But there is a rule of thumb about incumbents having the edge in three-way races, and the fact is that the Democratic primary race in state Senate District 29 is a three-way — a four-way, really, inasmuch as Ricky Dixon and Herman Sawyer are on the ballot along with Ford and Harris.

Either Dixon or Sawyer could siphon anti-incumbent votes away from challenger Harris, but Dixon is a threat in his own right. Brother of former state Senator Roscoe Dixon, also a Tennessee Waltz figure, candidate Dixon has run before, most recently as the Democratic nominee in 2010 for Circuit Court clerk, netting 44 percent of the votes in that race.

What happens in the remaining month or so before election day on August 7th will be crucial. If Harris can translate his endorsements and campaign appearances into visible evidence of support during early voting, which begins on Friday, July 18th, he could be on his way to a new political venue.

If so, Harris will have accomplished something not yet done by anybody — defeating a Ford for reelection. Even with someone so visibly tarnished as Ophelia Ford, that might not be so easy.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Party Judicial Endorsements Are a Bad Idea

Elsewhere we feature the second of two articles (thus far) on the matter of judges running for office in Shelby County. Just so you know, we’re not through with the subject. Not only will we continue to monitor the races for local judgeships as they develop — as well as the simultaneous retention elections for state Supreme Court justices — we will have more to say, too, about the whole matter of political interference with the judiciary, the one branch of government that should be free from politics.

Well, as free as possible. We’re not naive, and the whole idea of having your name on a public ballot at election time and hoping that people will vote for you — and asking for them to do so — is political. What we’re talking about is partisan politics — the kind that specifically serves the ends of special interests. We don’t use that phrase “special interests” pejoratively, just knowingly.

Corporations are one kind of special interest. Labor unions are another. Faith-based organizations are special interests. So are abortion-rights support groups. And so on. Nothing wrong with this. Our political system thrives on the play of special interests vis-a-vis each other — sometimes at odds, sometimes in common cause — through the structured processes of elections and government.

But judges are different. They have the same function regarding the civil and criminal aspects of society as referees do in sports. It is axiomatic that our founding fathers intended to create a political system with “checks and balances.” The ultimate check-and-balance is the independent judiciary. Judges don’t make the rules, but once the rules are made, judges enforce them. Without bias. That, in any case, is how it is supposed to be.

It is often said, apropos arguments against electing other local officials, that there is no Democratic way to issue deeds, no Republican way to organize court dockets, and so forth.

That goes double for members of the judiciary.

There are counties in Tennessee where judges run in party primaries for the right to compete in general elections. We don’t do that in Shelby County, but our two major political parties, Democratic and Republican, have taken to issuing endorsement slates in judges’ races, with little or no pretense to evaluating the legal credentials of the candidates they honor, but with the all-but-avowed (or even the openly avowed) purpose of getting party members or sympathizers onto the bench. With all due respect, we wish they’d butt out. And, with all due respect, the same goes for other quasi-political bodies, ethnic support groups, or what-have-you that cater, however well and ethically, to this or that self-interested corner of society.

Really, all we want in a judge is somebody who knows the law, understands how it applies in a given instance, and is fair-minded about doing so. Later this month, the Memphis Bar Association will be making public the evaluations made by its members, collectively, of this year’s crop of candidates for public office.

Now, those are judgments that might mean something.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Ready to Rumble

CREDIT: JB

JB

Judge Joe Brown makes his pitch at IBEW.

I’ll say this for Shelby County’s Democrats: If in the county elections of 2014 they should go down to another defeat like that of 2010, when the rival Republicans, representing a minority of the county’s voters, swept all the contested races, it won’t be for any lack of intensity.

There was more than enough of that to go around last Thursday night, when a lengthy list of candidates — declared, undeclared, likely, and unlikely — had a chance to address the local Democratic Party’s executive committee at the IBEW Union Hall on Madison Avenue.

In a way, Thursday night’s decidedly hurly-burly affair was a kind of segue from a previous party event.

Last month, when the Democrats had what appeared to be a successful Kennedy Day fund-raiser at the Bridges building downtown, a once and maybe future party politician rose up to interrupt what had been, up until then, serial recitations of the usual boilerplate and talking points and sounded a late note that was both jarring and curiously rousing.

It was Carol Chumney, a former state representative and Memphis Council member who felt that, in her last race two years ago for district attorney general, she had been deprived of the kind of party solidarity that might have given her a chance to win against incumbent Republican Amy Weirich.

“Let’s stick together!” she demanded of her assembled party mates. But she didn’t restrict herself to mere exhortations. She went so far as to call out one of the party’s main men, 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen, who not only was in attendance but had played a major role at the fund-raising dinner, arranging the appearance of its keynoter, U.S. Representative Barbara Lee, a House colleague of Cohen’s from California.

Cohen had introduced Lee, who responded to his flattering characterization of her with some kind words of her own, citing Cohen for his “tremendous leadership in Congress” and going on to say: “We know that he is a true champion for economic and social justice. And we know, all of us, we know in the House that we can count on Steve to be with us on behalf of what is just and what is fair and what is right and on behalf of his constituents. … I can’t think of a more loyal or stronger or smarter ally than Steve.”

That was not how Chumney saw it. To her, Cohen was most remarkable for “Republi-Democrat” sentiments, by virtue of his having declined to endorse her candidacy against Weirich. “I think that very few people would say I was not qualified to be district attorney, but somehow one of our congressmen seemed to think that. He said he ‘birthed’ me, Congresswoman Lee!”

In deciding two years ago not to endorse her in the race for D.A., Cohen had indeed claimed, in what may have been an awkward attempt at a conciliatory grace note, to have midwifed Chumney’s entry into public office. (Anybody who covered Chumney’s successful 1990 race for state representative can attest to his daily omnipresence on her behalf in a crowded and contentious field.)

Between 1990 and 2012, clearly, the relationship had changed. And, in the immediate aftermath of Chumney’s remarks, another Democrat, state Representative G.A. Hardaway — whose 2012 primary opponent, fellow state Representative Mike Kernell, a longtime Cohen ally, had won the congressman’s endorsement — offered some payback of his own, referring in an email broadside to “treacherous political deeds” by Cohen and imputing to the congressman, routinely regarded as the most liberal Democrat in Tennessee, a previously unsuspected hand-in-glove relationship with Republicans.

Though most of that sound and fury had been, strictly speaking, more personal than political, the theme of party solidarity at all costs and outrage over potential apostasies carried over into last week’s executive committee meeting.

Speaker after speaker trumpeted the theme, and several, like Coleman Thompson, once again a candidate for Shelby County register, an office that eluded him in 2010, stoked the lingering belief that the party’s electoral wipe-out by the Republicans in 2010 had not been an honest result. “We caught them stealing,” he insisted.

Nowhere was this alleged GOP perfidy more prominent than in a lengthy and impassioned philippic against local Republican-dom delivered by Judge Joe Brown, whose title derives both from his former service as a bona fide elected criminal court judge and his long run as a reality show judge adjudicating domestic disputes on television.

It was the latter experience more than the former that had whetted his talent for tough talk, and Brown dished out lots of it, naming names and speaking of “secret accounts,” “differential vote counts,” stolen elections, “extortion,” sneaking privatization of public business, even a conspiracy to undermine traffic safety on the A.W. Willis bridge. Brown’s charges prompted voices in his audience to cry out, “Teach!”

Brown’s bottom line, reinforced by the fact that his TV show has been discontinued: He has “not quite made up [his] mind” about running for D.A., to end what he had characterized as a reign of error and terror.

Chumney, who had widely been rumored to be eyeing another race for D.A. herself, but who had as of yet given no public indication of it, was on hand again, with a retooled version of her Kennedy Day speech, again calling for Democrats to be “united for the team” and this time citing city council members Jim Strickland and Shea Flinn as Democrats who had abandoned her in 2012 and supported her Republican opponent.

Cohen, who had made a point to greet Chumney cordially, was there to address the committee and was all high road, noting that he had become a ranking member (meaning lead Democrat) on the Constitution and Civil Justice subcommittee of the House Judiciary, recounting his efforts on behalf of voting rights and immigration legislation, and making a special appeal to President Obama to ameliorate unfair sentencing procedures for drug offenses.

The congressman was applauded, but so was the next speaker, attorney Ricky Wilkins, his announced opponent in this year’s Democratic primary. Wilkins boasted of his South Memphis background and his 20 years of effort on behalf of improving public housing in Memphis, promising to bring the same degree of “compassion, energy, and fire” to Congress that he’d evinced in his law career, and making a point of pledging his loyalty in advance to this year’s Democratic nominees.

There were other speakers — Adrienne Pakis-Gillon, for example, on the need to oppose anti-abortion legislation in Nashville, and Councilman Lee Harris on putting an end to the lockout of employees at Kellogg. But it was the evidence of intense intra-party rivalries in this year’s primaries, coupled with the near-paradoxical demand for party unity (party chairman Bryan Carson announced that disloyalty would “not be tolerated”), which animated the evening and bespoke the revved-up nature of local Democratic ambitions this year.

Nowhere was this more obvious than in the party’s hopes of recapturing the office of Shelby County mayor from Republican incumbent Mark Luttrell.

The Democrats’ committee meeting had begun with statements from four mayoral hopefuls, all with established names and ambitions.

Shelby County Commission Chairman James Harvey offered “leadership at another level” and promised “stability.” Former commissioner and previous mayoral candidate Deidre Malone — making, as she proudly noted, her second try — rejoiced that “we have a Democratic primary.”  

County Commissioner Steve Mulroy touted his “core set of principles” and said, “I’m a real Democrat, and I can win.” And well-known minister and former school board member Kenneth Whalum Jr. brandished some stirring populist oratory, boasted his role in defeating the last sales- tax referendum, and asked the audience to help him decide whether or not to run.

Whatever happens in the May 6th countywide primaries (for which next week’s February 20th filing deadline is imminent) or on August 7th, date of the county general election as well as state and federal primaries, or on November 4th, election day for state and federal offices, last week’s Democratic meeting provided ample energy and abundant foreshadowing.

Discord and harmony, rowdiness and composure, affection and displeasure, logic and libido — all were present in equal and co-existent measure. The only given in the mix was that Shelby County Democrats aren’t likely to sit this one out.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this column had indicated that Deidre Malone had made two previous runs for county mayor. She has only made one to date; her current race is her second effort.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Early Poll Indicates Big Cohen Lead Over Challenger Wilkins

CREDIT: JB

Cohen (l); Wilkins

  • JB
  • Cohen (l); Wilkins

Yacoubian Research, an established Memphis polling firm, has conducted what it said to be an independent poll of likely voters regarding a Democratic primary contest in the 9th Congressional District between incumbent congressman Steve Cohen and his potential challenger, lawyer Ricky Wilkins.

The poll, involving some 204 respondents in the 9th District, found Cohen prevailing by a margin of 76 percent to 11 percent, with 13 percent expressing themselves as unsure.

A second question was asked of both 9th District voters and a sample of 414 Shelby County voters at large: “If Congressman Steve Cohen were to endorse a Democrat for Shelby County Mayor against Republican Mark Luttrell, would this make you more likely or less likely to vote for him?”

Within the 9trh District, 51 percent pronounced themselves “more likely,” as against 10 percent who said “less likely” and 39 percent who said there would be no difference. Percentages for the larger county sample were: 35 percent “more likely;” 26 percent “less likely”; and 39 percent, no difference.

Cohen led Wilkins in all age, race, gender, and geographic groupings, with his greatest strength among African-American males (83 percent) and white females (88 percent). Wilkins is African-American.

In only one category, an infinitesimally small sample of Republicans intending to vote in the Democratic Primary, did Wilkins lead Cohen. The vote there was 2 to 0,

Yacoubian’s conclusion: “In sum, Congressman Steve Cohen continues to be the overwhelming favorite in the August 2014 Democratic Primary for 9th district congress.”

The poll results can be accessed in more detail here: Yacoubian_Poll_Results__1_.pdf