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Willie Herenton: At 83, ‘sharper than a lot of 30- and 40-year olds’

Yes, Willie Herenton is 83. And he’s fit. 

If you ask, the former mayor will tell you that he takes two-mile walks by the Mississippi during the hottest part of the day just to challenge himself. (He brings water.) He mostly eats fish and vegetables and has at least one glass of good red wine a day. Sometimes two. 

So, he’s ready and able to serve Memphis again. 

Yes, he left his fifth term early. In an interview about public safety with the Memphis Flyer and MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, Herenton explained why: One part was his success. 

“I knew I was mayor for life. Nobody was gonna beat me. I knew that,” he said. “I’d achieved all my major goals. I couldn’t just sit around and draw a paycheck. I was bored.” 

(Editor’s note: In 2019, Herenton ran for mayor and was defeated by Mayor Jim Strickland.) 

Another reason, he says, was because two years of scrutiny from a federal investigation was wearing on his mama. 

“Basically, my trials became her trials. … She might have been watching TV, and I might have had a bad media day. And I said mom, ‘I got this. You don’t understand what’s going on.’ She wasn’t sophisticated. All she knew was her son was under pressure.” 

Herenton, who was mayor from 1992 to 2009, was also candid about what he could and could not do. He doubted he’d be able to hire enough police officers to reach 2,500, the number of officers Mayor Jim Strickland has said the city needs, but he says he knows what to do to fix MPD culture. He noted that only the state legislature has the ability to take on gun control, and he thinks the highway patrol is best to tackle dangerous roadways. 

He spoke more of his experience than his age as an asset, noting a couple of things he’d seen work and would like to revive: In the shadow of the killing of Tyre Nichols, he spoke of the respectable police force he led, one, he says, that embraced the Constitution. 

He believes, too, in specialized units, noting that his Cobra unit, unlike the now-dismantled SCORPION unit responsible for the January beating death of Tyre Nichols, was well-trained and well-supervised. 

The following Q&A has been edited for brevity and clarity. This interview was conducted on Aug. 29, 2023.

The killing of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police officers obviously damaged the community’s trust in the police. What steps would you take to rebuild that trust?

Let me give you a kind of a preface … I served as mayor for almost 18 years. So, obviously, I have experience working with directors of police. I know a lot about police operations and all this training stuff. I’m prepared to bring respectability and constitutional policing back to MPD. Now everybody knows I am pro-law enforcement. For anyone to entertain defunding the police department is utterly ridiculous to me. So I’m going to bring back Blue CRUSH (Criminal Reduction Utilizing Statistical History). Blue CRUSH was a strategy with well-trained officers. 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. 

We had a unit we called Cobra. Those officers were handpicked. And those units had sergeants, lieutenants, and majors, ensuring 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.  

How would you describe Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis’ performance as police chief? 

Had I been the mayor, would I have made that choice? In all probability, she would not have been my choice. Why not? Well, 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. The other reason is that 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.   

You said you want to increase the number of MPD officers. How would you go about doing that?

I’m gonna be very candid with you. 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. The academic standards, for example: I don’t think training is vigorous and as rigorous as it was. I remember, in my first term, I would go out to the training academy and watch how to train officers. I even went out on the shooting range and all that. We had well-trained officers.

MPD is currently under a civil rights investigation by the Department of Justice. How do you plan to ensure the MPD treats all Memphis citizens fairly?

Well, first of all, when I said to you 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. And it starts with my leadership. It may also have something to do with my choice of a director.

Other than policing, per se, can you name three measures you could take to increase public safety?

You mean, outside of the police? That opens up a whole gamut of issues that takes you into the philosophical. As a majority Black city, we are number one*. Now, how do people interpret this? Probably that such a city is plagued with poverty, crime, declining education, and quality of life because it’s Black. 

(Editor’s note: USA Today reported in June 2023 that 2022 population estimates show Memphis may have overtaken Detroit as the nation’s largest predominately Black city.)

In Newark or in Detroit, they expect government to be inefficient and corrupt because it’s majority Black. That’s why you’ve always seen me strive for excellence. I’ve always wanted to be an exception to that prevailing thought that because it’s Black it can’t be excellent and competent. 

What we’ve got to do is deal with the inequalities of life that exist in many urban cities that disproportionately affect people of color. And that’s a long haul, like I said. Generational poverty is an albatross around the neck of Memphis. And it’s going to take economic growth and development and include a diverse population, improved education.

August 29, 2023: Memphis, TN – Dr. Willie Herenton, 83, former Memphis city mayor (for five consecutive terms 1992-2006) and current candidate in the 2023 mayoral race. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50

At the age of 83, do you feel fit for another term as mayor?

If I didn’t feel that my cognitive and physical abilities are not appropriate to go back, I wouldn’t do this. Thus far, God has blessed me to maintain a reasonably good cognitive ability and physical abilities. With age, everything declines. But for whatever reason, I still feel sharper than a lot of 30- and 40-year-olds.  

You were concerned about your mother’s reactions to the tribulations?

Yeah, because so much was rolling off my back, and she worried about my having to handle it.

Okay. So we started best practices. So to answer your question, I would obviously stay abreast of best practices. I was studying cities and police departments getting good results. I’ve always done that.

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?

Just about a month ago, we looked at the organizational chart. I want to make sure that I understand the present organization and charter of the police department. In our society today, there’s suffering from mental health, and a lot of police officers are not educated. The other thing people don’t understand, too, is that a lot of individuals out here have all kinds of mental disabilities that the policemen, if they’re not well-trained, they 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. 

We’re gonna have a partnership with Memphis City Schools. We will have partnerships with nonprofits and with the Methodist health system in dealing with a variety of mental health issues. I want to have a partnership with the public school to increase the number of guidance counselors in schools.

How do you plan to engage young people to help them avoid gangs and criminal activity?

There’s a myriad of complex social, psychological factors involving youth and adults that society has to deal with. This is gonna require educated people, law enforcement people, the whole gamut of professionals to deal with the myriad of problems we have in this society.

Memphis always ranks poorly in its number of roadway deaths. Is there a way to make our streets safer without relying solely on increased enforcement?

The reckless driving in Memphis has reached epidemic proportions. 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.  

August 29, 2023: Memphis, TN – Dr. Willie Herenton, 83, former Memphis city mayor (for five consecutive terms 1992-2006) and current candidate in the 2023 mayoral race. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50

What degree of collaboration should exist between the MPD and the sheriff’s department?

The operations of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department are dramatically different from MPD. The Memphis Police Department is a multifaceted, highly complex law enforcement unit, much broader than the sheriff’s department. Now they should have a partnership. I think they ought to work hand in hand. The sheriff is the highest law enforcement official in the county. I think they ought to use resources when they are available to patrol in the city limits as well. 

Can you give me a realistic change you can facilitate to help reduce car theft and property theft?

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.  

Would you be interested in joining? 

Yes.

Can you give me an idea for getting guns off Memphis streets?

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.

Do you favor the referendum on gun-control measures put forth by the city council?

Oh, yeah, I support it, but it’s probably unrealistic. Say the referendum passes. State law has more authority than local law. And given the culture, it’s not going to pass the Tennessee legislature. I’m just simply saying that getting some reform past our Tennessee legislature looks bleak. Of course, I would be just as vigilant and confrontational as this group that went up there before the special session.

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Cover Feature News

You Asked, They Answered

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.

Expanded interviews with each candidate can be found here:
Floyd Bonner
Willie Herenton
Van Turner
Paul Young

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Politics Politics Feature

The Herenton Theory

Attentive veterans of Memphis politics — and of the city’s mayoral contests, in particular — tend to remember very few of the mayor’s races that have occurred since the pivotal year of 1991 as having been especially meaningful.

There was the 1991 election itself, a genuine watershed event, which saw the election of former school superintendent Willie Herenton as the first elected Black mayor in Memphis history. 

There was the 1999 showdown involving Herenton, running for his third term, and a crowded field of challengers, the most significant of whom was undoubtedly local government veteran Joe Ford, who bore the hopes of his powerful and entrenched inner-city political clan for taking over the reins of city government.

There was the 2007 three-way contest between incumbent Herenton and two well-supported challengers, Councilwoman Carol Chumney and former MLGW president Herman Morris.

It almost goes without saying that Herenton, the victor in all of these races, was the key player in each of them. It is even possible to speak of a generational slice of Memphis politics as having been The Herenton Era.

It might seem outwardly that such an era passed away, along with Herenton’s post-election waffling after 2007 and his decision ultimately to abandon his mayoral seat. As we know, it was won in a 2009 special election by then County Mayor AC Wharton, who won again in 2011 over Councilman Edmund Ford Sr.

Wharton was in his turn unseated by Councilman Jim Strickland, who won again in 2019. 

But wait, here we go in one more mayoral election year, and who do we see again but Willie Herenton, who has literally won or been at the top of every poll so far conducted about the race?

For reasons of his own, the former mayor has chosen not to exploit his position in the polls to gain further traction in any of the season’s several concluded and still pending mayoral forums.

But he is aware of his standing, and he knows the influence polling results have on elections. In the aforementioned 2007 mayoral race, the incumbent, then running for a fifth term, was under fire from the electorate and knew it.

An expectant public, then and now, was all too well attuned to such polls as were made public. There were two in the last weeks of the race when the main question on voters’ minds was who — Chumney or Morris — had the best chance to defeat Herenton. Interestingly, that may be the crucial question in this year’s race as well.

And the answer came, in two successive polls, one of which showed Chumney as being closest to unseating Herenton, the other of which concluded for Morris.

The baseball term “Tie goes to the runner” can be invoked. Herenton outpolled both of his opponents.

The Herenton Theory of the 2023 election is that whichever other candidate proves to be a true runner-up, poll-wise, to the venerable former mayor will inherit a flock of last-minute votes and go on to win.

The much-vaunted Emerson College poll, recently published by WREG, is of less help than it originally seemed. True, candidate Paul Young finished strongly behind Herenton in first-choice votes for mayor. But opponent Floyd Bonner’s people point out that when strongly leaning uncommitteds are added to the total, the sheriff and the Downtown Memphis Commission CEO are all tied up.

They note further that the poll seems to over-sample, at 20 percent, millennials, a hotbed of Young’s support and a demographic group that normally votes in the 5-percent range.

Two points: (1) There will be other polls between now and October 5th, and (2) is it possible that Herenton himself will win, as in 2007? 

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Politics Politics Feature

Anatomy of a Poll

Several polls of varying reliability have been circulated so far on the subject of the 2023 Memphis mayor’s race. The latest one surfaced last week in the form of an online video released by ex-Memphian Josh Thomas, now a Nashville consultant working on behalf of the mayoral race of Memphis City Councilman Frank Colvett Jr.

The results of that poll, available for examination on Colvett’s Facebook page, are somewhat startling and out of sync with several other surveys conducted earlier by avowedly neutral sources.

The new poll shows former Mayor Willie Herenton leading with 17 percent approval from those polled and Colvett, along with Downtown Memphis Commission CEO Paul Young, tied for second with 14 percent, with no other results indicated for any other candidates.

In previously circulated polls, Colvett had been buried in the single digits along with several other also-rans. To be sure, candidate Young, generally acknowledged these days to have a strong and possibly surging campaign, had also been in the lower digits in those early polls. And Herenton’s numbers are consistent with those reported for him elsewhere.

On the street, Colvett’s reported numbers were greeted with a fair amount of skepticism. Can they be taken seriously? No ancillary information (number surveyed, breakdown of sample, etc.) was released with the poll, which, says Thomas in the video, was taken on July 6th and 7th. The poll was administered by Cygnal, a company described by Thomas as “the most accurate private pollster in the country.”

How private? The company says of itself: “Cygnal serves GOP campaigns, committees, caucuses, and center-right public affairs issue efforts with forward-thinking polling, analytics & targeting.” That would tie in with Colvett’s known prominence in local Republican circles. Indeed, it is generally acknowledged that his starter base is heavily Republican, and the questions have been: Can he hold that base, which is a distinct minority of the whole? And can he, as a political moderate, expand on it?

According to Thomas, those surveyed were asked, quite simply: “If the election were held today, who would you vote for?”

But a key acknowledgement by Thomas is that the question was asked after those surveyed were given “biographies” of the various candidates.

Anyone familiar with political polling would be inclined to associate that procedure with what is called a “push poll” — one which builds a desired outcome into the very form of the questioning. The idea is simple: The better the “biography,” the better the poll numbers. And the skimpier or less positive the bio, the lower would be the numbers.

If the poll is to be taken seriously, its meta-message is obvious. Just as former Mayor Herenton has an impressively locked-in base of support, there also is known to be a significant number of voters who, for fair reasons or foul, have a built-in resistance to the prospect of Herenton’s returning to power.

The Cygnal poll results imply rather directly that, if it’s Herenton you fear, Frank Colvett could be your man. Colvett himself, known to be fair-minded, and, as previously indicated, moderate, would never venture a sentiment like that directly.

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Politics Politics Feature

The Suspense Holds

Now that Memphis city candidates have begun pulling petitions for various races on the 2023 city ballot, what have we learned? Not so much, not yet. And old questions remain.

When hopefuls began posting their financial disclosures for the first quarter of the year, Brian Harris was first up in Super District 8, Position 3. He declared receipts of $30,166 for the quarter, and the same amount as the figure for his cash on hand. He also listed the selfsame sum of $30,166 as having been raised entirely from contributions of $100 or less.

Only problem was — and still is — that if indeed all those facts are true, Harris is required to list and identify all contributions, no matter the size, over the total amount of $2,000, since unidentified contributions are capped at that figure. Any receipts over that amount have to be itemized. In Harris’ case, that means a minimum of $28,166 needs to be accounted for.

Attempts to reach Harris and unravel the mystery of his funding sources have so far proved unavailing — though in the long run the Election Commission, and through it the voters, is sure to find out what there is to know.

One declared adversary of Harris in Super District 8, Position 3, is Jerred Price. The local activist and entertainer of Almost Elton John fame declared receipts for that first quarter of $20,465, with cash on hand of $13,998.87. All contributions and payouts are duly listed, as required, including — almost quaintly — a disbursement of $10.50 as a bank service charge.

Several other candidates have pulled petitions so far for Super District 8, Position 3 — Davin D. Clemons, Yolanda Cooper-Sutton, Roderic Sydney Ford, Damon Curry Morris, Paul Randolph Jr., and Robert White Jr. — but none of them have yet released any numbers.

So far, there remains no indication that former Councilman Berlin Boyd has picked up a petition for 8-3 or for any other position, though he has long been rumored to favor a Super District race as his way back to the council. (As the incumbent for District 7 in 2019, Boyd was defeated in a runoff by Councilwoman Michalyn Easter-Thomas.)

The big race on the city council calendar this year will almost certainly be the contest for District 5. One contender for this seat, which bridges Midtown and East Memphis, is Meggan Wurzburg Kiel, a longtime mainstay for MICAH (Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope). As of that first-quarter disclosure, Kiel was already reporting cash on hand of $104,084.39, and she has continued to raise money since.

Kiel’s principal adversary will be yet another former council member seeking to return: former Super District 9, Position 2 Councilman Philip Spinosa, who, as of the year’s first disclosure, was reporting cash on hand of $14,721.60. Though that figure isn’t comparable to what Kiel reported at the time, Spinosa, like Kiel, has important connections and will ultimately raise a war chest commensurate with that fact.

Money will be an important indicator of candidate viability this year, but not the only one. One conclusion drawn by almost all observers of this year’s mayoral field is that one candidate sure to draw beaucoup votes will do so sans benefit of significant fundraising.

That would be former five-time Mayor Willie Herenton, mentioned in this space last week. Herenton finished second to incumbent Mayor Jim Strickland in 2019 without raising any money to speak of, and, especially with his new hard anti-crime platform, he remains an elephant in the room for this election season.

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Politics Politics Feature

Two Steps Forward

As of last week, when the Shelby County Election Commission began making candidate petitions available for would-be office-seekers, the 2023 Memphis city election can be said to have officially started.

In reality, numerous campaigns, both for mayor and for city council, have been proceeding for some time. The mayoral field would seem to be all but set, and council hopefuls, many of whom have been lying back, waiting to be sure about the council’s still unofficial district lines, have begun filling in the blanks as well.

Two candidates for mayor — both destined, one way or another, to have a major impact on the election results — chose last week to enact rollouts of a sort. One was 83-year-old former Mayor Willie Herenton, who had a campaign kickoff event last Thursday at the University of Memphis Holiday Inn on Central. The other, some 40 years his junior, was Downtown Memphis Commission CEO Paul Young, who formally opened his campaign headquarters last Saturday at Poplar Plaza.

Herenton is the senior eminence of this race (or, in some quarters, where his tenure wore too long, the éminence grise). He was elected mayor in five previous elections, the first being his 1991 epochal victory as the city’s first elected African-American chief executive. For better or for worse, his name is known to virtually all Memphians who pay attention to their social or civic circumstances.

Young is, by contrast, a newcomer to most Memphians, despite having held numerous positions of importance in city and county government. Though he has significant backing among the city elite and is the leading fundraiser among all mayoral candidates, with cash on hand of roughly half a million dollars, Young acknowledges being a relative unknown to the public at large. In an effort to build up his name recognition, he has dutifully attended almost all the preliminary events, both large and small, that have been held so far for mayoral candidates.

In his own words last Saturday, “We can’t just play this as politics as usual … just to [select] whatever name you know. … We’ve got to do it differently this time. … History is made when people step up to the plate, to do the thing that needs to be done to elevate our community.

“I’ll say it again. It’s not about the name, you know. It’s about what results those individuals created. As a result of the work that they’ve done in their present or previous role. I could care less about politics. I want to do the work. … For the past 20 years, I’ve been doing the work. I’ve been the person behind the scenes doing the work. It’s time to step up. I represent the next generation.”

Herenton, too, spoke of a “New Path” for the city and promised to unveil this week a package of proposals, including one for a “multi-million dollar restorative justice campus.” He pledged a “tough love” approach to public safety and advocated that the council repeal several recent actions restricting police actions.

As a token of his “strong-mayor” attitude, Herenton reminded his listeners that he had as mayor resisted calls for a public referendum on the financial deal that brought the NBA Grizzlies, “a great team,” to Memphis.

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Politics Politics Feature

In Harm’s Way

We hear a lot these days about “bullet trains,” which whisk commuters from place to place with incredible speed. The train which took Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen last week from U.S. ally Poland into Kyiv, the capital of wartime Ukraine, took all of 10 hours. But the ride was surely worth it.

It was Cohen’s privilege, as ranking member of the congressional Helsinki Commission, to ride that slow train (hampered by security precautions) into harm’s way so as to present the gallant Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with the formal support of the commission for himself and his beleaguered nation.

The Helsinki Commission is an official government body created in 1975 to support compliance with that year’s Helsinki Accords, a nonbinding agreement pledging the nations of Europe and the Americas to the pursuit of peace and detente.

Accompanied by fellow House members Joe Wilson of South Carolina and Victoria Spartz of Indiana, Cohen was ushered into the president’s office as an air raid siren blared, reminding the visitors of the potential dangers involved.

The American delegation spent an hour with Zelenskyy, who, says Cohen, was the affable and resolute figure the world has grown familiar with during Ukraine’s courageous stand against the nonstop attacks of the Russian invader.

According to Cohen, Kyiv itself, relatively unscarred, remains determined to persevere and comports itself like any other busy metropolis. He described seeing workers rebuilding a bridge that was demolished during the war’s early phase to prevent Russian access into the city.

The American group also visited suburban areas — notably Bucha, the site of widespread massacres and other atrocities by occupying Russian troops, who were later forced to withdraw. Aside from that, says Cohen, “Bucha is actually an upscale sort of place, kind of like Germantown,” but one marked by numerous mass graves.

How would the congressman rank his Ukrainian experience? “Inspiring, and right up there with anything I’ve ever done.”

• However the tangled matter of mayoral residency requirements gets resolved, and it likely will get sorted out on a May 18th hearing in the courtroom of Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins, former Mayor Willie Herenton remains unworried, insisting that, as a new online broadside of his puts it, “My residence has never changed.”

He cites an official definition by Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett of a residence as a “place where the person’s habitation is fixed and is where, during periods of absence, the person definitely intends to return.”

In Herenton’s case, that means a house on Barton Street, near LeMoyne-Owen College, an ancestral place of sorts where Herenton’s mother lived, as did the former mayor, despite his subsequent acquisition of other dwellings, including one in Collierville which he later sold.

Herenton contends that would distinguish him from two other mayoral candidates, Sheriff Floyd Bonner and NAACP president Van Turner, both of whom lived just outside Memphis before acquiring dwelling places in the city during the past year.

The issue to be determined by Jenkins is whether, as a vintage city charter maintained, a five-year prior residency is mandated for mayoral candidates or was made moot by a 1996 referendum of Memphis voters that imposed no such pre-election requirement.

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Politics Politics Feature

Of Shows and No-Shows

By now, the much-ballyhooed first of two mayoral forums to be conducted by the Daily Memphian has come and gone. The five billed participants at Monday night’s event at the Halloran Centre were Paul Young, Michelle McKissack, J.W. Gibson, Frank Colvett, and Karen Camper.

The fact is, only one of these participants can be ranked among the leaders at this early pre-petition stage of the mayoral race. That would be Downtown Memphis Commission CEO Young, who is indisputably the most successful fundraiser among all the candidates.

Young reported $432,434.97 on hand in his second-quarter financial disclosure, just outdoing Sheriff Floyd Bonner, who reported $400,139.12. Young is also known to have significant support among the city’s business and civic social elite, who make up a large percentage of the donor class.

At this juncture, the main disadvantage facing Young vis-à-vis rival Bonner is a fairly enormous name-recognition gap favoring the sheriff, who has out-polled every other contestant for whatever position in each of the last two Shelby County elections.

Clearly, the need to narrow this gap is one reason, along with his undoubted public-spiritedness, that impels Young to take part, along with other relatively unknown candidates, in every public forum that comes along.

Keeping their distance from such events so far are Bonner and Willie Herenton, the even better-known former longtime mayor. Almost as hesitant to appear at such affairs has been local NAACP president and former County Commissioner Van Turner, who, like the other two, was absent Monday night, as he had been at a recent mayoral forum at First Congregational Church.

Turner, also, can claim a respectable degree of prior name recognition, and he brought into the mayoral race a fairly well-honed constituency among the city’s center to center-left voters.

The relevance of all this to this week’s forum, and to other such opportunities for exposure that may come along before petitions can be drawn on May 22nd, should be obvious. Those who need to enhance their share of public attention are likely to be attendees; those who feel more secure in their familiarity to the electorate may not be.

To be sure, both Bonner and Turner pleaded the fact of previously scheduled fundraising events as reasons for their absence on Monday night. A reliable rule of thumb in politics is that the existence of “prior commitments” can always be adduced to explain nonparticipation in a particular event.

Still, to win, it is necessary to be an active competitor, and Bonner, Herenton, and Turner, who — not coincidentally — topped the results in the only poll that has been made public so far, can be expected to rev things up in fairly short order. Bonner and Turner have been stalled somewhat by their ongoing litigation against a five-year residency requirement posited by the Election Commission.

That matter may be effectively resolved in Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins’ court at a scheduled May 1st hearing.

Herenton, meanwhile, has habitually stonewalled multi-candidate appearances throughout his long public career — out of apparent pride as much as anything else.

None of the foregoing is meant to suggest that other candidates, including the five involved Monday night, can’t break out of the pack. Politics is notoriously unpredictable.

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Politics Politics Feature

In the Picture

As was teased in this space last week, second-quarter financial disclosures of the Memphis mayoral candidates were expected to come due. And they did, roughly a day after last week’s issue went to print.

The contents of the disclosures have since been bruited about here and there and have been subjected to analysis. In many — perhaps most — ways, the numbers conform to advance expectations. The leaders now, in the vital metric of cash on hand, are the same two who led the field in first-quarter disclosures in January: Downtown Memphis Commission CEO Paul Young, with $432,434.97 cash on hand, and Sheriff Floyd Bonner, with $404,139.12.

Local NAACP president Van Turner was still very much in the game, with $154,633.46, as was the largely self-funding developer J.W. Gibson, with $254,015.55.

The real surprise was former Memphis-Shelby County Schools board chair Michelle McKissack, who raised $101,712.95 — in less than two months of a declared candidacy, she notes — and has $79,164.95 on hand.

Clearly, McKissack has some catching up to do but justly takes pride in her results, given her relatively late start. She and the other candidates have some time, given that candidate petitions cannot even be drawn until May 22nd. Election day is October 5th, some five months away.

In a video tweet last week, McKissack alleged about some of the media coverage that “there are those in the city who don’t want to acknowledge that it’s actually possible for a woman to be mayor of Memphis.” She focused on an unnamed article “that really touted, just, you know, highlighting the men in this race.”

Both the point of view and even some of the language in McKissack’s tweet were reminiscent of attitudes expressed by former female candidates for mayor — notably Carol Chumney, now a Circuit Court Judge, who ran for Memphis mayor twice, finishing a competitive second place to incumbent Willie Herenton in a three-way race in 2007.

Herenton, out of office now for 14 years, is a candidate again for his former office, where he served for 17 years. He and others — including City Councilman Frank Colvett, state House minority leader Karen Camper, former County Commissioner James Harvey, and former TV judge Joe Brown — will doubtless make some waves, one way or another.

Tami Sawyer (Photo: Tami Sawyer | Facebook)

• Another former mayoral candidate, Tami Sawyer, who had a singularly devoted following for her reform platform in 2019, is back on the scene after a work sojourn for Amazon in both D.C. and California. She tweeted, “Yes, I’m back in Memphis for good … I am not running for office in 2023. But y’all gonna still see me deep in this work.”

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Part One: Memphis Mayoral Candidate Update

Amid legal developments that could make it a potentially pivotal week in the Memphis mayoral race, it might be useful to hazard a brief synopsis of how the various campaigns are stacking up.

Floyd Bonner: The Shelby County Sheriff launched his candidacy last fall with good prospects of putting potential rivals in the dust.
Bonner had handily won two successive county races, leading all candidates in vote totals both times. The fact that crime loomed as the likely major issue to be faced by city voters undoubtedly boosted his profile.

Almost immediately, Bonner attracted the same kind of influential bipartisan support that he enjoyed in his races for sheriff. His campaign team actually envisioned amassing enough cash reserves early enough to dissuade potential rivals from running. And indeed, with first-quarter receipts of some $300,000 this year, and with good numbers anticipated in the soon-t-be second quarter disclosures, he has delivered. But Bonner’s then anticipated opponents didn’t scare.

Paul Young: The Downtown Memphis Commission CEO matched Bonner dollar for dollar and even exceeded the sheriff somewhat. This was the result of months and even years of advance preparation and of a robust standing with the city’s business and civic elite. Young is thought to be the preferred candidate of the current city administration, though incumbent Mayor Jim Strickland is himself conspicuously neutral so far. He is also thought to be ahead in fundraising at this point, whether marginally or to larger degree.

Young’s major problem is that, however well he rates with insiders, he still lacks much name recognition with the public at large. In the long term, his campaign money will have to buy that.

In the short term, Young stands to benefit hugely if the Election Commission’s provisional ruling requiring a five-year prior residency in Memphis — one that would disqualify candidates Bonner, Van Turner, and Willie Herenton — is upheld. A ruling is expected shortly in Chancery Court. “Either way is fine with me,” Young said at an event Saturday. Sure.

Van Turner: The mayoral ambitions of the former Shelby County Commission chairman and current NAACP head have been known for years, and he is generally respected across the political spectrum, though his most significant following  is among Democratic Party regulars — a fact not to be discounted, given the demographic edge demonstrated by the party in recent local elections.

Turner has struggled to keep up with the fundraising totals of Bonner and Young, though he was in the ballpark on the first quarterly report, with some $150,000 raised. Since then, he has figured prominently, in national as well as local media, in public reckonings of the tragic death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police. This kind of free media is also not to be discounted, though its shelf life is unknown.

Turner’s suit challenging the Election Commission ruling on residency is one of two  (the other is Bonner’s). The outcome is, of course, crucial.

Willie Herenton: The former longtime mayor is also vulnerable on the residency score on account of a brief sojourn in Collierville — an ironic fact, given that 30 years ago he personally created the sprawling (and enduring) Banneker Estates development in south Memphis.

There is in any case no questioning the historical cachet of the first elected Black mayor in Memphis history, one who served 17 years and claimed several achievements — notably his leadership of a defiant 1997 effort that successfully ended in a legal reprieve for Memphis vis–a-vis “toy town” legislation that would have blocked the city’s legitimate avenues for expansion.

Herenton remains a controversial figure, as much because of his strong and sometimes disputatious personality as for any lingering racial animus among the city’s Old Guard. But he can claim a substantially sized loyalist base in the inner city and has to be reckoned with in a crowded, winner-take-all field.

(Next: Part Two: J.W. Gibson heads a second tier with potential for rising.)