Tag: Worth Morgan

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Politics Politics Feature

The Race for County Mayor is On!

Harris stumping for candidate Memula (Photo: Jackson Baker)

The announcement Monday by Memphis City Councilman Worth Morgan of his candidacy for Shelby County Mayor resolves what had been enormous speculation about Morgan’s long-rumored intentions. But it does more than that: Its effect becomes the beginning of the 2022 election season in Shelby County.

One of the first consequences of Morgan’s announcement is to wet-blanket or even extinguish the previously indicated aspirations of such other potential Republican candidates as County Commissioner Mark Billingsley and City Council Chairman Frank Colvett Jr.

Morgan’s command of big-donor money was amply demonstrated in his council races of 2015 and 2019, and his announcement will accelerate the process of nailing it down again on his behalf.

Pressures regarding 2020 have been raised among Democrats also. The imperative has been sped up for incumbent County Mayor Lee Harris to clarify his intentions regarding a re-election race.

Rumors have abounded over the past several months — that he would cast caution to the winds and declare for the 9th District congressional seat now occupied by Steve Cohen, that he would seek the governorship, that he would ratchet up existing lobbying efforts for a federal judgeship, that he would be open to a job with the Biden administration, and that he would seek the soon-to-be-vacated presidency of the University of Memphis.

All of these possibilities, at one point or another, have had a logic to them; all had obvious pitfalls as well. Consider the university rumor: Harris, for years, was a law professor at the university, he is now serving as a high-level administrator, he has a background suitable for representing a diverse and upwardly mobile university population, and a U of M presidency could serve very well as a launching pad for higher political office.

The hitch to that logic is that Harris has squared off against the university on a number of public issues — notably on the matter of funding the school’s natatorium, when he was eyeball-to-eyeball with current President David Rudd over the university’s foot-dragging on allowing its workers a $15-an-hour minimum wage.

The university reportedly wants a quick resolution of its search for a successor to Rudd, who leaves next May, but how would its trustees regard the previous acrimony?

An examination of Harris’ options leads back to what most others consider his most feasible course: running for re-election as county mayor. Rank-and-file Democrats see the mayor as being an odds-on favorite against Morgan or any other Republican; they see Harris as an ideal head for the party ticket. His services as a supporting presence are sought by other candidates, as in his co-hosting last weekend of a fundraiser for judicial candidate Sanjeev Memula.

It comes down to if Harris wants another dose of the mayorship; the job is more demanding than most outsiders imagine, and more riven with political pressure-points. His chances of winning again next year are ranked as very good, more so than those of Ken Moody, the aide to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland who has announced a provisional candidacy.

If Harris does not seek re-election, key Democrats may seek to prevail on County Commissioner Van Turner, who has expressed interest in becoming Memphis mayor in 2023, to alter course and run in Harris’ stead.

In that event Turner would have a hard time refusing.

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Politics Politics Feature

Impressions of Amy Coney Barrett by Former Rhodes Classmates

So we stand at Armageddon, doing battle for the Lord, do we? That’s the essence of what you hear these days from diehard Democrats and other self-declared liberals, and, as often as not, this desperate war cry is sounded, not about the forthcoming presidential election, but about President Trump‘s nomination of one Amy Coney Barrett to be the next Supreme Court Justice.

Both the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Roe v. Wade are on the chopping block, you hear, and Barrett as a freshly confirmed Justice, will start wielding the axe as soon as the high court begins hearing the ACA case in mid-December. No one doubts that the Republicans have the numbers to confirm Trump’s nomination of Barrett, and no one doubts her determination, along with five GOP-appointed colleagues, to slash away at ACA, Roe, and any number of other Democratically inspired legal landmarks having to do, say, with labor relations, voting rights, and firearms issues.

The sky, say many, is falling, while those of more conservative persuasions cry, “Let it fall!” But who is this Amy Coney Barrett, this imagined scourge of things as they are and harbinger of a vastly different constitutional future?

As it turns out, there are those among us who shared turf and air with her when she was a student at Rhodes College in the early 1990s, and at least one somewhat younger Memphian, current City Councilman Worth Morgan, for whom Barrett once served as a babysitter. Former Councilman Shea Flinn was at Rhodes when Barrett was, and remembers her as “an attractive KD” (member of the Kappa Delta sorority), but that’s about it.

My son Justin Baker, another Rhodesian, remembers her similarly, but has no personal memories, nor does Kemp Conrad, yet another council member who was aware of her presence on campus: “Rhodes was small. You could notice people without knowing them.”

But Chris Gilreath, a transplant from Knoxville, lawyer, and Rhodes Class of ’94 grad, like Barrett, not only remembers the young, ultra-serious student from New Orleans, he seems to have faith in her sense of fairness. In a statement on his Facebook page, he put it this way:

“I went to Rhodes with Amy Coney Barrett. We’re both in the Class of 1994. I dated one of her sorority sisters. Amy was friendly and personable, just as she is now. Rhodes challenged us to think critically about big issues and wrestle with them, arriving at enlightened answers after vigorous debate.

“I’m liberal-minded and a Democrat. I oppose several of the perspectives and conclusions Amy draws on significant legal issues. But she’s a really good person.”

Gilreath was aware that his classmate was a serious Catholic (a fact that all her biographies make clear) and one clearly prone to rely on the elements of her faith. As a student, she was “strictly the academic type” but friendly enough. Rhodes, then as now, had active Democratic and Republican cadres on campus, but Gilreath does not remember that she took part in any activity.

“We can disagree without tearing others down,” says Gilreath. “I’ve never personally known a Supreme Court pick until now. For her sake, I hope the debate is about her philosophy and politics, not about who she is” — the “who she is” aspect reflected in the generally favorable viewpoints others have had of her.

“I regret that Amy has to live through the coming circus. She deserves better — and so do we,” says Gilreath.

Meanwhile, how much of the sky is really falling? Yes, the high court is scheduled to rule on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in mid-December, and, yes, it is highly possible Barrett will be ensconced as a Justice by then and will tip the balance against the ACA. What then? Should the Democrats win the presidency and both houses of Congress, they would then have the impetus to vote in one of the several Medicare-for-All measures they discussed during their primary debates earlier this year.

Roe v. Wade is a chancier circumstance. Famously, there has so far been no middle ground between proponents and opponents of legalized abortion. Perhaps it is not impossible that a conservative SCOTUS under the institutional-minded John Roberts, and including Barrett, could find one. Stranger things have happened.

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News News Blog

City Council Could Shake up Citizen Law Enforcement Review Board

The Memphis City Council is considering an overhaul of the Citizen’s Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB).

Councilmen Kemp Conrad and Worth Morgan introduced an ordinance Tuesday that would change the Citizen’s Law Enforcement Review Board to the Council Law Enforcement Review Board, replacing the board’s current nine members with the 13 city council members.

Currently, per city ordinance, CLERB consists of the chairperson of the city council’s public safety committee, chairperson of the Shelby County Commission’s law enforcement committee, two law enforcement officers or member with experience in criminal justice, a medical officer, a clergy member, an attorney, and two citizens at-large.

But, Morgan told a city council committee Tuesday that he believes the purpose of CLERB is more safely placed in the hands of the city council.

CLERB, tasked with investigating allegations of misconduct by the Memphis Police Department, was first established by city ordinance in 1994, but was inactive between 2001 and 2015.

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Morgan said the goal of the board is a “good one, great one,” but CLERB has been “stuck in no-man’s land” over the past four years.

“It was a temporary solution to a long-term problem,” Morgan said. “We are a board of 13 civilians. We have subpoena power, tools, and relationships for when a serious incident comes up.”

Morgan noted that after the officer-involved shooting of Martavious Banks last year, the council’s discussions surrounding MPD policy and body cams were “more productive than CLERB’s in the past four years.”

Changing up the personnel on the board is primarily meant to make CLERB more affordable, Morgan said, citing the near $1 million that has been budgeted for the board over the past four years. The councilman did not specify how exactly the switch would save money.

Morgan said he hopes “people aren’t attached” to the civilian piece of CLERB, but instead to the goals and intentions of the board, which ultimately is an extra layer of oversight.

Virginia Wilson, administrator for CLERB, disagreed saying that CLERB doesn’t have an “absorbent budget” and she believes the make-up should remain the same.

“I think citizens would like to see CLERB continue to operate in the manner that it is,” Wilson said “We are working tirelessly.”

The committee’s discussion of the ordinance was cut short due to time constraints, but the council will return to it at its next meeting on November 19th.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

If At First You Don’t Succeed…

CREDIT: JB

A consistent problem in Shelby County elections has been the distribution of sample ballots by political entrepreneurs who charge candidates for appearing on them.

Candidate John Marek, a well-known Democratic activist  JB

John Marek

who is running for the District 5 City Council seat in the October 3 city election, was outraged when he saw one being mailed and passed out under the auspices of the “Greater Memphis Democratic Club,” a shell organization operated by entrpreneur Greg Grant that exists mainly to issue sample ballots.

Compounding Marek’s sense of injury was that his opponent, Worth Morgan, is a known Republican, as are three other candidates endorsed on the ballot. All four are official endorsees of the Shelby County Republican Party. A further issue is that the ballot employed several facsimiles of the official City of Memphis seal, a possible violation of both city and state codes.

Backed by the Shelby County Democratic Party and represented by civil liberties attorney Bruce Kramer, Marek undertook to get a Temporary Restraining Order against further distribution of the ballot in Chancery Court on Thursday. The plaintiffs were stymied. How?

Chancellor JoeDae L. Jenkins confessed that he would need to recuse himself because he had bought onto a previous election ballot distributed by Grant as well as one by another ballot entrepreneur, M. LaTroy Alexandria-Williams, also cited in the suit. The plaintiffs hope to seek redress from another judge in another court on Friday.

Marek said that the unexpected snafu was yet another instance of why the pay-for-play ballots should be restricted or banned.

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News News Blog

Citing New State Law, Councilman Wary of Plastic Bag Ban


One Memphis City Council member is hesitant to move forward with a plastic bag ban here after a state law passed in April prohibiting cities from regulating the use of them.

Councilman Worth Morgan said the “merits of the discussion are an interesting topic,” but the conversation should be had with state legislators: “We’re having it in the wrong place in a city council committee room and not in Nashville.”

Morgan said the newly-passed state law that bans local governments from regulating the “use, disposition, or sale of an auxiliary container” prohibits all local regulation of plastic bags and that a “ban constitutes a regulation.”

“It would be my preference that if we want to have this conversation, we drive to Nashville,” Morgan said. “I think right now this ordinance doesn’t have a place in Memphis City Council.”

Councilman Berlin Boyd, a co-sponsor of the ordinance along with Chairman Kemp Conrad, told Morgan he “begs to differ” and that the council has an “obligation to do what you can as local legislators to try and circumvent what happens in Nashville.”

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“If we weren’t creative in our thinking about removing the Confederate statues, Nathan and his comrades would still be in our parks,” Boyd said. “We took the risk and did something and guess what? Those monuments are gone.

“We owe it to everyone. It’s our job to take risks. Give this a chance to try to make Memphis a green and clean city.”

The ban in question would prohibit the distribution of single-use plastic bags at checkouts in retail establishments with 2,000 square feet or more. Each violation of the ordinance would result in a $50 fine.

Boyd, who first brought forth the idea of plastic bag regulation in November, said the goal of the ban is to protect the environment and reduce overall waste, citing plastic-bag-riddled streets, waterways, and trees.

“Waterway protection is extremely important,” he said. “No matter what media outlet you’re looking at, our sea animals are basically inhaling and eating plastic bags.”

Boyd also said taxpayers pay between $2.5 and $3.5 million a year for plastic bag removal.

Dennis Lynch, chair of the Sierra Club in Memphis told the council he supports the ban, saying that plastic bags “encourage the throw-away society instead of getting people to recycle.”

He also noted environmental concerns similar to Boyd’s.

Councilwoman Robinson raised practical questions about the ban, like the effect it would have on elderly shoppers. She said for them plastic bags are easier to carry than large paper or reusable bags.

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“I don’t want us to make an environmental decision that has a negative impact on the people that actually live here,” Robinson said. “How are we going to make sure they have what they need?”

Robinson said the council should be “very thoughtful we don’t have any unintended consequences.”

Boyd said that is a conversation the council should be having anyway, as Kroger, which has more than a dozen stores here, plans to completely phase out plastic bags by 2025.

But, ultimately, Boyd said shoppers will have to make behavior changes. “People will have to adjust to it.”

Swearengen, echoing Robinson, voiced concerns from her constituents in Orange Mound who shop at the Midtown Kroger on Union. She said many don’t have cars and as a result, bike or use public transit to get there. It’s easier for them to carry plastic bags than paper bags when doing so, she said.

Swearengen noted that plastic bags can hang on the handlebars of a bike and that paper bags deteriorate in the rain.

To that, Councilwoman Gerre Currie said local organizations could provide cloth and other types of reusable bags.

“If this is something we are trying to do, the onus is on us to reach outside where we are sitting here and partner with organizations to provide free bags.”

The council is scheduled to take the second of three votes on the plastic bag ordinance Tuesday (today).

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News News Blog

Council Sides With Neighborhood Association Against Waste Site Proposal

CREDIT: Waste Connections

Waste Connections

A waste collection company whose operations border a Whitehaven community asked the Memphis City Council Tuesday for the green light to reposition the site’s layout.

Officials with Waste Connections said its proposal would have been better for the neighboring residents, but after more than an hour of debate, the council voted it down.

Currently, the 30-acre waste transfer site near Brooks Road sits right behind more than a dozen homes. It collects 900 tons of waste each day. The company said its proposal would have moved its operation further away from the residents and created a larger buffer zone.

But, members of the McCorkle Road Neighborhood Association spoke in opposition to the proposal, urging the council to vote against it. They cited a rodent-control problem, loud noises, strong odors, and possible exposure to hazardous chemicals as common concerns among the residents.

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Rita Davis, who has lived in the neighborhood for 40 years, said she lives right behind the site and can’t “tolerate it.” She said there are “rats as big as cats jumping out at you” in her backyard. She also said a “horrendous stench” comes from the facility.

“There is a horrendous problem with garbage disposal one street over from a neighborhood that’s been established since the ’60s,” Davis said. “Now, it’s like a dead zone. You can’t have fun. You can’t enjoy your backyard.”

Another resident, Yvonne Nelson, wanted the council to agree to conditions that the company would have to adhere to if its proposal was approved. Some of those requests included relocation expenses of $200,000 per household affected by the site, pest control, an odor control system, and reduced hours of operation.

Council members responded that they don’t have the legislative authority to require the company to agree to such provisions.

“We’re tired and we want you to listen to us,” Nelson said. “We live there. We live this. You came and visited for five minutes and you left.”

Adrian Bond, representing Waste Connections, said “we’ve got fact versus fiction” and “improvement versus fears.”

Bond said many of the concerns the neighbors expressed, such as proximity to the site and noise levels, would have been mitigated with the relocation. He said the company’s operations are too confined and that in order to create a larger buffer zone between residents’ houses and the site, the company needs to reposition its layout.

“The council has the opportunity to put things in place to ensure that these neighbors and Waste Connections can coexist,” Bond said. “A no vote is a travesty because it doesn’t address the issues.”

Bobby Ladley with Waste Connections said he’s been tasked with fixing the issues the neighborhoods presented, but said “I simply don’t have the room right now.” Bond added that the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Memphis Public Works, the health and fire departments, and vector control have not cited any issues or violations at Waste Connections’ site.

 Bond said the company is aware of the rodent problem, but does not believe Waste Connections is the culprit. “We never doubted there was a rodent problem,” Bond said. “Our contention is that it’s not because of Waste Connections.” Bond said the rodents are coming from a nearby vacant apartment building, which he said was verified by a pest control company.

Before the 12-1 vote, several members of the council, including Berlin Boyd and Martavious Jones, maintained that a “no” vote would not change the neighbors circumstances. “Voting no keeps everything the same,” Boyd said. “ It does not improve.”

Councilman Sherman Greer said he believed voting in favor of the proposal would be best for the residents, but instead he chose to “vote how the constituents want me to.”


“I’m going to follow you and cast a no vote,” Greer said to the neighbors. “I don’t think it helps you, though. I’m going to cast that vote the way you want, but I think it’s the wrong vote for you.”

Councilman Worth Morgan, the sole member to vote for the proposal said the case “makes the least amount of sense in terms of where the opposition is coming from.”

“These are usually things the neighbors come together and argue for,” Morgan said. “In my best judgment, this actually improves conditions in the neighborhood for y’all rather than a step backward or keeping them the same, which is what a no vote does.”

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Chairman Kemp Conrad disagreed, echoing a resident’s sentiment that “you don’t expand a house to take care of a house you currently have.”

Conrad said many of the items Waste Connections is proposing could have been done without council approval. He also questioned why there hasn’t been any outreach with the community until recently.

“Had y’all been better neighbors until this point and there was trust between you all and the neighbors, I would think they probably would support what you’re talking about doing,” Conrad said. “You would have built the goodwill needed to get support for this project. You don’t need our vote to do that and if this fails, I hope you do it.”

Councilwoman Gerre Currie said even with the proposal being voted down, there are still options the company can pursue. Currie said she and residents will work with Waste Connections to form a “harmonious relationship,” moving forward.

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News News Blog

Morgan Got Some Answers on Election Money But Not All

Budget season is now underway at Memphis City Hall.

Memphis City Council member Worth Morgan did not hold the city council’s portion of the budget during talks yesterday but said if “significant progress” is not made on a review of the funds spent for an council-led “education campaign” last year, he’ll revive the issue.

Five council members approved spending about $40,000 on a “public information campaign” on three referenda to “explain their potential benefits” of them and “counter some of the misinformation presented.” The campaign was to answer what council members described as a flood of phone calls to their office from the public about the referenda. (Get more details about the campaign in the linked stories below.)

Morgan

Three council members — Ford Canale, Kemp Conrad, and Worth Morgan — voted against the campaign. At the time, Morgan promised that ”every dollar spent by the chairman on this informational campaign will be tracked, accounted for, and made easily available to the public.”

He said last week, he’d be in favor of holding the council’s portion of the budget this year until he had more answers. He got some answers, he said, and did not hold a vote on the council’s budget during a budget committee meeting Monday. However, he said he’d bring the issue up again later if “significant progress” was not made to clarify his questions.

Here’s what Morgan said during that budget committee meeting Monday:

“There’d been some discussion dealing with me about this city council budget until we had a full accounting of how some of the money was spent last year, specifically the public referenda campaign.

“We didn’t quite have the answers yet. But there’s been some sincere movement forward on that issue. I’ve called Deidre Malone today. She was very responsive. But we weren’t able to connect. We traded voice mails; trying to shine some light.

“Now I have the financial disclosure statements from the city council referendum committee, from the Diversity Memphis (political action committee — PAC), as well as invoices from the Carter Malone Group and the city of Memphis.
[pullquote-1]”So, I have a lot more information than we did before. And I’m happy to share it. It’s just some of the information in the numbers that don’t match up on how things were spent. So, we’re still trying to track down exactly what of that $40,000…how it was spent.

“I think that’s something that we promised to the people when we did the campaign, at least I did. I think most people agreed to it in executive committee.
[pullquote-2]”There was some discussion about…if we didn’t have those answers by today, would we delay this vote? I’m not interested in making that motion or holding [the budget]. But I just wanted to put that out there.

“If anybody has questions about those invoices or those disclosures, I’m happy to share them. We’re going to continue to be tracking it down.

“If we don’t make significant progress again in the next two weeks or four weeks, I think it might be a better place to have this discussion in the audit committee.”

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News News Blog

Council Budget May Be Held for Review of Referenda Campaign Cash

A Memphis City Council member wants to hold approval of the council’s portion of the city’s budget until after a full, public review of the nearly $40,000 the council spent on an education campaign for three referenda last year.

In November, voters here gave the thumbs down to all three referenda before them in November — one that would have eliminated runoff elections, another that would have given longer terms for the mayor and city council members, and another that would have eliminated instant runoff voting (IRV).

In October before the vote, five council members approved spending money on a “public information campaign” on the referenda to “explain their potential benefits” and “counter some of the misinformation presented.” The campaign was to answer what council members described as a flood of phone calls to their office from the public about the referenda.

Three council members — Ford Canale, Kemp Conrad, and Worth Morgan — voted against the campaign. At the time, Morgan promised that ”every dollar spent by the chairman on this informational campaign will be tracked, accounted for, and made easily available to the public.” 

Morgan

On Wednesday, he said there’s still not been a full accounting of the money. From documents he’s reviewed, Morgan said the money into and out of the campaign don’t match up. He said he understands it could be mathematical error and he said he hopes the discrepancy is an error.

Budget talks got underway at city hall last month. Morgan said it’s the right time to review the nearly $40,000 spent on the referenda campaign.

“We need to have a whole accounting of where the money from the city council account actually got spent, and we still don’t have that,” Morgan said. “This is a perfect time to review it, ask for it. And if we can’t get it, I would be inclined to hold the city council budget until we do.”
[pullquote-1] Morgan asked Berlin Boyd, then the council’s chairman, in November how the funds were spent, according to a story in The Commercial Appeal. At the time, Boyd said he was still waiting on final numbers. He said the money was given to the Carter Malone Group to create the campaign.

That campaign did include advertisements in the Memphis Flyer, The New Tri-State Defender, and IHeartRadio, according to Steve Mulroy, a former Shelby County Commission member and outspoken critic of the instant runoff voting referendum. He said the campaign targeted African Americans.

Steve Mulroy

“They made a conscious campaign decision that the only way to beat these referenda would be to, in my view, falsely suggest that this was somehow bad for African American voters and exploit racial fears,” Mulroy said. “So from their perspective, it was just a smart campaign move, ‘we’re going to spend the money where we think it would be most effective.’

“But that just underscores and puts in stark relief that this was not in any sense, a public education campaign for the city of Memphis as a whole. It was a targeted campaign effort to defeat referenda that would have made elections more competitive.”
[pullquote-2] Morgan said the campaign was a “serious mistake” and that it just looked bad for council members to advocate for something that would have likely benefitted them.

The resolution for the campaign money never appeared on any city council agenda and came up for a vote toward the end of a regular meeting.

“The reason that’s done is to usually is to limit debate,” Morgan said. “If you know something’s going to be coming, you know what it says, you’re much more able to talk about it and debate it. Then, somebody that might oppose it, they might not even be able to be there to oppose it because they didn’t have any notice. 

“That’s been something that happened a few times on the council over the last four years. Hopefully, there’s not any more patience for it and we won’t let it happen again.”

The resolution for the campaign passed with same-night minutes, meaning the vote couldn’t be undone at a later date.

Aaron Fowles, president of Save IRV, a group formed to defeat the instant runoff referendum, said the matter is still important even if the referenda were defeated.

“There are still roadblocks that have been erected by Berlin Boyd and others,” Fowles said last month. “Berlin Boyd was on the news saying, ‘people like how they vote now’ and completely ignoring he fact that people voted to use a different method of voting.

Jackson Baker

IRV supporters at victory party. L to r: Aaron Fowles, Steve Mulroy, and Racquel Collins

“The city council still has got to do a few things to implement (IRV). You know, we’d like to believe that they will listen to what voters have said and act on that.”

Mulroy said the campaign needs further review on simple principle.

“I think the public needs to understand what happened and how there was a conscious effort to avoid transparency in this taxpayer-funded propaganda game,” Mulroy said.
[pullquote-3] The city council is slated to review its own budget for the next year on Monday, May 6th at 4:45 p.m. Watch it live here.

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Opinion Viewpoint

Thoughts About How to Win Memphis Council District 5

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Some readers may recall that, in 2015, I ran unsuccessfully for the Memphis City Council as an avowed progressive in District 5. Since then, I have heard several people comment that District 5 was won by a conservative because three progressive candidates ran and split the vote. Now that the 2019 city elections are on the horizon, I would like to dispel that myth and look at what is potentially different for the district in 2019.

Justin Fox Burks

John Marek

Even if only one progressive had run in 2015, that one progressive would have lost. Worth Morgan, the current councilman and eventual winner, had $300,000 in his campaign war chest, and the votes of conservatives Dan Springer and Morgan combined were 55 percent of the total vote, as compared to 42 percent of the combined percentages of Mary Wilder, Chooch Pickard, and, me, all progressives in good standing.

Democratic turnout was lower than expected that year. A lot of working-class and middle-class voters were upset over the city council’s votes on pension retrenchment, and they evidently did not see any alternative that excited them enough to show up to the polls. Meanwhile, conservatives came out strong for mayoral candidate Jim Strickland.

Strickland and I both happened to be at one of the polling sites on Election Day, and I said to him: “Based on who has voted early and the seemingly low turnout today, I believe what is going to help you is going to hurt me.”

Having seen the early voting data, I also mentioned to Mary Wilder my belief that it would be Morgan versus Springer in the runoff, because of the high conservative turnout.

The fact is, District 5 is not exactly a blue district. Yes, it has Midtown and Binghampton, but it also contains most of East Memphis. In essence, Midtown progressives saw all of their districts either transformed or moved elsewhere in Tennessee in post-2010 redistricting. Congressman Steve Cohen’s former state Senate district was affected, as were the state House seats formerly occupied by Jeanne Richardson and Mike Kernell.

I would consider the current council District 5 to be purple in a high-turnout scenario and red in a low-turnout scenario. It’s regrettable that we don’t hold all of our local general elections on the same day we hold our state and federal general elections. We would save money thereby, and simultaneously reap a higher turnout of progressives.

In any case, in 2015, any progressive who might have made the runoff would have lost handily. I thought I could prevail on the strength of personally knocking on some 6,500 doors in a four-month period, while my supporters were doing likewise. Hindsight tells me I was over-optimistic.

Had any of us progressives made that runoff, the older and wealthier white vote would have shown up in higher numbers, and no amount of knocking on doors would have prevailed over the tidal wave of money committed to the conservative contender.

Instant runoff voting (IRV), which should already have been implemented after the 2008 referendum approving it, could well transform the electoral situation if it is employed in 2019. Runoffs have allowed the city’s economic elite to control a council that should by all rights have a majority voted in by working-class voters and people of color. That is why the IRV issue mattered enough for me to volunteer on its behalf in the referenda of both 2008 and 2018.

Looking ahead to 2019 voting, I find myself wondering whether or not the blue-wave turnouts we saw last year will continue to prevail in non-federal elections. If  IRV is properly implemented, a progressive could win District 5. That result would not be guaranteed, although a progressive with the ability to at least partially self-finance would, in my judgment, have a fair chance of  success.

I have heard rumors about one potential progressive candidate who would fit that profile, and that person would benefit from the absence of a runoff via IRV, as well as not having to worry about the divisive effects of multiple progressive candidates, as in 2015.  

Our current council members — and the status quo types behind them — thought it was a good idea in 2018 to try to undo decisions already made by voters in 2008, and they had the temerity to spend $40,000 of our taxpayer money to campaign for such a result in last fall’s referendums.

I would just say this: If you are a progressive prepared to run hard and govern well, please announce your intentions soon, because your city needs you.

John Marek is a lawyer, activist, and
occasional candidate for various offices.

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News News Blog

Councilman Morgan: Ballot Campaign No Good For Public Trust

Councilman Morgan

Worth Morgan, one of three Memphis City Council members who voted Tuesday against an educational campaign for three council-created referenda, questions the transparency of the move.

Morgan, who said he ran for office to “help restore public trust,” argued that spending up to $40,000 of taxpayer dollars on an educational campaign is an “improper and late attempt” to make up for confusing ballot language.



“The resolution, which was pushed forward with zero public notice, is an improper and late attempt to make up for the overly confusing ballot language,” Morgan said. “Simply put, we all expect and deserve better transparency from city council. Every dollar spent by the chairman on this informational campaign will be tracked, accounted for, and made easily available to the public.”

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Though joined by council members J Ford Canale and Kemp Conrad in voting no, Morgan was the only one of the trio to speak against the measure at Tuesday’s meeting.

Morgan expressed concerns then about the negative backlash the council would likely receive for the campaign, advising his colleagues that “it’s not in the council’s best interest.”

“I’m not questioning the legality of this at all, but I am questioning the wisdom of it,” Morgan said Tuesday. “I think the negative press and blowback on spending taxpayer dollars on the referendum is going to far outweigh the $30,000-$40,000 of education we’re going to be able to send out.”

Similarly, in a Tuesday night tweet, Conrad said he disagreed with the “expenditure of funds for such purposes.”

This story will be updated.