We were all reminded this past week of how freakishly and without warning the weather can change, but unless there are unexpected changes in the political weather, this week is due to see the advent of the second consecutive three-way contest in a Memphis mayoral race. And a hot one it could be.
Already out there getting campaigns in gear were local NAACP head and former County Commissioner Van Turner and Memphis Downtown Commission CEO/president Paul Young. Barring an unlikely last-minute change of mind, Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner is about to challenge these two previously declared worthies.
Bonner’s entry, scheduled for a Tuesday afternoon press announcement, could change the race from a conflict of credentialed challengers to one in which the city’s priorities are in for the same kind of seismic policy shifts Shelby County experienced just months ago.
This time, like last time, will see a contest between rival views of government — call it progressive versus traditional — but will see the direction of attack reversed and progressivism, triumphant in August but not yet firmly entrenched locally, faces the prospect of a new and powerful coalition, conventional in attitude but encompassing constituencies overlapping the usual boundaries.
It is Bonner’s persona, coupled with his breadth of appeal and success in electoral politics, that makes this possible. Clearly, he has political gifts.The sheriff polled more votes than all contenders in all other countywide races, both in 2018 and in his 2022 re-election race. The last time around, while running as a Democrat, he ended up on the endorsement list of the Shelby County Republicans as well. To the population at large, he seems to inspire confidence. Yet he is not menacing. On the stump and in person, he comes across as something of a Teddy Bear.
Many a candidate tries to run on the bromide that “my friends have urged me to run.” In most cases, this is a semi-fiction at best, a cloak for the candidate’s personal ambition. But, uniquely, Bonner seems to have been the subject of a genuine draft. His aforementioned appeal across party lines is replicated in the racial sphere as well, and going into the mayor’s race, addressing an electorate that is considerably less conservative politically than that of the county population as a whole and is made freshly apprehensive by an outbreak of violent crime, that is no mean advantage.
Bonner will remind the African-American community early and often that he is a native of Orange Mound, the son of one of the first waves of Blacks to be allowed to join the Memphis Police Department. Some have noted the sheriff’s current residence in unincorporated Shelby County. He has explained that he moved there from Whitehaven at a time when he was doing undercover work in that area’s drug trade, to reduce his family’s potential vulnerability. Bonner is reportedly seeking a new residence in the city.
There are no Ds and no Rs on the city’s political ballot, a fact that makes Bonner’s attempt at being a unity candidate considerably easier than was that of, say, former District Attorney Amy Weirich, who tried to run as “our DA” in a demographically divided community but was weighed down, among other factors, by her Republican label.
Can Bonner compete in such policy areas as that of economic development? He vows to pay special attention to that matter and says he will appoint a ranking city official to attend to it.
All that having been said, neither of Bonner’s declared mayoral rivals is exactly a slouch. Turner is a skilled political veteran with ties to various factions. He will have the particular support of those members of the political left who rallied in August to the support of current DA Steve Mulroy (who has endowed Turner) and who formed a hard core also for Juvenile Court Judge Tarik Sugarmon and County Mayor Lee Harris.
Young, who scheduled a fundraiser the same day as Bonner’s announcement, can count on powerful support from members of the city’s commercial and industrial elite.
Money counts in political races and Bonner will have an early chance to demonstrate his own strength. He begins the race with a leftover political kitty amounting to a hundred thousand dollars, and his backers proclaim an optimism that this sum will grow to several hundred thousand by January 15th when the candidates’ first financial disclosures will be made known.
In the meantime, Bonner’s entry will, at the very least, be a strong dissuader to other potential candidates who have considered running.
