- JB
- Commissioner Myra Stiles (l) listens as colleague Shep Wilbun announces his departure to E.C. chairman Bill Giannini
“I’ll miss you,” said Shelby County Election Commission chairman Bill Giannini.
”As the only remaining Democratic commissioner, I’ll miss you even more,” said E.C. member Myra Stiles.
The “you” in this equation was Shep Wilbun, who had just announced his resignation from the Election Commission in order to run in next year’s countywide election to regain his old job as Juvenile Court Clerk.
Wilbun, who was unseated from the clerk’s position by Steve Stamson in the election of 2006, pointed out that next year’s Democratic primary comes in March; so there was no point in delaying his departure. He said he had made recommendations for a successor to state Rep. Larry Miller, who will be in charge of the Shelby County Democratic legislators’ effort to appoint a new member.
“I had actually decided to do this back during the mayoral campaign, but I withheld announcing it until after the election,” Wilbun said.
As a result of the 2008 statewide elections, which gave the Republican Party a majority in both the state House and the state Senate, the G.O.P. is now the official majority party in Tennessee, empowered to name three of the five positions on each Tennessee county’s election commission.
In other action, the Election Commission certified the results of last week’s Memphis mayoral election, which made Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton the mayor-elect of the City of Memphis.
And the Commission announced the names of the five candidates who filed by the deadline of noon Thursday for the vacated state House seat in District 83.
The candidates are Republicans Mark white and John Pellioccitti, Democrats Guthrie Castle and Ivan Faulkner; and independent John Andreucetti.
The party primaries for District 83 will take place on December 1, with the general election to follow on January 12. December 1 is also the date for the general election contest in state Senate District 31 between Republican Brian Kelsey and Democrat Adrienne Pakis-Gillon. It was Kelsey’s resignation from his District 83 House seat that necessitated the special election for that seat.
