Monday, March 29, 2010
Willie Herenton on the Specter of Voter Crossover
Posted by Jackson Baker on Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 12:42 PM
- JB
- Ex-mayor Herenton laughs it up Saturday with Chism and Mike Gray
“…We got nothing we need to apologize for,” he is concluding. “We didn’t put people in chains and bring them over here against their will.” This and similar remarks make up the peroration of his introduction of county commissioner Chism, who is running for reelection, and when he turns the microphone over, Chism continues in that vein:
“No, we got nothing to apologize for.” But it turns out there is something that requires an apology, or at least an act of atonement.” We got to clean up what you messed up. Yeah, you got to clean up what you sho’ messed up!”
Both men are talking about the same thing — the need, as they see it, hoping that the rest of the city’s African-American population agrees, for a reversion to black occupancy of the 9th District congressional office won by then state Senator Steve Cohen, at least partly with Herenton’s help, in 2006. Herenton, who contends he is defending the principle of equal representation, is now determined to unseat Cohen, whom he has referred to publicly as an "asshole."
It is Chism’s event, and the well-known political broker has enough clout to attract a passel of other candidates and office-holders to his event: interim county mayor Joe Ford, for example, whose mayoral campaign occupies the space next door to Chism’s and who shortly delivers a testimonial to his erstwhile fellow commissioner.
But Herenton is the reigning celebrity here and has already altered the character of the event merely by his presence. And, though his public stemwinder is over with, he hasn’t got everything off his chest.
He heads over my way, and, after a few comments on how his run for Congress is going — “I’m campaigning hard. I’ve been working every goddamned day!” — he begins to dilate on “media bias” against him, citing as the latest instance of it the final paragraph of an “In Brief” item by The Commercial Appeal’s Bartholomew Sullivan in that morning’s paper.
The offending passage comes at the end of some matter-of-fact graphs about Herenton’s having filing his petition for office on the preceding day and a short statement from the former Memphis mayor on his desire to serve in Congress as “a continuation of public service.”
Then Sullivan notes that, on the same day as Herenton’s filing, District Attorney General Bill Gibbons had given up the ghost on his lagging gubernatorial campaign, thereby, Sullivan notes, “potentially freeing some GOP voters to cross party lines and vote in the Democratic primary.”
Well, I comment, the observation seems true enough. Cohen has always enjoyed some Republican crossover (paradoxically, given his simultaneous reputation as the leading liberal light in these parts). And Gibbons’ withdrawal as a favorite-son candidate for governor in the Republican primary would surely facilitate the fact.
“But who’s crossing over?” Herenton demands. I agree that most of the crossover voters, if such there be, will, in fact, be white. At that, the former mayor — who in his middle years as mayor, especially in his 1999 re-election campaign against Joe Ford, could claim a generous share of white and Republican votes himself — looks vindicated.
“If I say it, I’m playing the race card. To me that’s the race card!” he proclaims.
Comments (26)
Showing 1-26 of 26
So I'm a little dense today. What exactly is the "race card" to which Herenton is referring?
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The fact that white conservatives will cross over to the "D" side to vote for a white liberal.... I think that's what he's referring to as the race card.
Thanks pack- apparently I deluded myself into thinking that it might be an issue or recognition issue.
Isn't it uncontroverted history that some Africans did put other Africans in chains and sold them as slaves to the guys who ran the ships?
Uncontroverted and entirely beside the point since nobody in Memphis has enslaved anybody else in Memphis. Our former mayor is apparently campaigning against ghosts.
Chris, I don't know about ghosts, but there's a good GOTV effort targeting the dead in this town.
Why, Tom? I thought the EC purged them all? I just hope they also purged the white folks who moved out of the County but kept voting here!
Kinda reminds of the old Illinois line "for every stiff that votes Democratic in Chicago there's a cow that votes Republican downstate!"
:-)
But seriously, folks: who's to say that the three black people in Memphis who consider themselves Republicans ('cause heaven knows the Republicans don't) won't cross over, and if they do, that it won't be to vote for Hizzoner?
LWC, I refuse to believe that games are played by political parties. BTW, I am going to try to wake-up real early on Sunday to see the Easter bunny. Do you want to come over?
Ahhh... Willie Herenton. What a marvelous breath of springtime air he is. Brimming with fresh ideas to bring Memphians closer together. A man who continually learns from the past but, thank God, doesn't dwell on it.
Tom: Not to be rude, but can I come see the Easter bunny too? I'll bring mimosas!
Wow, King Willie and I (average white dude in 2010) have much in common, as i DIDNT "put people in chains and bring them against thier will" either! So again is he implying needs to apologise?
A very select few great great great great grandfathers that were white and black.
Tom, Phlo, is it true that if the Easter Bunny sees his shadow, we'll have six more weeks, of Spring?
Frankly, I'm more worried about white GOP members crossing over and voting for Herenton in hopes that, if he wins, they'll get some Democrats to vote for their guy in November.
I'm more worried about people of both parties voting for Herenton as a way to ensure that he cannot re-enter the local political scene for at least 2 years. I know I’m seriously considering it.
Voting for Herenton in the primary to keep him out of local politics is sort of like cutting off your leg at the knee to prevent athlete's foot.
"A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life." - Muhammad Ali
True it does work. But there are other, better, and more appropriate remedies like anti-fungal medication for the athlete's foot and simply voting for someone other than Herenton. But then again the simplest solution always seems to elude the people of Memphis.
"But then again the simplest solution always seems to elude the people of Memphis."
Well, there it is. Thanks, Merc. Sums it all up neatly.
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