Answering the Bell

ast week's events gave sure indication that 1998, which will offer the longest election ballot in Shelby County history, may be one of the stormiest election years in local history as well.

The week saw: (a) the first showdown between Knoxville's Doug Horne and Memphis' Steve Cohen, the Democrats' two most probable aspirants to oppose GOP Governor Don Sundquist ; the eruption of a major feud between Shelby County Mayor Jim Rout and Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton (who was suddenly talking up an electoral challenge to Rout); and the first direct challenge of wannabe chairman Gale Jones Carson to the established leadership of the local Democratic Party.

None of these encounters resolved any long-term issues, but each allowed for some preliminary conclusions. Once again, by the letters:

* (A) The Governor's Race: If businessman Horne, a political newcomer, thinks his apparent anointment by party chairman Houston Gordon and the rest of the state Democratic establishment is a free pass to his party's nomination, he may have found out otherwise Saturday, at an assembly of county Democrats participating in pre-convention ward and precinct elections at East High School.

After some early getting-to-know-you handshaking, and after the assembled Democrats had chosen their delegates to the official party convention on October 25th, Horne was invited to speak, along with other prominent Democrats, to the attendees gathered in the East High auditorium.

The Knoxvillian's place on the bill turned out to be inconvenient for him; he was preceded by U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., an increasingly practiced speaker, and by Mayor Herenton, whose current save-the-city agenda had him on a rhetorical tear, and he was followed by rival Cohen, who also knows how to wow a crowd of Democrats.

It was bad enough that Horne got an overlong and tepid introduction by Randy Tyree, the former Knoxville mayor and unsuccessful 1982 gubernatorial candidate whose main selling point for his fellow townsman was that "the party should have a consensus candidate." But Horne spoke somewhat tepidly himself, betraying the unsureness of someone new to stump speaking, and he had the further bad fortune to be interrupted twice during his remarks by participants taking the mike to announce that a parked car was blocking the progress of an ambulance outside the school.

Worse, a rubbernecking instinct took over much of the crowd, and there was a rush by attendees to the exits to see why an ambulance was there in the first place. Whatever the disposition of things outside, inside the school Horne never had a chance to recover.

Then came Cohen, who seemed none the worse for the wear and tear of a controversy arising from a recent Nashville Scene article (see box). The Midtown state senator, who is considering a reprise of his 1994 run for governor, got right to the point: "I don't think I have to tell you who I am or what my party is."

After running through a series of jibes at Horne's past political ambidextrousness (among other things, the Knoxville businessman had formerly contributed to Republican candidates as well as Democratic ones), Cohen recited cases of his own past fidelity to the party and concluded, "I've never forgotten it, and I never will, and I hope you won't forget me."

Horne, a clear loser both on rhetorical points and on the audience applause-meter, might just as soon forget Saturday's encounter. But he might also reason that a lackluster performance before somebody else's home crowd is but one event in what will be a crowded campaign calendar. And he still owns advantages that Cohen and other potential Democratic challengers would be hard put to match: a developing consensus on his behalf within the state party establishment and his own personal wealth.

On the subject of the latter, however, the Knoxvillian -- whose potential candidacy is still at the exploratory stage -- may have bad news for his party-mates (see box).

* (B) Herenton vs. Rout: A highlight of Saturday's Democratic meet was a spirited stump performance from Herenton in which the Memphis mayor elaborated on his war plan, announced earlier in the week, against the legion of what he called "toy towns" whose imminent incorporation would close off his city's future annexation prospects.

Sources on the Shelby County Election Commission indicate that the likely date for incorporation referenda for the seven suburban areas seeking to become cities is Tuesday, December 2nd. Looking that deadline in the face, Herenton had announced last Tuesday a complex plan of attack and lashed out at unnamed adversaries, including the "high officials" of the county and state who, he said, had condemned Memphis "to fight for its survival alone."

There had been little doubt Tuesday that Herenton's criticism had been aimed at Sundquist and Rout, the two GOP office-holders whose political base consists in large part of residents of the would-be New Towns. Herenton further dispelled any confusion Saturday when he seconded Rep. Ford's denunciation of alleged inaction by the two Republicans.

"We need to be in Nashville to deal with Sundquist right now!" the mayor declared about the man whose gubernatorial bid he covertly supported in 1994. And as for his Shelby County counterpart, Herenton used the weekend to start floating trial balloons of a possible campaign against Rout next year for the county mayoralty.

Taken by surprise, the county Democrats who had been focusing on persuading State Sen. Jim Kyle to make his expected county mayor's race welcomed Herenton's interest.

"He'd be formidable," declared State Senator Roscoe Dixon," who was otherwise occupied Saturday trying to find a candidate to oppose Carson's bid for the party chairmanship.

Former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford, father of the current incumbent and widely presumed to be advising the anti-Carson forces from a distance, declined to comment on Herenton's prospects or other political contests on the grounds, he said, that he wanted to concentrate on his current career as a business consultant. (The former congressman did, however, help boost up another current trial balloon, that of a race for the U.S. Senate by Ford Jr. in 2000; "He's both senatorial and presidential timber," said the proud father.)

Another chairman prospect, David Cocke, an attorney and, like Carson, a current party vice-chair, pronounced both Herenton and Kyle acceptable as candidates for county mayor, as did Carson and virtually every other Democrat contacted. Kyle himself, who as recently as Saturday, was shying away from a formal commitment to a county mayor's race, suddenly sounded more affirmative. "I have always thought being county mayor was the best political job in Memphis. You can do more and accomplish more as county mayor then you can in any other forum," said the senator.

Though virtually everybody was intrigued by Herenton's county-mayor balloon, many observers disbelieved that he really wished for it to rise very high. Few doubted Herenton's new resolve on the incorporation front, though. On Tuesday, the mayor had announced the hiring of no fewer than three high-powered law firms: Baker, Donelson, Bearman, and Caldwell to force legal stays to the incorporation process; Waring Cox, to coordinate supportive litigation from developers; and Farris, Gilman, and Matthews to serve as a lobbying arm of the city.

Former U.S. Senator Harlan Matthews, a longtime figure in the state capital, will head the firm's lobbying efforts in Nashville in tandem with current city lobbyist Robin Merritt, who will serve as a liaison with city directors and the city council in Memphis.

When pressed about his response to Herenton's charges of inaction, Rout has consistently maintained that the incorporation issue is "in the courts" and that it would be inappropriate for him to comment further on the controversy. During an exchange of letters with Herenton this week, Rout acknowledged the apparent demise of the city/county "balanced growth" initiative.

* (C) The Contest for Democratic Chairman: Both sides, the forces aligned with Gale Carson Jones, as well as those coalescing to oppose her, professed optimism after Saturday's convening of Democrats to select the convention delegates (who in turn will name a 56-member executive committee on October 25th that will pick a party chairman).

Of the 400-odd persons present and voting, "it split about 40-40, with 20 percent up for grabs," said Cocke, the leading non-Jones candidate so far, but one whose support may be slipping due to his disinclination so far to formally announce for the chairmanship. Cocke is considered close to former Rep. Ford, but Dixon's continued search on Saturday for a candidate (among others, he approached state Election Commissioner Calvin Anderson) was taken in some quarters to be nervousness in the Ford camp.

Other prospects mentioned by themselves or others are party executive director Janice Lucas, who has not formally disavowed an interest; former city council candidate Sharon Brown; Dixon himself; former chairman Jim Strickland, and school board member TaJuan Stout-Mitchell.

But the focus of interest is Carson herself, currently state party secretary and a vice chair of the local party. She is close to the North Memphis political organization which includes city councilman Rickey Peete, legislators Larry Miller and Ulysses Jones, and county commissioner Shep Wilbun.

And she is emerging as the leader of the latest coalition of Democrats that is shepherded neither by the Ford organization nor by members of the political clan headed by current (and retiring) chairman Bill Farris. Carson sees her chances as better than the 50/50 estimated by a number of other observers, and certainly, as one of her opponents concedes, "it's hard to beat somebody with nobody."

Horne's Pockets Not Deep

Doug Horne of Knoxville, the wealthy businessman from Knoxville who is considering a race against Governor Don Sundquist next year, may break a few of the hearts that have begun to long for him in statewide Democratic circles.

In Memphis for a handshaking tour Saturday, Horne said he would not attempt to litigate the $250,000 ceiling on use of a candidate's own funds that was enacted into law two years ago at Sundquist's behest. Various Democrats had assumed that the law was unconstitutional and that a court test would end up allowing a candidate of means, like Horne or like Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen, to spend freely from his own personal holdings.

"No, I intend to live within the law," said Horne, who has in fact accused Republican Sundquist of circumventing the spirit of the law by indulging in a fund-raising spree before certain of its limiting provisions went into effect. The governor has so far raised an estimated $3.5 million for the 1998 campaign.

Horne has interests, as he noted in Memphis Saturday, in a variety of enterprises, ranging from publishing to trucking to commercial and residential development.

More on the Scene Scene

The fallout continues from the recent Nashville Scene cover story about State Senator Steve Cohen (D-Memphis). Among the new developments:

* Scene media critic Henry Walker, who was conspicuously silent on the Cohen issue last week, was at press time composing a column to appear this week which, he said, would address a number of questions -- including his own possible involvement in the party of Scene staffers, alluded to in the article, at which Cohen and others were alleged to have smoked marijuana. (Cohen continues to deny the allegation.)

Both Walker and Scene editor Bruce Dobie said that the Walker column would be subjected to intense scrutiny before publication.

* City of Memphis lobbyist Robin Merritt acknowledged that she had asked Cohen to speak at the funeral earlier this year of her late stepfather, General Sessions Judge Jim White. (The Scene article had indicated that Cohen had asked Merritt for permission to speak and had gained her "consent.")

"But his is a more queer and stinging betrayal for that reason," said Merritt, who said Cohen had attempted to get her fired as Memphis lobbyist and that the article, by writer Liz Garrigan, had quoted her correctly concerning that aspect of things.