Still No Bridge The racial chasm continues to divide Shelby County politics, a vote check reveals. by Jackson Baker look at last week’s election results shows that, early suspicions notwithstanding, race and political-party affiliation continue to be virtually interchangeable entities in Shelby County. With few exceptions, whites vote for Republicans and fellow whites, while blacks vote for Democrats and fellow blacks. Another finding: Where party labels were not on the ballot, as in judicial races, whites were measurably more prone to vote for blacks than vice versa. A larger than anticipated win for controversial Criminal Court Judge Joe Brown, as well as the unexpectedly close races run by several other African-American candidates, had confused the issue last week – seeming to indicate a greater degree of racial (and political) crossover than, in fact, was the case. That a racial/political divide continues, virtually unbridged, is the bottom line of last week’s returns, according to former Shelby County Democratic chairman Jim Strickland, whose 1997 analysis of his party’s vote potential was widely used by other Democrats to recruit potential party candidates for 1998. In the prior study, Strickland found – accurately enough, as it turns out – that the two parties could be expected to run neck-and-neck in major races if their candidates were of equal stature. Strickland’s analysis was a major part of the pitch key Democrats used in a futile effort to persuade state Senator Jim Kyle to oppose Shelby County Mayor Jim Rout for reelection. Rout effortlessly turned back a purely nominal challenge from perennial independent candidate Robert “Prince Mongo” Hodges, but other GOP incumbents ran into trouble. Two such were Sheriff A.C. Gilless and county register Guy Bates, who won cliff-hanger victories over Democratic challengers Melvin Burgess and Larry Finch, respectively. Both those races were decided by the narrowest possible margin, with each candidate receiving almost 50 percent of the vote. In a brand-new analysis of 31 selected precincts – 16 predominantly black, 15 predominantly white – Strickland now finds that the closeness of contests on the August 6th election ballot owed almost nothing to political or racial crossover. It should be noted that Strickland’s analysis does not include early voting or absentee totals – only those accumulated on voting machines on election day. (The Shelby County Election Commission, unaccountably late, had still not released its own breakdowns as of early this week.) In the sheriff’s race, Strickland’s sampling shows that winner Gilless got 94 percent of the white vote on election day and only 5 percent of the black vote, while Burgess polled a nearly symmetrical 93 percent of the black vote and only 5 percent of the white vote. (A third candidate, independent Floyd Allen, an African American, garnered 2 percent of the black vote and 1 percent of the white vote.) Similarly, challenger Finch – the former coach whose good showing had been widely attributed to a substantial sympathy vote from whites – appears to have received 97 percent of his vote from blacks and only 3 percent from whites. Incumbent Bates, with 94 percent of the white vote and only .5 percent (half of 1 percent) of the black vote, showed even less crossover. Robert Harris, the African-American third candidate who was presumed to have drained votes away from Finch, actually appears to have hurt Bates worse, polling 3 percent of the white vote versus 2.5 percent of the black vote. AS INDICATED, HOWEVER, BLACKS hewed closer to the racial line in judicial races, where party labels were no factor. Joe Brown’s whopping 60-plus percent victory over Terry Harris in the race for Criminal Court, Division 9, for example, was built on a 99 percent showing among his fellow blacks, coupled with a full 21 percent of the white vote. Harris got only 1 percent of the black vote to go with 79 percent of the white vote. Another judicial runaway occurred in the race for General Sessions, Division 3 (civil), where incumbent John Donald, an African American, turned back his white challenger, assistant county attorney Danny Presley, with 60-plus percent of the total vote. Donald got a full 30 percent of the white vote to go with 95 percent of the black vote. Less exaggerated, but similar, results were demonstrated in the tight judgeship race for General Sessions, Division 12 (criminal), in which incumbent Horace Pierotti, a white, narrowly defeated Loyce Lambert, an African American, with 7 percent of the black vote and 86 percent of the white vote. Lambert, a veteran member of the Public Defender’s office, got 14 percent of the white vote and 93 percent of the black vote. As to why whites should find it easier to vote for blacks who weren’t running as Democratic party nominees, Strickland said, “I have to be candid. It would seem that the party label is extremely unpopular in the white population.” But there was also hard medicine for Shelby County Republicans in the judicial results. Presley, Harris, and Pierotti were all featured as choices on the GOP’s mass-produced sample ballot which was sent to some 90,000 households in Shelby County. Seemingly, there was a disinclination in many of those households to go along with the party’s recommendations in several races. One judicial race was clearly atypical – that for Criminal Court, Division 8, in which incumbent Chris Craft, a white, piled up a 65 percent majority over African-American challenger Tarik Sugarmon (who, moreover, stood to borrow some positive name recognition from his father, unopposed General Sessions Judge Russell Sugarmon). Sugarmon surrendered 15 percent of the black vote to Craft, who polled 98 percent of the white vote. “More and better advertising,” Strickland shrugged when asked about this apparent exception to the general rule. One positive implication of last week’s vote for Strickland and his fellow Democrats was that a recent tendency for blacks to turn out in higher proportions than whites seems to have continued. Strickland had no numbers to support that thesis, but it would seem to be true from the fact that pure voter registration figures still favor whites and Republicans. The two races drawing the most attention from voters were those for sheriff and register, Strickland’s figures show. And he found that the “dropoff” factor – or inclination of a voter to skip subsequent positions on the lengthy ballot – was more pronounced for whites than for blacks. The contest which, in most situations in most years, would draw the most voters – that for Shelby County mayor – ranked 12th on the list, turnout-wise, just below the five-person race, won by Betty Thomas, for an open General Sessions, Division 5 (civil) judgeship. “I told you, Ilene, we’re not going to talk about last night and the president.” U.S. Senator Bill Frist, ad-libbing a response to fellow national Medicare Commission member Ilene Gordon, who (in speaking of Medicare) mentioned the “trust” factor at an impromptu commission meeting for the Rotary Club at The Peabody Tuesday. The senator, who chairs the commission, said afterward that he regarded the Clinton presidency as “crippled” but did not favor impeachment. “When he comes to us and talks about Kosovo or security factors or Saddam Hussein and Iraq, I won’t know whether to believe him now,” Frist said. Frist’s Tennessee stablemate, U.S. Senator Fred Thompson, also scheduled for a visit to Memphis this week, has also said he does not favor impeachment. PHOTO BY JOHN LANDRIGAN In Better Times: Commercial Appeal reporter Terry Keeter with friend at a Gridiron Show in times past. Keeter Benefit Friends of veteran Commercial Appeal political reporter Terry Keeter, who recently underwent a lengthy – and costly – hospitalization for a lung ailment, are holding a benefit party Friday night to help defray Keeter’s medical expenses. The affair – called “Keeter’s Birthday Bash” and featuring a roast, a silent auction, hors d’oeuvres, wine, and beer – will be held at the Shrine Temple at 5770 Shelby Oaks Drive, beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets are $50; checks should be made payable to “Keeter Kitty,” advises attorney Murry Card, the longtime Keeter friend (and associate in the annual Gridiron Show) who is handling the benefit. Card can be reached at 526-5858 or 276-4386. For years, Keeter has suffered from emphysema. It was when he contracted pneumonia last Christmas that he entered Methodist Hospital, where a staphylococcus infection complicated his condition even further. For the last several months, even since his discharge, Keeter has been attached to a respirator, and he is on a waiting list for a lung transplant. “He may actually need a transplant for both lungs,” Card advises. Another friend, Paula Casey, has assumed the burden of organizing next year’s Gridiron Show. For the last several years, Keeter, along with former CA columnist Larry Williams (who will continue to be involved), has written and directed the show, which features skits and songs satirizing local politics. Proceeds from the Gridiron Show benefit a variety of causes. Now, says Casey, Keeter himself has become the cause. “His insurance doesn’t even begin to pay his bills,” she says. At this year’s Gridiron Show in May, Keeter – tuxedo, respirator, and all – made an appearance and received a standing ovation. “If I’d known I would get this kind of reaction from cutting my throat, I’d have done it long ago,” he said. When his respirator began making beeping noises, Keeter offered a typical ad-lib: “Don’t worry. That’s not a fire alarm you hear. This thing just makes a noise whenever I cough, laugh, or break wind – any one of which things are liable to happen and set this sumbitch off.” – J.B.