Losing Ground Joe Ford's claims to invincibility suffer erosion, but his supporters soldier on. by JACKSON BAKER he best thing about last week for the mayoral campaign of city council chairman Joe Ford was that he survived it. That, and the fact that he did indeed, as long anticipated, get the endorsement of the Memphis Police Association. The Ford organization is full of plucky, resourceful, and determined spin artists, and all of them were working overtime to minimize the damage suffered by Ford after a week that was characterized for him by internal snafus, external adversaries, and just plain bad luck. First, there was the aftertaste of the mayoral forum at Metropolitan Baptist Church, at which Mayor Willie Herenton had called councilman Ford a "boy" and drawn his campaign manager, brother Harold Ford Sr., into heated head-on debate. Among other consequences, the impression settled in that Joe Ford had been too passive and yielding, both to the mayor and to the stronger personality of former Rep. Ford. Then there was the embarrassment of a called press conference last Friday at which candidate Ford ended up saying nothing much, even though his manager/brother had through several phone calls prepped the media for disclosures to come concerning the mayor's youthful arrest. (Herenton, while a student at LeMoyne-Owen College, was once fined $50 for disorderly conduct after being picked up in connection with a rape investigation.) What the candidate did do was call for an end to "mudslinging" -- evidently referring to recent published accounts of his own former (and, in fairness, long passed) alcohol problem and arrest record, and a member of the Ford inner circle, far from considering the aborted press conference a fiasco, said, "I think we have managed to put to rest all of this talk about former arrest records." Maybe so, although it didn't dispel another kind of talk -- some of it from long-term friends of the Ford political family -- about Joe Ford's being too laid-back as a campaigner, too willing to defer to his brother, too feckless at making an impression on the electorate. That, in fact, Joe Ford had not yet registered positively with the voters was the bottom line of two polls that appeared during the week. First had been one published by Herenton, showing the mayor well ahead of Ford and the other contenders, both among whites and among blacks. That one may or may not have been the mayoral "push poll" that had long been prophesied by Harold Ford Sr. But whatever skepticism it generated was somewhat canceled out by another poll, this one done by pollster Steve Ethridge for The Commercial Appeal. Though by lesser margins, it, too, showed Herenton leading among voters of both races. Surprisingly, even some of the Ford organization's dedicated cadres conceded that the Ethridge poll may have had some basis in reality. They preferred to dwell on the fact that Ford and Herenton seemed to be running neck-and-neck among white voters. They also argued that the poll results were largely irrelevant because of what has historically been the last-minute nature of the Fords' get-out-the-vote activity. "There will be a surge. You wait and see," said one veteran Fordster. Doubtless there will be. But what has meanwhile been seriously eroded is the idea, held seriously by many -- perhaps most -- local observers up until now, that Joe Ford could count on a built-in lead, perhaps a massive one, among Memphis' African-American voters. That notion has now been put to rest, and with it the whole notion of Joe Ford's invincibility. He may still win, but he will have to call upon personal resources he has not yet demonstrated if he intends to overcome an increasingly confident Herenton. * Contributing to Joe Ford's problem (and to Herenton's satisfaction) were the weaker than expected mayoral campaigns of former Shelby County Commissioner Pete Sisson and wrestler Jerry Lawler, both of whom were widely considered to be strong contenders (and drains upon Mayor Herenton's vote) but who have so far turned up as virtual blips on the pollsters' screens. Moreover, despite a published local report to the contrary, Memphis mayoral candidate Sisson appears not to have, after all, the direct endorsement of Governor Don Sundquist. That was the word from gubernatorial spokesperson Beth Fortune last week. "We haven't even seen the invitation. We're waiting to see one, and we don't know any more than anyone else," Fortune said of Sisson's $1,000-a-head fund-raiser set for week after next at Memphis' posh Summit Club. "The governor intends to be present, but he has several friends in the race," said Fortune, who shied away from acknowledging the words "host" or "endorsement" as descriptions of Sundquist's involvement in the fund-raiser or in Sisson's campaign. In mentioning his forthcoming fund-raiser at a luncheon speech to the Frayser (North Memphis) Exchange Club last Thursday, Sisson also avoided any reference to a sponsorship or endorsement role on Sundquist's part. The governor would "be present," Sisson said in terms similar to those used by Fortune. Sisson would appear to have significant local Republican support for his mayoral bid. But his ranking among the top four contenders (along with Ford, Herenton, and Lawler) has been seriously eroded by the impact of last week's two polls -- both showing former city council member Mary Rose McCormick more than competitive with him. At the Frayser venue, Sisson made a number of proposals. Among them: that the city charter be amended to mandate term limits for all elected officials; that a "youth council" be appointed in a liaison role with the mayor's office; and that the city begin putting on a "Friday night fireworks" display at Mud Island on the city riverfront. Septuagenarian Sisson, once a Public Works Commissioner in city government, told the crowd, "I think I built every street in Frayser, except maybe Overton Crossing." * Also taking a few hits last week was Lawler, who not only showed up poorly in the polls but suffered -- and on national television, no less -- what most viewers agreed was a defeat and an injury equivalent to that which he inflicted on Andy Kaufman back in 1982, when he delivered a series of piledrivers on the hapless comedian. Lawler's tormenter was Chris Matthews, host of the CNBC cable talk show Hardball. In a cursory interview during which Matthews never once seemed to be taking Lawler seriously, the wrestler and would-be Jesse Ventura clone not only failed to gain a forum for any coherent issues he might have had in mind to present but was forced to endure a series of questions having to do with the putative fraudulence of pro wrestling. * One of the races to watch among council contests is that between incumbent Jerome Rubin and challenger TaJuan Stout-Mitchell in District 3 (Whitehaven). Stout-Mitchell got her campaign formally under way last week with a well-attended rally at her Whitehaven house. There are some, however, who wonder if she's getting a late start, organizationally and financially. * Joe Cooper, a candidate for the outgoing John Bobango's Super-District 9 seat, escalated his anti-tax rhetoric last week, showing up at the special County Commission meeting last Thursday with four supporters and dumping several boxes of loose teabags on the raised counter separating audience members from the commissioners, who were meeting to consider a tax-rate increase. "It's our version of the Boston Tea Party," explained Cooper, whose billboards advertise the slogan, "No New Taxes." When Commissioner Linda Rendtorff responded by telling Cooper that she had spotted an illegally parked car bearing his campaign paraphernalia outside the county building, Cooper answered, "I'll take care of my business. You take care of the public's business." Cooper is opposed by former councilman Jack Sammons, who is thought to have considerable support and is so far biding his time. * Both of Tennessee's active presidential candidates, Vice President Al Gore and former governor Lamar Alexander, are keeping sails to the wind despite adverse political weather. As polls show former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley gaining on Gore among prospective Democratic primary voters in New York (the veep leads Bradley by 47 percent to 38 percent in the latest Quinnipiac College Polling Institute poll, down from 52 to 34 percent a month ago), the vice president has named an old friend, Memphian Charles Burson, to become his chief of staff. Burson, the former Tennessee attorney general, is in his second year as Gore's chief legal counsel. It was he who, fresh on the job, coined the phase "no controlling legal authority" to explain why Gore should not be held liable for technical violations in fund-raising activity from the White House. Alexander, meanwhile, vows to continue seeking the presidency even if he fails to finish first or close to the top in the forthcoming Iowa straw poll on August 14th. "I am not thinking that way," he told reporter Clint Brewer of the Lebanon Democrat this week, concerning the possibility of withdrawl. The former president of the University of Tennessee also disavowed rumors that he might be offered the chancellorship of Vanderbilt University as a sort of consolation prize for what would appear to be an impending disappointment for his presidential hopes. "No, that was not a possibility. That was just some talk that got started," Alexander told Brewer. * The vice president's wife, Tipper Gore, visited Memphis last Friday, greeting supporters at a $1,000-a-head fund-raiser at The Rendezvous downtown. She was introduced at the affair, which was closed to the media, by State Representatives Carol Chumney and Lois DeBerry. Two Memphians who were invited but did not show were mayoral opponents Herenton and Ford, whose prepared name tags lay unclaimed, side by side, on a table.