Here Comes Sidney! Ex-Teamster Chism, a Herenton ally, makes another move for local Democratic power. by JACKSON BAKER We've seen this scenario before: a national Democratic convention looms, and as Shelby Countians gather to elect delegates to it, the hall is packed by ad hoc voters loyal to one Sidney Chism. Not only does Chism call the tune for the summer's national convention, he starts a steamroller on its way to taking over the reins of the local Democratic Party. In 1992 Chism (in partnership with the Rev. Bill Adkins) followed up on his convention triumph to organize a mass movement of new Democratic activists, mainly unaffiliated African Americans, who turned out to help the then Teamster leader overwhelm the party establishment in the chairman's race of late 1993. But that victory proved transitory. Chairman Chism ran into the Republican sweep year of 1994, which saw his Democratic Party make a feeble effort to "endorse" candidates for countywide office and get swamped, race by race, by a surging Shelby County Republican party with a well-organized and -financed slate of official nominees. So traumatic was the experience that Chism opted out of the chairmanship a year early. He was succeeded in late 1994 by attorney Jim Strickland, a young white attorney, who was succeeded in his own turn a year later by veteran Democrat Bill Farris. That last transfer of power was at the instigation of then U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Sr., who wanted to put Farris' once-legendary fund-raising ability at the disposal of his son, future congressman Harold Ford Jr., then planning his 1996 run. Here we are again, though, eight years after the 1992 convention coup, and Chism is at it again. This time his major partner (though so far a silent one) is Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, with whom ex-Teamster Chism, who has taken a leading role in all of Herenton's mayoral races, has always been tight. Chism showed up at last Saturday's delegate-selection convention at East High School with at least 100 people personally pledged to himself. While there, he cut deals for reciprocal support with other Democrats -- notably Strickland, who wants to be a delegate from the 9th congressional district, and Bartlett banker Harold Byrd, who seeks to represent the 7th District. And the forces who have, off and on, dominated the local Democratic Party in recent years -- the Ford faction, the Farris family, and the local public-education establishment -- were largely not on hand, either because they were taken by surprise or because they did not regard the delegate-selection process as crucial to party power. Clearly, however, Chism, Herenton, and their allies see things otherwise and hope the precedent of 1992 can be repeated in January, when, operating in response to new state Democratic Party rules, the local party will convene to elect a new executive committee -- and a new chairman. One of the beneficiaries of the Chism coup Saturday was Gale Jones Carson, a veteran local activist who has made two prior attempts at the party chairmanship and was turned back by a Ford-Farris combine. Carson, who is running to be a delegate from the 8th Congressional District, is highly likely to be a chairmanship candidate in January. In addition to the backing she had before, she now has the additional credential of being Herenton's official spokesperson. Altogether, there were 500-odd people present in the East High auditorium, more than enough to fill the local-convention quotas for both the 7th and 9th Districts if not quite enough to provide a maximum voting contingent for the 8th. After several people from the 9th District voluntarily took themselves out of the running, there were 393 remaining, who will return to East High this Saturday to select a final convention slate of four male delegates and four female delegates, along with assorted alternates. (Delegates to the 7th District nominating session will go to Spring Hill on Saturday, and those in the 8th District will convene in Jackson.) Some of the likely contests Saturday will pit members of Chism's new coalition against established Democrats and will prefigure other power plays later on this year and next. Chism's male slate for the 9th District is as follows: Chism himself, Strickland, activist and Blue Cross/Blue Shield lobbyist Calvin Anderson, and Michael Gray, a member of Mayor Herenton's bodyguard detail. This slate may be challenged by a variety of other Democrats, including current chairman David Cocke, activists John Freeman and Del Gill, Paul Schaefer of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, city councilman Myron Lowery, and city court clerk Thomas Long. It should be said that none of these candidates has decided yet to make the effort and that they are not -- except here and there and informally -- operating in concert. Although Chism may choose to barter with some of these individuals for positions, the fact is he has the votes, and that fact may dissuade several would-be delegates from running. Chism's slate of women in the 9th includes activist Charlotte Harper, Charlette Johnson of the AFSCME public employees union, St. Jude publicist Deidre Malone, and Kristee Niter, a youthful cadre from last fall's "10,000 Women for Herenton" campaign organization. Velma Lois Jones, president of the Tennessee Education Association, is another possible contender for one of the women's positions. In the 8th District delegate-selection convention in Jackson, Carson will probably be colliding head-on in a race with Janice Lucas, an established Democrat who is one of Vice President Al Gore's chief Tennessee organizers. Chairman Cocke, who is close to both the Ford and the Farris factions, was put in an odd position by Saturday's turnout and by the segues it forecast. On the one hand, he was moved to declare his satisfaction with the fact of such a huge turnout. On the other, he was bound to realize that it may bode ill for himself and his allies in months to come. The failure of the Ford organization to turn out its troops on Saturday was somewhat mystifying to observers, though it may have stemmed from a relative lack of interest in an outcome which has more to do with ceremony than with power. That kind of diffidence may have been a mistake, however. It is no secret that Herenton, who won re-election easily over city councilman Joe Ford and others last year, would love to punish the Ford organization further, and may draw not only satisfaction but real strength from a showy triumph by Chism and the rest of the mayor's allies. The last thing that Vice President Al Gore wants as he makes his presidential run this year is local Democratic factionalism. That is one reason why the winners of this test of strength, a "beauty contest" in terms of real power, may nevertheless be sitting pretty later on. * Last week's victories by State Senators Tom Leatherwood and Roscoe Dixon in the Republican primary for assessor and Democratic primary for General Sessions Court clerk, respectively, set up interesting matches for the August 3rd general election. Leatherwood, a fanatical supporter of the abortive 1997 "toy town" bill and a diehard legislative opponent of all of the several proposals which Governor Don Sundquist has described by the term "tax reform," cannot be regarded as a shoo-in for the job -- which he doesn't pretend to know much about, any more than did Democratic incumbent Rita Clark when she was elected in 1996 in an upset over the Republican who then held the position, Harold Sterling. Both Leatherwood and Clark (who was unopposed in the Democratic primary) will have to reckon in August with Michael Hooks, who sandwiched his four-year term in between a win and a loss, some two assessors back. Hooks, currently serving as a Shelby County commissioner, has experienced physical, financial, and even legal problems in the last few years (a celebrated physical altercation with two ostensible strangers in his garage a while back gave rise to some nonstop gossip and speculation). Despite all his setbacks, he is favored by many observers to win the August general election. (Another independent candidate, the well-regarded Bob Kahn, is running, but he is generally regarded as having little chance.) What makes Hooks a factor is that, in a county which so often votes by color, he is the sole African American in the field; moreover, he has a famous and distinguished family name (he is the nephew of the Rev. Ben Hooks, the longtime national NAACP head who, among other honors, is currently president of the National Civil Rights Museum). And, as a former assessor, Hooks can be said to understand the subject matter. Dixon's victory sets up a race on the general election ballot against incumbent General Sessions clerk Chris Turner, now a Republican but formerly a long-time Democratic state representative. What a Dixon-Turner race will inevitably become is a matchup between the two major demographic blocs in Shelby County -- black inner-city Democrats and white suburban Republicans. This year's races could tell quite a bit about what might happen in 2002 , the next major election year for county mayor, sheriff, and other countywide offices. * You can e-mail Jackson Baker at baker@memphisflyer.com. Hassell To Seek House Seat Again It was just last week that State Representative Joyce Hassell (R-East Memphis, Germantown), having long ago announced she was stepping down from her District 96 seat, went down to defeat in a race for Shelby County assessor, finishing third overall in a five-person Republican primary field. Well, now Hassell has dusted herself off and, with the April 6th filing deadline for legislative primaries still safely in the future, announces that she will run again for her legislative seat in the August GOP primary, after all. "I just had so many constituents call me and tell me, 'Joyce, you've represented us so well, we wish you'd go ahead and run for re-election," Hassell said this week. And, besides the residents of her district, she had at least two other high-profile backers urging her to make the race. Their names? Governor Don Sundquist, a fellow Republican, and Speaker of the House Jimmy Naifeh of Covington, perhaps the legislature's most influential Democrat. "They did ask me to run," acknowledges Hassell, a moderate Republican who often is counted on for swing votes. And so she was persuaded and began to make phone calls informing various partymates, both in Nashville and in Shelby County. She will have a race on her hands, though. Paul Stanley, executive director of the Associated Building Contractors, who has already filed to run in the GOP primary in District 96, says he won't back out. And Stanley may take heart from the results of the assessor's race, which show that Hassell finished third in her own district, getting 24 percent of the vote, compared to real estate appraiser Grady Frisby's 39 percent, and 37 percent for the Republican primary winner, State Senator Tom Leatherwood. "I do find that disturbing," says Hassell, who attributes the outcome to organized efforts on behalf of her opponents and to an especially low turnout (8 percent) among voters. She says she has every reason to believe that the legislative race will draw more voters and more from her own long-established constituency. * —J.B.