"Work With Willie" A conservative seeks common ground with Mayor Herenton. by ARNOLD WEINER On October 7th, 1999, Mayor Willie Herenton received 46 percent of the vote compared to 26 percent for City Councilman Joe Ford. Mayor Herenton ran slightly ahead of Ford in most black precincts and received 70 percent of the vote in many upper middle-class white precincts along the Walnut Grove and Poplar corridors. Herenton represents both the new black middle class that developed in the late '70s as well as a growing black conservatism that's been developing over the past generation. If an election like this had been held in the late '60s, Ford would have creamed Herenton in the black community. The fact that Herenton actually beat Ford in the black community demonstrates both the development of the black middle class as well as increasingly conservative ideas in the black community. Given all this, Herenton would have likely won regardless of whether or not Ford or candidates like former County Commissioner Pete Sisson were in the race. There seems to be a division of opinion within the conservative community on how best to deal with Mayor Herenton. Some of the arch-conservatives dream of a split within the African-American community in which a true conservative such as Probate Court Clerk Chris Thomas or County Trustee Bob Patterson could win in 2003. On the other hand, most of the business community would of course prefer to make the best possible deal that they can with Mayor Herenton. Over the course of the past several months my attitude has shifted from the former to the latter approach. I very much dislike the recent property tax increase but at the same time I think that the best strategy for conservatives is to make the best deal that they can with Herenton. I consider Herenton to be basically a conservative African American who occasionally has to make a few gestures to the left in order to satisfy certain elements of his constituency. On the whole I think that there are many conservative aspects to Herenton's administration and that he has attempted to be fair to both the white and black communities. I'll point to a couple of examples. About five years ago County Commissioner Walter Bailey introduced a bill prohibiting county appointments to individuals who belonged to restrictive country clubs. I thought that this whole approach was unfair because Bailey didn't talk about groups such as the black Masons. Anyway Mayor Herenton had the guts to say that a similar policy would not be applied to the city. Secondly, it took a lot of guts for the mayor to use a predominantly African-American police force to protect the Ku Klux Klan about two years ago. The mayor did the correct thing because if you curtail the rights of despicable organizations, mainstream organizations might be next. If you're going to beat up on the mayor for that property tax increase, then it's only fair to give him a little credit for some of the positive trends in Memphis. Unemployment is down, and the statistics show that crime has declined. In my opinion race relations are better now in Memphis than they have ever been. I for one experience less black racism now than in the mid-'90s or early '90s. There seems to be a more positive spirit in the air in Memphis. I'm a conservative, and I think that people like me can work with the mayor to enact some of the changes that we believe in. I'd like to see neighborhood schools restored and an accelerated attack on crime. Furthermore, I'd like to see a concerted effort made to attract more professional upwardly mobile people of both races into Memphis. In my opinion these changes can be effected by working with the present city administration. n (Arnold Weiner is an insurance salesman and Republican activist.)