With Shelby County’s Democrats and Republicans bracing for an imminent showdown at the polls on Thursday, spokespersons for both parties got off last-minute parting shots on Wednesday —Democrats expressing watchful skepticism about the fairness of the electoral system and Republicans levying charges of vandalism at the headquarters facilities of two prominent GOP candidates.
Shelby County Republican chair Cary Vaughn contacted various local media Wednesday morning and expressed outrage about banners that apparently were attached overnight to the glass facades of the headquarters of Amy Weirich and Worth Morgan, the Republican nominees for District Attorney General and Shelby County Mayor, respectively.
Without providing specific evidence that the banners, which attacked the two Republicans in various ways, were the work of the Democratic opposition, Vaughn said the action was an “affirmation of things to come if the wrong people get into office” as a result of Thursday’s county election.” He said “anarchy” could be the result.
Meanwhile, assorted spokespersons for the Democratic ticket took turns at a pre-election luncheon at Osaka Restaurant on Poplar intimating that Shelby County Election Coordinator Linda Phillips and the Republican majority of the county Election Commission needed to be watched closely under suspicion of favoring GOP candidates in the election and depriving Democratic members of the Commission from having full oversight of the election process.
Typical was State Representative Joe Towns, who said, “Beat me in a fair fight, and I’ll shake your hand, but not if you cheat.”
Others who spoke at the Osaka luncheon, calling for strenuous Get-Out-the-Vote efforts, were the two hosts, County Mayor Lee Harris and DA candidate Steve Mulroy, both of whom are on Thursday’s ballot, as well as Election Commissioner Bennie Smith, State Representative G.A. Hardaway, and Trena Ingram of the National Bar Association.
Mulroy continued to seek an answer from Weirich to his call on Monday for her to recuse herself from the ongoing prosecution on harassment charges of talk show host Thaddeus Matthews, on whose online show Weirich appeared last month to explain the concept of “truth-in-sentencing.”
Mulroy said Weirich’s appearance on the show was a likely source of electoral benefit to her and constituted a conflict of interest in her role as DA.
Weirich continues to insist that no recusal is called for in that she had received no campaign contribution from Matthews nor paid him for the public exposure and that she appeared on the show “in my official capacity” merely to explain “truth-in-sentencing,” which is now embedded in state law.
