Shelby County Democrats, whose biannual reorganizations tend to be donnybrooks reflecting legitimate splits (or diversity) in the partyโs local membership, are getting ready for another showdown ย with preliminary party caucuses on March 3rd, followed by the decisive party convention on March 31st.
Chairman Matt Kuhn wonโt be running again, but lawyer Jay Bailey, who made an abortive off-year attempt to unseat Kuhn last year, will be. Bailey has support ranging from blogger Thaddeus Matthews to longtime activist and pal David Upton to some of last yearโs defeated Democratic countywide candidates whom he represented in legal appeals, and he says heโs been courting the partyโs labor elements.
Two of the partyโs de facto factional leaders, Shelby County commissioner Sidney Chism and Desi Franklin of Mid-South Democrats in Action (herself a possible candidate), are looking elsewhere, though, and some say Chismโs ally and fellow commissioner, Deidre Malone, is considering a run.
–jb