The Shelby County Election Commission is to be congratulated for its
prompt and decisive action last Thursday in determining a special
election schedule in the hurly-burly of Mayor — soon to be
ex-Mayor — Willie Herenton’s latest bombshell announcement
of a retirement to take place July 10th.
Indeed, the commission was in the predicament of being unable to
certify the special election because it hadn’t yet heard from the City
Council officially. Soon-to-be “mayor pro tem” Myron Lowery, the
current council chairman, did his best to expedite that formality, and,
with any luck at all, this thing is actually going to happen.
In the course of an extended chat with the Flyer this week,
Herenton observed, “When I walk the streets of Memphis and it finally
hits people — the fact I am no longer the mayor, the fact that
Willie Herenton, who has been in the lives of people for the last 18
years — they can’t believe that I am no longer doing it.
Conversely, you’ve got some people jumping and shouting that I’m no
longer mayor. They’re happy as hell. But there are some people out
there who are distressed that I’m no longer the mayor.”
Well … maybe. The proof of this assertion will come in the course
of two events: the turnout for the scheduled October 28th special
mayoral election and the outcome of next year’s 9th District
congressional showdown between Herenton and incumbent U.S.
representative Steve Cohen.
Herenton says he foresees minimal interest in the special election.
We disagree. As special elections go, this one is unique. For the very
reasons that the outgoing mayor states, it will turn the page to a
whole new era in Memphis self-government, giving voters a chance they
haven’t had in almost a generation. (The 2007 mayoral election, which
gave Herenton a plurality of 42 percent, was, to be sure, an omen for
this historical canebrake.)
And the Herenton-Cohen race may well tell us whether race, as
Herenton frankly avers, is still the motivator it once was in
determining the outcome of political contests. Cohen’s 4-to-1 victory
over a well-funded black challenger in 2008 would suggest that race as
an issue has lost its force. And so would the last two easy wins of
Shelby County mayor A C Wharton over white challengers in county races
for which the white part of the electorate still figured large. The
fact of Wharton’s currently presumed lead over a proliferating field of
challengers for city mayor also would suggest as much.
But all of that remains to be seen. The thought, in fact, has
occurred to us that, for several reasons, the outcome of these next two
elections — the special mayoral election this year and the
congressional race next year — will be closely watched by
national observers for clues to the political future.
Yet another reason why, in addition to congratulating the Election
Commission for its dispatch in one instance, we want to challenge it in
another — the securing, in accordance with state law, of
optical-scan equipment in time for the elections of 2010. Such
equipment will ensure accuracy in vote-counting, and we do want
to be sure.
