Memphis lawyer John Ryder, who has served as Republican
National Committee leader from Tennessee for most of the last two
decades, has been named by RNC chairman Michael Steele to chair
the party’s national redistricting committee.
Ryder has been the linchpin of the state Republicans’ redistricting
efforts after each of the last two census revisions — in the
periods 1989-1994 and 1999-2003 — and was instrumental in the
party’s deliberations as far back as 1976.
More than a decade ago, then state Republican chairman Randle
Richardson bragged on Ryder’s redistricting expertise during an
address to the Shelby County Republican Party steering committee and
quipped, “That’s his idea of good sex!” (The modest Ryder would
politely reject that characterization, owning up to propensities that
were normal and red-blooded, but Richardson’s metaphor did summarize
the Memphian’s zeal for a subject that many others considered esoteric
and difficult.)
Said Steele, “I am proud to announce the appointment of John Ryder
to this Republican National Committee leadership post. John has been a
tireless advocate of Republican principles, both in the state of
Tennessee and across the country, and I look forward to working with
him to prepare state parties for redistricting efforts following the
2010 national census.”
• Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey of Blountville, a
Republican candidate for governor, last weekend touted a measure which
offers a financial remedy of sorts for himself and two Democrats being
considered for governor — state senator Roy Herron of
Dresden, who is already announced, and state Senate Democratic leader
Jim Kyle of Memphis, who is strongly considering a race.
Up to this point, sitting legislators were handicapped in competing
with wealthy and potentially self-funding opponents like Bill
Haslam (Republican) and Ward Cammack (Democrat). Current
state law prohibits in-session fund-raising by sitting legislators,
and, while the current session probably won’t extend beyond the month
of May, there’s next year to think about, when January to some point
between April and June would be a fund-raising dead zone for the three
state senators.
As Ramsey explained Saturday night at the Hamilton County Lincoln
Day Dinner, a remedial measure by Senator Randy McNally (R-Oak
Ridge) issued forth this past week from the Senate State and Local
Government Committee. It would allow fund-raising by legislators
running for some office other than the one they currently possess.
“That could be county mayor or congressman or governor. It could be
anything else,” Ramsey noted. Moreover, although the limits apparently
aren’t set yet, the bill would raise contribution limits, as well.
Ramsey rated prospects for passage in both houses as good.
• One dropout already from the 2010 Memphis mayor’s race is
city court clerk Thomas Long, who says he’ll run instead for the
county clerk’s job that will be vacated by current clerk Debbie
Stamson. “I think I can get matters straightened out over there,”
says Long of the county office, site just now of multiple employee
indictments for a variety of improper transactions.
• Both Shelby County Commission chair Deidre
Malone, a declared candidate for Shelby County mayor in 2010, and
Bartlett banker Harold Byrd, her likely (but still formally
undeclared) opponent, were among the attendees at a birthday
celebration for friends of labor leader and Democratic activist
Howard Richardson at Richardson’s South Memphis home.
The affair doubled as a reconciliation meeting for members of the
two Democratic factions, which squared off at last March’s local party
convention at which lawyer Van Turner, also an attendee, was
named chairman. Reportedly in attendance was a virtual who’s who of
local officials.
• Another who’s who list, especially long in notable Democrats,
attended the visitation last Saturday at Memphis Funeral Home and
Sunday’s funeral at Eudora Baptist Church in East Memphis for Jimmie
Farris, who died last week after a long illness.
Farris, the widow of Memphis political legend Bill Farris,
was, like her late husband, a longtime bellwether of local and
statewide Democratic politics. She was active for many years as a
member of the party’s local executive committee and a hands-on
participant in her husband’s electoral efforts in his successful races
for the old Memphis city commission and unsuccessful ones for mayor and
governor.
