There are a lot of reasons real, lasting change takes so long. First and foremost, as I noted yesterday, its a lot easier to change laws than it is minds. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 changed the law, but minds were lagging. From a purely political perspective, this change turned the Solid South from a Democratic enclave to a huge toss-up in the wake of this change. But despite this political condition, I think there are few people who would do it differently now.

From my perspective, it was more important to be right than to genuflect to a group who sought to maintain an unequal status quo. Its interesting that even though the Republican Party employed the Southern Strategy to gain favor with Southern whites in the wake of these landmark legislative moves, they never really overturned either the Civil Rights Act or the Voting Rights Act. To do so would have rendered their successful strategy moot.

It took nearly 145 years from the signing of the Declaration of Independence and over 70 years from the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 to gain enough momentum for the 19th Amendment to pass. But through dedication and resolve, pass it did, thanks to the vote of the Tennessee Legislature 90 years ago. While many saw the potential for women’s suffrage as an end to the white male dominated power structure of the past, this hasn’t really come to pass.

Currently, only 17% of the seats in Congress are held by women, despite being over 50% of the population. And while women have made great strides in the years since the passage of the 19th Amendment, the United States still lags behind our European counterparts when looking at the percentage of women in elected positions in government.

Laws do change faster than minds.

Today, at the Memphis City Hall, there will be a celebration of the passage of the 19th Amendment at 4pm. If you have some time, stop by and honor the women and men that worked hard to gain women the right to vote. Even if you don’t have time, take a moment to think about the next big change and the challenges that this change brings. Then resolve yourself to stay vigilant and fight for that change. As Mahatma Gandhi noted, “Justice does not help those who slumber but helps only those who are vigilant.”

On to the Coffee…

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We reported yesterday on the challenge to the August 5th elections here in Shelby County. Here’s news coverage of that suit.

Speaking of courage, Wendi Thomas has some thoughts on the subject.

Jackson Baker talks to Jim Kyle on partisanship and primaries.

The Tennessee Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the Memphis v. Memphis City Schools funding case. Here’s coverage from the Memphis Daily News, the Commercial Appeal, and our very own LeftWingCracker.

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Ok, have fun out there. Looks like it’s gonna be a nice day for a celebration.

Willie W. Herenton
via His Campaign Website

Over the weekend, The Memphis Flyer’s intrepid political reporter, Jackson Baker, had the opportunity to see the Herenton campaign in action. His report gives some insight into the attitude of the campaign. The verdict, they’re measuring for drapes.

From the article:

He began moderately but with a promise, appropriately cheered, “that we are going to win this election.” In its dire projections as to his electoral fate, the disbelieving media, he said, is confusing likely countywide totals with those of the9th District, which, “always remember…is a subset of the county.” And thus all those reports of higher-than-usual turnouts from white and Republican voters should be disregarded.

He promised to release the details of a poll on Tuesday, which would show, “data-wise with high predictability value of how large our margin will be.” That putative margin over Cohen could be estimated as between 3 to 1 and 4 to 1, Herenton said, “I’d like to beat him so bad I like the 4 to 1.”

Cohen’s well-documented financial edge? “I’ve never seen a dollar vote.” Nor could President Obama and the members of the Congressional Black Caucus who’ve endorsed Cohen vote. “But you can vote. And you’re going to vote.” Another cheer. “The black voters are going to determine who’s going to Congress.”

The win ratio that Herenton is talking about would mean that he expects to beat Cohen by the same margin that Cohen beat Tinker in the 2008 primary. That would be something. But Herenton wasn’t done. Here’s some more from Jackson’s report.

“To even make this race comfortably close,” Herenton said, Cohen would have to get “six out of ten of us.” And with “our folks …voting like mad,” that was not going to happen. “You got to watch these white folks,” he warned, speaking of alleged “irregularities” that occurred during the 2006 election. “Anything goes down, you got to watch white folks counting.” That was one of the lessons learned on the slave ships, Herenton said, somewhat incongruously.

“It will not be close. Look at the demographics of the 9th Congressional District,” Herenton said. Those Democratic candidates who stayed away from him, “the same way Gore stayed away from Clinton” were going to be in trouble. “The way they win is heavily dependent on the black vote. [But] they treat me like I’ve got a plague. But see, I don’t need them. All I need is you.”

Again, he promised to release a poll with “factual information” on the probable outcome on August 5. He ridiculed pollsters “Yacoubian, Ethridge, and Bakke,” and said, “Put all of them together, and they won’t come up with one good poll.”

I did some research of the voter participation list and found that 43039 people have voted in the 9th district Democratic primary during the early voting period. Sorting that data by the State House District that has the highest number of votes in the Democratic Primary shows that five predominantly African-American House districts are the most active participants in the Democratic primary. Who those votes are going to, however, is in question.

Three of the House Districts with the greatest participation have active primaries against the incumbent. This could account for some the higher turnout. Still, even this doesn’t give us a picture of who these folks are voting for, unless you count race as the only determining factor. If voters are heading out to the polls and voting along racial lines, there’s a good chance that it will be a long night for Congressman Cohen.

However, no demographic division votes monolithically. I know white people who support Herenton, and black people who support Cohen. So what does all this tell us? In the end, not much. Many assumptions have to be made, based on the data I have, to get to the 3:1 or 4:1 ratio that Herenton is talking about. Because the voter participating list that I have doesn’t include race, there’s no way to know for sure who or how many of any demographic division are showing up to the polls outside of the probability based on voter registrations. That probability is the fatal flaw in any guestimation of who wins or loses.

Either way, it’s going to be an interesting election night. So far, only 13% of registered voters in the 9th district have shown up to the polls and only 10% have pulled a Democratic ballot. There’s still plenty of opportunity for this election to swing wildly on election day. Believe me, I’ll be watching.

Several voters have apparently expressed some confusion about their options during early voting and, for that matter, on Election Day, August 5.

Most of the confusion arises from the .fact that there are in essence two different and simultaneous elections, a countywide general election and a primary election for state and federal candidates.

He goes into a great deal of detail explaining what Shelby County’s options are.

From the article:

The fact of Birch’s exclusion was first revealed by Cohen in a press conference at WREG Sunday night, scheduled during the hour that the July 11th televised encounter, previously agreed to by both candidates, was to have aired. Herenton bowed out of the arrangement months ago, citing what he said was “bias” on the part of Brewer and Sanford.

Subsequent to his pullout from the Channel 3 affair, Herenton had negotiated signed agreements for possible debates with several other TV stations and organizations.

Although Herenton himself would not comment on the matter Monday, calling the whole debate situation “history,” his aide Michael Gray forwarded to the Flyer copies of the proposed debate contract with WMC-TV.

I think there is universal agreement that any debate would be better than the current none, but considering the hurdles put up by the Herenton campaign, including the pullout from the WREG debate that was to have happened this weekend, ANY debate seems unlikely.

As Memphis Flyer Editor Bruce VanWyngarden noted in the comment thread:

It’s entirely plausible that WW never really wanted a televised debate at all and that this is all gamesmanship, don’t you think? Besides, a debate is a total lose/lose for Cohen at this point. He gave Willie a shot and he backed out. If Cohen backs down and agrees to a debate now, he looks weak for acceding to WW’s demands and, if the polls are correct, he can only lose votes by giving Willie free airtime to appear as his equal. What’s in it for him? Nada.

If WW really wanted a debate (which I’m beginning to doubt), he made a huge blunder in not recognizing that he’s the challenger and a huge underdog this time around and therefore doesn’t get to set the terms for anything. Standing on corners and waving signs and saying “I’m Willie, vote for me” is about as good as it’s going to get for him, I suspect.

Despite Herenton’s calls for more debates at other places, the simple fact remains that he pulled out of the one debate that was scheduled of his own accord. Any calls now are too little too late, and, as Bruce notes, likely more about scoring points with the electorate than actually wanting to debate.

The consensus of almost everybody who was on site at the Union Avenue studios of Channel 5 was that interim mayor Ford put on one of his best performances ever, looking mayoral and confident and scoring especially well with several improvised sallies, while Luttrell looked and sounded cautious, sticking close — with one significant exception — to the safety of previously established responses.

It appears that Mayor Ford’s aggressive anti-consolidation push and the response of voters may have gotten Sheriff Luttrell to take a stand, and not FOR the consolidation, either:

Previously Luttrell, while stating for the record that he had never been a “proponent” of city/county consolidation, had carefully held on to his options on the matter. While not quite a sea change, the Shelby County sheriff’s new tack was a definite policy shift — potentially as comforting to the GOP suburban base as a recent misstep by Luttrell on the issue of illegal immigration had been disconcerting.

Hmm, I guess moving to Bartlett and holding those coffee meetings with County residents is starting to pay off for Mayor Ford.

Even though he apparently had his usual problems with language, he still made a strong case for his term as Mayor:

The fact was, Ford made a compelling case that he had run an efficient government — one symbol of which, besides the Med (whose final salvation Luttrell, perhaps with justice, continued to dispute) was his newly passed budget, a something-for-everybody affair without new taxes or layoffs and with a modest employee raise.

Beyond that, the interim mayor kept resolutely and with some ingeniousness to his major talking points — that he single-mindedly committed to the task of governing and that he was “mayor of all the people,” mentioning Germantown, Millington, and Collierville as objects of concern frequently.

Read more here: this race is only going to get more interesting as it goes on.

Skeert of the Big City, Fincher ain't never been to Shelby this election

In a comment to that article, one person opined that perhaps Stephen Fincher (Who I will call SteFi), the candidate in question, was afraid to come to the Bluff City area.

Actually, it made me laugh.

However, after the startling revelation that the NRCC’s golden boy has recently voted in a Democratic Primary (recently as in THIS year), I think old SteFi might fit in just fine down here, though he may have to lose the “Aww Shucksisms” to be taken seriously.

Of course, SteFi’s opponent Ron Kirkland was first out of the box to criticize the SteFi. Kirkland has also been accused of donating to Democrats.

This is just another chapter in the ongoing saga of supreme and utter goofiness that is the 8th district Republican primary. Keep it up guys, you’re making us (Democrats) look good, if for no other reason, by distracting the public from our problems.

Alright, on to the coffee!

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The right wing nuts are at it again, this time they’re saying the oil spill is punishment from God for the election of Barack Obama. Puhleeze!

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton has endorsed the Democratic candidate in State Senate District 17. If you’re wondering why, A C originally hails from Lebanon, so he has a vested interest in the race. Of course, considering the Republican candidates, an Egg Salad sandwich would have more substance, so a real live human has to be better!

When I read this headline I thought, “Cool, people discussing the Courts over drinks.” Sometimes, I’m an idiot.

And finally, Knoxviews reports that the House has passed the DISCLOSE Act.

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Have a great Friday y’all!

And those are just the ones paying attention. Not everyone does and when I have conversations with people right now, there main mantra is

Paris Landing Bridge

“I’m voting for the other guy.” They aren’t talking party lines or Tea Party rhetoric, they just want basic needs that our government should be taking care of.

We’ve dealt with a great deal of narcissism from many of our elected officials in the 106^th General Assembly. Then there are others that work quietly behind the scenes, introducing legislation that is reasonable, but you don’t hear much from them because they are working at what we elected them to do. Of course, they don’t get the headlines and those are the folks most likely at risk in this year’s election.

I was talking with an elderly gentleman last week who worked in local politics for years. He cited that the tone had changed in the last couple of decades.

“There has always been a discourse in politics,” he said. “Now, because of 24/7 news and all the commentary attached to it, I don’t know fact from fiction. I just want to know the news. I want to know what’s going on and I’m just not getting that.”

And there in lies the problem. Regular folks just trying to get through the day don’t know fact from fiction. They just know things are scary right now. They know that they are sacrificing certain aspects of their quality of life, and they are tired. The average person knows the difference between a photo op and actual work, because they work hard.

They don’t feel like their elected officials are doing the same and their sick and tired of not seeing progress.

Because there is a great deal of anti-government sentiment from different factions of voters who don’t always have information, politicians aren’t very popular right now. I’m not talking about anyone in particular, but politics as a whole. During the floods, we recognized here at Speak to Power that people were hungry for information. Not everyone is online, as we’ve noted before, however how can someone read the always fabulous Tom Humphrey or Jackson Baker on both the positive and negative elements in the legislature if they don’t have the Internet and live clear across the state? It’s not like that can go an pick up a copy of the Memphis Flyer in Knoxville or vice versa. Television isn’t much better with satellite companies showing, let’s say, northwest Tennesseans news channels from Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois? This is important, especially in more isolated areas who basically hear nothing from their representatives or senators until election time.

“Why should I give these folks a vote?” my friend said.

BP’s public relations could be compared to politics as well. People are getting out their torches and shovels to bang the court of public appeal on how BP isn’t communicating properly. The corporate bubble is much like the political bubbles created in state capitals and in Washington. Let’s remember, BP is trying to stop the flow of oil so they can use that rig again when I’m sure they could kill it and move on. BP wants to save a well so they can make more money, the Gulf Coast be damned.

The public has figured that out.

Candidates know it’s a popularity contest. They know they need votes from average citizens, but they also may not know that everyone is fed up. You can sit in rooms and spin a story all you want to, but Joe and Jane aren’t necessarily buying it right now.

What they see is wasted time and opportunities and average Tennesseans are losing their patience. If folks would get out of the bubble, they’d see this for themselves.

Jackson Baker throws a peace sign at Bratfest
Photo by T. Sharp

From the article:

My question for the former mayor at the impromptu press conference he invited was this: How could he not have known, way back last year when he first agreed to debate Cohen on News Channel 3, that WREG-TV commentator Norm Brewer and Commercial Appeal opinion editor Otis Sanford would be the panelists asking questions?

These two had been the core personnel — the staples, in fact — of every election-year debate on WREG (and there have been many) since 2002, when the station and The Commercial Appeal became official “news partners.”

There was a brief but impassioned verbal detour, during which Herenton called me “inept” for having suggested (in several recent columns and interviews, I’ll admit) that there was no Herenton campaign to speak of. No money, no events, no paraphernalia, no organization, no campaign — unless you count the occasional stab at getting some free media, like, in point of fact, the press conference on Friday.

“How do you have the audacity to talk about the campaign organization of the longest-serving mayor in this city, who beat an entrenched Republican and had no money, who dismantled the Ford political machine?” Herenton thundered.

Deciding that I would wait until later to cry my eyes out at Herenton’s reproaches, I repeated: Was the ex-mayor seriously maintaining that he didn’t know who would be asking questions when he first agreed to a Channel 3 debate late in the summer of 2009? If so, why didn’t he ask about such elementary details?

Taking a full breath, I asked, Was this not inept?

A perceptible pause, and then Herenton answered: “No, I just reserve my right.”

Jackson’s analysis that follows this account of the exchange is spot on. This entire imbroglio is nothing more than a publicity stunt on Herenton’s part, and Cohen’s resistance to altering the debate schedule is pretty standard practice for a front-runner who, as Jackson says, “has nothing much to gain from offering his opponent… an endless series of joint appearances”.

A scenario similar to this is currently going on in the TN-08 race between presumed front-runner Stephen Fincher and Ron Kirkland.

This kind of political gamesmanship is not unique to these races. In fact, this same scenario is played out over and over again in races big and small all across the country.

There’s a conventional wisdom that debate appearances are primarily about informing the public of various candidate’s positions. The reality is, in most cases very few people actually watch these debates. Most only see the highlights played on an endless loop on the evening news.

Candidates know this, which is why debates are negotiated carefully and usually, well in advance.

Challengers typically want as many joint appearances as possible with the incumbent or front-runner because it gives them more free media, something they usually need badly, and elevates them to voters. Front-runners and incumbents are loathe to schedule too many debates, because why should they willingly give their opposition a platform to elevate themselves when said opposition is usually under-funded, and less well known.

But this scenario shouldn’t be the case in the Cohen-Herenton matchup. Both are known quantities; Herenton, as Mayor of Memphis for nearly 20 years, Cohen as a legislator in State and Federal government.

So Herenton’s decision to cede some ground by basically casting himself as the underdog is a recognition on his part that he needs more exposure despite the fact that his long tenure as Mayor gives him something that most challengers don’t have, ready name recognition and a solid voter-base. But its also something else; it is Willie Herenton taking the role that he’s most comfortable with, the guy who is trying to fight “the system”.

Invoking an “entrenched Republican” and the Ford family name in this forum was very calculated on Herenton’s part. Herenton needs to play the role of the guy fighting “the system” to ignite his base, a base that doesn’t necessarily always head to the polls for primary elections.

How this all plays out will be interesting to watch, as is any campaign featuring the former Mayor. How much positive impact it will have on the former Mayor’s campaign however, is yet to be determined.

Despite this, as we noted Friday, the State Senate has decided to take a week to “hammer out” their budget proposal. Of course, all the hammering in the world won’t stop Ramsey from asking for some cash to help fuel his custom made boot driven campaign.

Speaking of boots, Ramsey’s simple theme, “Give Washington the Boot”, seems to be a bit more complicated than you might think at first glance. Ramsey is leaning to a more “selective booting” rather than just giving all of Washington the boot. Here’s Ramsey, quoted in the Kingsport Times News reports:

“It’s a different issue,” the Blountville Republican and state lieutenant governor said of his pledge to give Washington, D.C., “the boot” in his TV ads. “I’m talking about things like the health care (reform) plan that will force the state to spend $250 million in taxpayer money. I’m talking about those unfunded mandates continuously coming down from the federal government, not things that are legitimate functions of government like protecting the national security and helping with catastrophic events like this (flooding).”

Unfunded mandates? Don’t get me started dude.

Alright, it’s time for some coffee…

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9th District Representative Steve Cohen launched his campaign headquarters with a bang, right up side the head of his challenger, Willie Herenton, calling Herenton a “coward” for pulling out of a debate that had been scheduled since September. Them’s fightin’ words for sure. We’re waiting with baited breath to hear what Herenton has to say about this.

It’s a He said He said in the back and forth over funding for The MED. At this point, who’s right and who’s wrong doesn’t matter a whit to me, I just want it fixed. I’m not sure tossing allegations around is the way to do it. Just sayin’.

Keep your buckets full, that was the message at the graduation of nearly 700 college students at UT Martin. This is a much better message than the other proposed ideas I heard like, “keep your powder dry”, or “keep on rockin’, rockin’ me baby”.

Remember that Coal Ash spill way back when? Yeah, turns out that storing it dry is the way to go. Too little, too late.

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Ok y’all, have a good Sunday.

*Shakes Fist*

This happens to me quite a bit. I get too wrapped up in the details of something and lose my way. I think it happens to a lot of us, actually.

It’s a forest for the trees scenario that becomes paralyzing. Sometimes, we just have to keep banging our head into the trees to see the forest around us. Other times, it’s really about opening our eyes.

Oh well, it’ll come, eventually. Until then, perhaps some coffee will help get the juices flowing…

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Voting since 1963, but purged from the rolls in Benton County. Sounds like shenanigans to me.

Jackson Baker reports on a craftily averted faux pas.

I think I’ll dub this year the “Year of nouns in bars”.

Huckleberry Hound (R-SC) is the latest Republican to place a hold on something. Ahh, progress…

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Alright, get out there and do something, just don’t try to write about it, because we all know that would create some kind of cosmic disturbance, and likely overload our personal flux capacitors.

After 10 years of informal talks, consolidation is back on the table. Last fall, the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Commission voted to create the Memphis and Shelby County Metropolitan Government Charter Commission.

State law allows the largest city in a county to merge with that county. The metro charter commission is charged with writing what could become a new constitution for the consolidated government. A referendum to vote on the document — as yet unwritten — is set for November 2nd.

Also check out the stuff that didn’t make the print edition.

Deidre Malone Opens Campaign Headquarters

Cracker has the story on Deidre Malone opening her campaign headquarters over the weekend in Memphis seeking the Shelby County mayor’s seat.

Jackson Baker has a story about several of the races in Memphis as well.

With the Med in financial crisis, and with a beleaguered county government (which just upped its own contributions from $27 million to $37 million) getting no or minimal help from equally strapped city and state governments, Ritz has just stepped out of formation and thrown what is either a Hail Mary or a bomb. He has intervened directly with the federal government — filing a “civil rights discrimination complaint” against the state of Tennessee and the federal Department of Health and Human Services itself.

I don’t think anyone knows how this will really play out over the coming months, but it’s an interesting step in a process that may well shed some light on the process of compensating publicly owned hospitals for uncompensated care. A process that has been anything but transparent.

Following the panel discussion, Wharton was asked directly what his reaction had been to Herenton’s rhetoric, with its essential appeal to African American voters in the 9th District to observe racial solidarity.

The mayor responded forthrightly but cautiously. “I’ve always made it clear that that is the antithesis of everything I stand for. But at the same time I refrain from being the standing commentator on everything he might say. Otherwise I’d have to go into commentating full-time,” he said.

Well, at least he’s got a good sense of humor about it.

Wharton went on talk about the impact of race and politics in Shelby County, but I can’t give everything away. Go give it a read!