For those paying close attention, it was easy enough to sniff out local municipal politics at state Sen. Jim Kyle's announcement today that he was entering the Tennessee governor's race.
Former Shelby County mayor Bill Morris, who was presiding over the event, delivered two enthusiastic, though noticeably different, introductions for two of the most prominent candidates in the City of Memphis' special mayoral election - Memphis Mayor Pro Tem Myron Lowery and Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton.
Lowery's came first.
"We're happy to have here today, the mayor pro tem from the City of Memphis, who thought being mayor was easy," Morris said, his signature smile conveying that he was having fun with Lowery. "He was told that, but now I think he's decided it is a full day's work if you don't get the job done."
Lowery accepted the humor gracefully, saying, "Mayor Herenton was right when he said that he does - that he did -- make it look easy. Let me tell you."
Lowery spent his brief remarks focused on Kyle, but did say, "Let me tell you this. A C Wharton, my good friend, he and I do not agree on who should be the next mayor of Memphis but we both agree that Jim Kyle needs to be the next governor in the state of Tennessee."
Morris had more fun before introducing Wharton, saying, "Mayor Wharton, he (Lowery) sounds pretty good."
But then Morris did more than offer a token introduction for Wharton: "I had the privilege of working with A C Wharton for 15 years about, in county government, and I have to tell you I never had a day in our relationship that I didn't have admiration for A C and I thank him a lot for the leadership he's given."
For his part, Wharton never once referred to Lowery, focusing on the trust he feels Kyle has earned by, among other things, keeping his word that he would support Wharton for county mayor if he did not run.
Kyle did indeed choose not to run for county mayor and instead supported Wharton, who won that 2002 Democratic primary going away, with 80 percent of the vote compared to 17 percent for Carol Chumney, who is also declared as a candidate in the special mayoral election. Whether he was trying to make the point or not, Wharton's comment provided a reminder that Kyle had chosen to support him in 2002 over Chumney, who at that point had been a state legislative colleague of Kyle's for more than a decade.
Chumney was not at the event. Neither was Bank of Bartlett president Harold Byrd, another former state legislator who got out of that 2002 Democratic county mayoral primary but is strongly considering a run in the 2010 race.
County Commissioner Deidre Malone was present. Malone and Byrd have been jockeying behind the scenes as they prepare for a likely battle in the 2010 Democratic county mayoral primary.
Malone said she relished the thought of being involved in a 2010 August election where Kyle and Shelby County's Republican Dist. Atty. Gen. Bill Gibbons, a Republican, were running in gubernatorial primaries, and former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton and incumbent Steve Cohen were generating huge turnout in the 9th Congressional District Democratic primary.
Leave a comment