Which candidate has the best chance of getting the (Memphis: appointed, crimes)

[plattsburgher]

most votes and can effectively put away Herenton someplace other than in charge of Memphis? I know where he belongs but I don't think even a trained psych professional can help this man...........


Talk about your delusions of grandeur. Can we ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL at least attempt to get behind one candidate at this point in time??????????

I have to think that most of us agree that ANYONE!!!!!! would be better than King Herenton again..... Just pick someone and get the word out................I will even throw some money at an ad campaign...........He is ruining Memphis.

[BWM]

I think Wharton is the best choice. People say that the county is in bad bebt, but he inherited it and has improved the situation. He seems to be on track in cleaning up the financial mess at the Med which is a major problem. He has been a proponent of more sustainable development which is where a lot of the debt problems in the county came from. Sustainable Shelby is what it is called. He has traveled abroad to other municipalities to benchmark and study best practices for city services. I am not a rider of MATA, but I think he would definitely try to clean it up. He is very open about his support for tougher sentencing for crimes while using a gun and others as well. There are a lot of things we can do locally to decrease crime, but the biggest immediate policy impact will have to occur in Nashville. Wharton has never played identity politics. I was upset with him going on the Thaddeus Matthews show and not standing up against divisive language. He probably realizes now that he screwed up. I will not vote for Lowry. He sued Action News 5 for discrimination when they promoted Joe Birch to anchor instead of him. He also sued FedEx for discrimination. I do respect him for his role on the charter commission and getting term limits for mayor and council as a ballot referendum, however that was a collaborative effort involving many concerned citizens. I will not vote for Chumney. She just says "we need change." Wow, I have never heard that before. And for the record, I am a white male economic conservative/libertarian that lives in Midtown. Wharton is not my ideal candidate, but he is the best of the lot with the most support across racial lines.

[plattsburgher]

I really appreciated all of your points.............well thought out and substantiated.................

[kingchef]

what a disappointing presentation of the "debate" debacle. so very unprofessionally presented. it seemed as if the tv folk were as unprepared as the people presenting questions. the little short fat woman w/ the speech problem---complete and utter disorganization. the girl who could not pronounce entrepreneur. wharton---in love w/ himself now as much as he was years ago---as ineffective in this particular forum as he was as a public defender and attorney for juveniles. you would think a city ranked as the 17th or 18th largest in the united states could attract a news organization which could present itself professionally. birch, along w/ others, has a terrible habit of forgetting about reporting the news w/out his grunts, grins, and unnecessary comments. again, they should hang their heads and get some media consultants to teach them how to present a professional community presentation. it was about as bad as their daily newscasts of run-on sentences, misplaced modifiers, mispronounced words, subject-verb disagreement, dangling participles, improper camera work, out of focused pictures, unrelated content, and many times unintelligible mumbling.

[maximus10]

Wharton will win. Book it. It'll be a landslide victory IMO.

[plattsburgher]

One word: Unbelievable.

Does anyone else out there think that Memphians........and I am using that term loosely since we are all part and parcel of this metro area and its perception of itself and its reputation by others in the country/area as well

DESERVES BETTER????????????????????????????????? Well, don't we? Who is running TV Five now anyway? Who is the "news" director????

[kingchef]

wharton, whalum, lowery, carpenter, webb, halbert, chumney:

memphis is standing on the brink of its greatest potential...memphis is at a croassroad for tremendous growth...memphis is posed to help lead the world globally in transportation, biotech, etc...memphis has huge potential in a 21st century economy...memphis could, can, will, may, should, possibly. the verb these candidates seem never to use is the verb "is". none of them seem to give sound, solid, decisive, and accurate information regarding the state of the city and its projects, its concrete needs, its tangible, measurable activities. so often you hear---"we're working on that..., that is why i have formed a task force to begin studying this problem immediately...i have asked (fill in blank) to look into this immediately...i have ordered this to be turned over to (fill in the blank) someone else...we are forming a study commission to study and make recommendations...we have received recommendations, after having paid hundreds of thousands of dollars (fill in blank)...i have appointed a subcommittee to study the study and report back (fill in the blank) just in time to be informed that another city, county, state, etc. received "you name the item, idea, etc.)

one thing that seems to be on chumney's side is the fact that she can put together a complete and correct grammatical sentence. it seems as if she is capable of conveying ideas and concepts w/out using trite urban "isms" and rhymes. that's a good thing. she doesn't appear to be on crack cocaine, hard drugs, or sloppy drunk on hootch---out goes webb. she is fairly physically attractive, and she seems to dress appropriately---not so "full a lovish"---another good thing.

whalum has little going for him other than he seems to be slightly less brash than taterhead, and he doesn't look as much like the gorilla at the memphis zoo. i only hope, when he is on camera longer, that he won't pick his nose and eat the buggers like the bloak at the zoo. also, i hope he won't play w/ his privates as much and roll his feces, throw it at the visitors, and jump and slap the glass containment area. i guess we'll have to wait and see. i don't have any reports of him having done that at city school board meetings---always a first, i guess.

the citizens of memphis should automatically dismiss any of the candidates who have been on the city council, school board, county commission, or other public service entities. generally, most are contentious, overbearing, spiteful, malicious, and self-serving. none of these would-be mayors discuss the "now" situation in memphis. none offer a plan dealing w/ memphis' continued position as tennessee's largest city. halbert seems to think all black memphians are rocket scientist and all should have their own businesses. to her, i don't really think it matters if they actually have ability. as for halbert, she and carpenter might be capable of double-shifting and running jwags, nothing more. webb, show her where the door is at jwags, and she might remember where it is w/ prompting. jerry could be some of the late night entertainment. just have him pull out the old seq jmpsuit, leather, some pan makeup, and a little hairspray. lowery could be his tag team member. lowery wouldn't get to pan the camera as much in the ring. i hear joe birch might be available, also.

[Senor Boogie Woogie]

I just saw the mayoral debate on the internet courtesy of Action News 5. I am from Memphis, but do not live there currently, I am now in China and have been for eight years, so I am somewhat unfamiliar with many of these people, except what I read from the Commercial Appeal and other Memphis websites. Mongo was funny as hell, but he's an afterthought.

My parents live in Germantown (Shelby County.)

Of the candidates, I had these thoughts......

Charles Carpenter-Basically a continuation of Herenton. If you liked Herenton, vote for this guy. Carpenter seemed to be an articualte human being, but he is still a part of the Herenton bunch, and even defended Herenton and stating all the good things Herenton did in office.

I did like what Carpenter said about just tearing down the Pyramid and doing something with the land, which is all well and good if something else could be done with that land. I can envision a 2012 with a torn down Pyramid and no buyers with the property, a testimony to the millions of taxpayer dollars thrown away at that place.

Carol Chumney The "blinking lady". I was wondering if there were something wrong with her eyes all night. Seems like an East Memphis, local politician Hillary Clinton wannabe, who has done a lot with the talents that she has. The Republican conservative woman up there. She seems that she could be a ballbuster, and we need more women like that. I would not mind this lady being mayor. Probably wont happen, because she is white and a woman.

Wanda Halbert Don't know much about her, she did not really strike me as someone who is going to get that many votes, she might do well with black females. She is an articulate and a very nice looking woman, who would do much better going for the Congressional 9th seat after Cohen retires.

Robert Hodges The great Prince Mongo. This guy has been around forever, what you see is what you get. The comedy relief. However, between his bizarre statements and self, he made some sense talking about all the public monies that are forever missing and that the city is ran by a bunch of crooks, and he has been saying that for the past 30 years.

Jerry Lawler I'd love for Lawler to win. The man loves the city and would be an honest individual, a non racist kind of a guy. He's not a saint, he's been married three times, and has been arrested for a minor offense. (you can see his Wiki site for details, he is the only candidate with one.) My mother and her friends were on his local TV show and thought of him as a sweet, kind man. Lawler could make Lance Russell his chief of staff, if (the elderly) Mr. Russell is homesick for Memphis living in Florida. (probably not.)

Myron Lowery Probably for Memphis, the best guy for the job. For one thing, he is a political enemy of Herenton. Being that, Lowrey has been trying to "clean house" of the previous administration and has really been out there trying to make city government more accountable. He was very intellegent, knowledgable, and connected with me as someone who wants to make the city government accountable. He would be my first black choice and second choice overall after Lawler. When Lawler spoke, Lowrey listened. I just think in the end he would do the best job.

Sharon Webb I would love to have Sharon Webb to be my sweet aunt whom I see and have Sunday dinner once a month. Hpwever she's probably the most inarticulate person on the stage, which includes Mongo. She could not say any specifics beyond faint hopes "The first thing we need to do is educate the children." "We need a talented workforce in Memphis." etc. This is more because she is not a professional politician, nor was she well rehearsed. However, she seems like such a....sweet grandmotherly woman that on election day when she gets less votes than Mongo, I hope she doesn't break down and cry.

Kenneth Whalum, Jr. Inner city hip preacher dude. Even wore the "inner city preacher dude" suit and tie on. I could see him catch on with a lot of the youngish, inner city vote. There was something about him and two women in his church, a story that seemed to annoy him greatly. Personal note, I loved his voice. The guy should be on the radio.

A C Wharton Professional politician, probably the black candidate that is probably the most preferred of the white community. He has some ties to Herenton and I feel is basically the "loyal opposition" to Herenton. Like I said, I prefer Lowrey, and think probably superficially, these two are going to go after the same voters, liberal whites, rich, educated, middle and working class blacks.

AC looks very healthy and is quite handsome, while poor Lowrey is just not very telegenic. I would think that being the County Mayor is a much better job with more responsibility, since he is running a larger political unit, and being a county mayor also makes him the mayor of Memphis, since Memphis is in Shelby County. It has always seemed redundant and ridiculous to have two mayors serving a county with about 1.5 million people.


Breakdown of votes:

AC Wharton wins with 30% of the vote.

A C Wharton 30%
Myron Lowery 20%
Supporters: Liberal whites, educated blacks. pro-business. Votes mainly from East Memphis, Whitehaven, Midtown, Downtown.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carol Chumney 15%
Jerry Lawler 15%
Almost all white votes which will be split fairly evenly. Some whites will go to AC Wharton, not many though. Votes mainly from East Memphis and Midtown.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Carpenter 5-10%
Kenneth Whalum 5-10%
Wanda Halpert 5%
Sharon Webb Less than 1%

Inner city blacks will split among these candidates. Herenton is still popular in the impovished areas of the city, which will give Carpenter a bit of the vote. Votes from Orange Mound, North Memphis, and South Memphis.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Hodges Less than 1%.

Scattered protest voters, mainly stoners. College kids would also vote for Mongo, but this is a new generation, and Mongo is past his prime in craziness, shown 24 hours a day on the internet. Mainly scattered protest voters, mainly college kids and stoners

My choices:

1.) Lawler
2.) Lowrey (who of the people with a realistic chance I want to win.)
3.) Chumney

[plattsburgher]

win the election for the actual running of the city of Memphis and its huge number of problems and factions?

I bet you know more that a couple of guys who love Memphis, are honest, maybe even have been married three times (or hell.....make it four!), and maybe even have been arrested..................and you are saying that these are his strong qualities? Surely you jest..........

And you are saying that all of the above qualities make Lawler the best man/woman for the job??????????? As a previous poster said, this is the best opportunity Memphis has had in years, no..............almost decades to get someone with experience running a business or government and isn't afraid to get a bit dirty in the process.......It isn't going to be a pleasant task to butt heads and make decisions to turn this town around to being a place where people actually want to locate.............Almost NONE of my high school classmates still live here and there were over 600 of them.

Why can't we make this a place people want to live again? Does anyone think that is possible? Will take strong leadership ability not learned in a wrestling ring. I think Jerry and Mongo should have their own reality show. They are turning the race into that already................just add Elvis risen from the dead (or the Burger King in Kalamazoo) to run and man, we have ourselves a race!

[kingchef]

the new population estimate for shelby county in 2008 is 938,943. the city of memphis' latest population figure is 680,781. metro shelby w/ its contiguous surburban cities is estimated to be 1,177,000. during the mayoral program, halbert seemed to be confused on her numbers. none of the politicians addressed the issues regarding the flight of the middle class. recently, wharton even stated that those numbers were now reversing particularly in 38104, 38105, the south district, downtown core, and the pinch district. he intmated that the properties left in the inner city were being repopulated w/ inmigrating asians, hispanics, and other nationalities. herenton seemed to rely on the repopulation of the new housing communities that have replaced the massive public housing projects. he, along w/ some of the other politicians, assert that the inner city population shift was mainly due to the reshift of public housing units. it will be interesting to see the vote turnout in downtown, the southside, pinch, midtown, etc.