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Kemp Conrad is out. Here’s your 10 candidates (so far) for Mayor.

From the Commercial Appeal’s “Eye on City Hall” blog:

First-year City Councilman Kemp Conrad announced in a letter to supporters today that he’s not running for Memphis mayor.

“I made a commitment to serving Memphis on the Council and that is a responsibility I take very seriously,” he wrote…

“I want to thank all of you who have encouraged and advised me over the last few weeks to consider running for Mayor of Memphis in October. Upon deep reflection my family and I have decided not to make the race at this time. I made a commitment to serving Memphis on the Council and that is a responsibility I take very seriously…”

Here’s your updated “In/Out/Unannounced” Scorecard:

In (10)

Charles Carpenter

Carol Chumney

Wanda Halbert

James Harvey

Robert “Prince Mongo” Hodges

Memphis Mayoral Scorecard: 7 in, 2 out, 6.5 on the fence

The Commercial Appeal has the story about longtime Herenton “pal” Charles Carpenter entering the race to replace Willie. Maybe Willie will leave after all.

A clear sign that Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton has every intention of retiring at the end of this month arrived in the form of a press release Wednesday afternoon announcing that attorney Charles Carpenter — who managed all five of Herenton’s mayoral campaigns — will run in the city’s special mayoral election.

That brings the announced candidates to up to seven. You can’t tell the players without a scorecard. If you want more details on these guys, I’ve got that over here.

In:

A.C. Wharton. Sitting County Mayor, lame duck due to term limits.

Myron Lowery. Sitting City Council chairman, about to be Mayor Pro-Tem for 90 days.

Carol Chumney. Former City Councilwoman, longtime Hereton foe.

Ken Whalum Jr. A poor mans Willie Herenton. Just as corrupt, without the power.

Charles Carpenter. Herenton’s best buddy. Ran all five of Herentons mayoral campaigns.

Jerry Lawler. Former champion wrestler. Also a published author, and cd recording artist.

Sharon Webb. Memphis City school board member. Received 510 votes last time she ran.

Out:

Jerry Lawler is in the race. 3 reasons that’s a bad thing.

Jerry Lawler, semi-famous wrestling star and one-time candidate for Mayor of Memphis announced his intent to run in the upcoming special election, providing of course, there IS a special election. He announced it on the morning show on KIX-106, but for some reason they don’t have anything on their site about it. The Commercial Appeal has a brief write-up here.

Here’s what I wrote about him a few days ago:

Jerry Lawler

The former star of the wresting world (It’s still real to me….!) is playing with the idea of running. He first ran in 1999, finishing in 3rd (of 15!) to Willie and Joe Ford.

He might run, but he knows as well as anyone that he’s not going to win. He’s been making the rounds on the local radio shows and I saw him on the 9:00 news on Fox last night. He seems like a nice guy, so it’s hard to fault him for using Herentons cry for attention as a way to get some publicity for himself.

Lawler Odds of winning: 500-1

I don’t know Lawler personally, but he seems like a nice enough guy. If you can ignore the years of wrestling idiocy, he seems like a sharp guy as well. Check out some of these interviews he’s had over the years. He’s not just a meathead wrestler. He seems to really love the City of Memphis and to want what’s best for it. That’s why I’m conflicted over his candidicy.

Three reason Jerry Lawler running for Mayor of Memphis is a bad thing.

1. He’s not a “serious” candidate.

The line that jumps out of the CA story is this:

Lawler said he will not actively raise funds for the race, stressed his “common sense” and pointed to his popularity across racial lines.

If he’s not going to raise money, he has no chance of winning. You can’t buy yard signs with common sense. Popularity across racial lines doesn’t pay for direct mailings.

With the (large) exceptions of Myron Lowery and A.C. Wharton, Lawler will get the most free exposure by the media, but I don’t think that will enough to win. There are only so many people that listen to Young & Elder and Thaddeus Matthews.

Memphis City Council bicker over what “Resign” means

I wasn’t at the meeting this afternoon, but I listened to the live stream online and followed VibInc’s live Twittering of the same feed.

I’m sure the CA will have a more complete description up soon (Update: Here it is!), but until then, here’s what happened. These notes are from my listening and the livetweet.

• The pension board has received Herenton’s resignation, but won’t vote on it until their meeting on July 30th. Lowery was a little bent out of shape because it hasn’t been voted on yet.
• Jim Strickland wanted to know whether the question of whether Herenton’s original resignation is enforcable in Tennesse has been answered. The city attorney, Allen Wade says no. Wade is considered on be on Herenton’s “side”.
• There was a small debate over
• Wanda Halbert, known Herenton allay, wanted to know “Why we’re even talking about this”. Lowery said to the effect of “We can talk about whatever we want. We haven’t voted on anything.” (That’s not a direct quote)
• Barbara Swearengen Ware (another Herenton buddy) wants the whole thing dismissed. She considers any action taken by the council today would be premature and they’re in no position to give direction to the election commission.
• Strickland (not a member of the Herenton fan club, and possible candidate to replace him) came after Herenton:  ”Nowhere in the charter does it say Council has to accept conditions of vacancy”. He read the defination of “Resign” from the dictionary.  He made a motion to accept the resignation, effective July 30th.
• After Strickland said his peace, someone (Wade or Collins?) started a brief argument over the defination of “resign”. It started to get dumb in there.

Another second tier candidate thinks they have a shot.

The Commercial Appeal is doing a good job of keeping the front page of their website updated throughout the day with the latest and “greatest” from Willie’s “Look at me” campaign, 2009.

They’ve got a story up announcing that Sharon Webb is adding her name into the mix for the special election for Mayor of our fair city.

Memphis City Schools board member Sharon Webb told The Commercial Appeal that she plans to run in the City of Memphis special mayoral election — if it does indeed happen.

Webb, pastor of Life Changing Word Ministries, ran in 2007 but finished a very distant fifth with 510 of the 165,397 votes vast (0.33 percent of the vote).

Webb had previously run successful underdog campaigns to serve on the Memphis Charter Commission and to unseat Carl Johnson on the school board

I’ll update the big list with her name soon. She’s going to finish near the bottom of the second tier candidates. She’ll get more votes than Prince Mongo and (maybe) Jerry Lawler, but she’ll be stuck in the pack with Charles Carpenter, Ken Whalum, James Harvey and Wanda Halbert. Sorry Sharon.

Betting odds updated

Added Ken Whalum and Jerry Lawler to the original post, along with updating Willie.

Spoiler Alert: Willie’s not going anywhere.