Commercial Real Estate in Memphis and our Galaxy

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

Will Hicks — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:30:34 +0000

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

Jerry Lawler

Myron Lowery

Sharon Webb

Ken Whalum, Jr.

A.C. Wharton

Out (3 biggies)

Kemp Conrad

Larry Godwin

Jim Strickland

Unannounced (4)

Edmund Ford Sr.

Edmund Ford Jr.

Thomas Long

Herman Morris

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

Will Hicks — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:32:01 +0000

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:

Larry Godwin. Memphis PD Director. Was considering, decided against it.

Willie Herenton (Allegedly. Don’t hold your breath kiddos). He’s packing his office and calling Cohen a racist. He might finally be gone.

Unannounced:

Jim Strickland. City Councilman. Lots of “Draft Strickland” action online.

Kemp Conrad. City Councilman. Former head of Shelby County Republican Party.

Herman Morris. Former head of MLGW. Lost to Herenton and Chumney in 2007 election.

James Harvey. Member of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners. Needs some attention.

Wanda Halbert. City Councilwoman. Got her son off for marijuana possession after he’d been arrested.

Edmund Ford Sr. Ex-City Councilman. Only guy to beat the rap on Tennessee Waltz bribery case.

Prince Mongo. Four-time candidate for Mayor and Memphis and alleged citizen of the Planet Zambodia.

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

Will Hicks — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:41:14 +0000

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.

2. His candidacy adds to the national embarrassment of Memphis.

Of all the things Willie Herenton has done to this city, none of them have caused the embarrassment on a nationwide scale like his “I quit. I take it back. Just kidding, I quit” game he’s been playing over the last year. Every city has officials that get indicted. Every city has officials that “like the ladies”. But his constant double-mindedness over the last year has made a mockery of you and me and every other person who lives in this city.

And now, with the eyes of the country on us, a professional wrestler joins the race to replace the cause of our shame.

I grew up in southern California and followed the recall election/Arnold Schwarzenegger running for Governor closely. They had 135 candidates for Governor, including Schwarzenegger, Gary Coleman (“Whatchu talkin’ ’bout Willis?”, a porn “star”, a radio stunt boy, a “B” movie star named “Angelyne”, and a punk rock singer. That was an embarrassment to the state and to the entire process.

Jerry seems like he’d a decent mayor. He’d certainly can’t be worse than the man he’s replacing. I just hope he, like Schwarzenegger, will take the process seriously so we can take him seriously.

3. His candidacy could have a “Price Mongo” effect on the race.

It’s a well known part of the Herenton “legacy” that he beat the Incumbent Mayor Dick Hackett by 142 votes. Sometimes forgotten in that story is the presence of Prince Mongo in the race who garnered almost 3,000 votes, allowing Herenton to win.

There are four or five “good” candidates and a bunch of bad ones for Mayor right now. If Lawlers’ presence in the race causes one of the good ones to lose, Lawler will have no one to blame but himself.

Memphis City Council bicker over what “Resign” means

Will Hicks — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:00:48 +0000

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.
Collins said they should get the Mayor or his “second” involved with the debate because the 13 of them could argue about it all day, but they wouldn’t know what Willie meant.
Lowery agreed and asked Strickland if he would withdraw his motion to accept the resignation. Strickland agreed.

This is when it got interesting. Lowery declared that matter closed and that the council would be moving onto the second matter of business, a presentation by the Memphis Chamber of Commerce. Barbara Swearengen Ware didn’t feel like she was quite down and raised her voice, half-shouting “Mister Chairman! Mister Chairman!” several times. Lowery told her again that the matter was closed and they were moving on. She managed to half-yell “Personal Privilage” three or four times before settling down and staying quiet.

Summery: Nothing important happened.

Another second tier candidate thinks they have a shot.

Will Hicks — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:44:03 +0000

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

Will Hicks — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:47:42 +0000

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

Spoiler Alert: Willie’s not going anywhere.

Mayor Herenton: Are you kidding me?

Will Hicks — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:05:29 +0000

Willie Herenton isn’t going anywhere. There go my July 10th Memphis Independance Day party plans.

Myron Lowery and Herenton are having a “bigger desk” contest and the city of Memphis is the one who suffers for it.

Herenton has said repetedly he “wants to go out on his own terms”. He had a chance to do that. He just won an election he didn’t want to run in, for an office he doesn’t want to hold, for a city that doesn’t want him as Mayor. He decided to resign to allow enough time to prepare for his upcoming defeat by Steve Cohen. I didn’t make him resign. The city council wasn’t going to force him to resign. Now the city council may try and force him to abide by his original resignation date of July 10th.

Willie loves a fight and now he’s got one. The city council may give him a pass on this one, but when he tries to extend it AGAIN, past July 31st, I expect Lowery and the other non-cronies on the council to come out swinging.

2 more possible candidates for Memphis Mayor

Will Hicks — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:33:32 +0000

In my post yesterday I laid out the 11 candidates for Memphis Mayor and their odds of winning the office. I missed two potential candidates.

Prince Mongo.

His mom calls him Robert Hodges, but he calls himself “Prince Mongo, the ambassador of the planet Zambodia.” He has been a local, uh, “eccentric” around town for years. His most notable contribution to the history of Memphis was his campaign for City Mayor in 1991. Mongo recieved almost 3,000 votes allowing Willie Herenton to beat incumbent Mayor Dick Hackett by 142 votes. He’s been laying low lately, but he may throw his hat in the ring as well. Thanks to VitreousHumor on Twitter for the Mongo reminder.

Mongo Odds of winning: 1000-1

Willie Herenton

Mayor. Currently. His resignation is the reason we’re even talking about the special election, but according to this article on the Commercial Appeal, Herenton has considered resigning and then running in the special election, “depending on how many candidates get in the race, to keep it from getting crazy.” Yeah, because that wouldn’t be crazy.

He’s already filed for his pension and several of his cronies and lapdogs have already resigned as well. Those actions, combined with Willies’ newfound hatred for Steve Cohen and desire for his seat in Congress point to him finally going away this time. However, if he resigns and runs in the special election just to be a pain, he’ll win easily. He’s about as doubleminded and unstable as the good Mr. Mongo.

If he resigns and runs, he’ll win. 5-1 he’ll pull that garbage on the city.

Herenton Odds of winning: 5-1

Memphis is America’s 11th sweatiest city. Seriously.

Will Hicks — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:24:08 +0000

The Memphis Business Journal has a blurb about Memphis being the 11th sweatiest city in the country. You can see the full Top 20 list over here or after the jump. Number One on the list? Phoenix, Arizona.

The list was put together by the people at Old Spice, but their methodology is flawed from the start.

The Sweatiest Cities rankings are based on computer simulations of the amount of sweat a person of average height and weight would produce walking around for an hour in the average temperatures during the summer months, based on historical weather data during June, July and August from 2001-2008 for each city.

I’m not saying Phoenix isn’t hot, but it’s the definition of “dry heat”. Most mornings in August around here I’ll start sweating walking from my front door to my car at 7:00 in the morning.

Memphis: Humidity lives here.

Top-20 All-Time Sweatiest Cities in America

1. Phoenix, AZ

2. San Antonio, TX

3. Las Vegas, NV

4. Dallas, TX

5. Houston, TX

6. New Orleans, LA

7. Miami, FL

8. West Palm Beach, FL

9. Tampa, FL

10. Orlando, FL

11. Memphis, TN

12. Tucson, AZ

13. El Paso, TX

14. Fort Myers, FL

15. Waco, TX

16. Austin, TX

17. Birmingham, AL

18. Shreveport, LA

19. Corpus Cristi, TX

20. Mobile, AL

Who will be the next Mayor of Memphis? Wanna bet? Here’s your odds.

Will Hicks — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:45:20 +0000

The CA had a story on Sunday about about the Mayoral hopefuls “considering the odds”. I’ve got your odds right here.

Updated July 7th, 2009. Willie just “unresigned”. I don’t think he’s going anywhere.

Willie Herenton

If he resigns and runs, he’ll win. 5-1 he’ll pull that garbage on the city.

Update: Herenton just “unresigned” until July 31st. Yeah, right. He’s not going anywhere. It’s even money whether he’ll stay or go now.

Herenton Odds of “winning”: Even Money. Not taking bets.

Announced Candidates

A.C. Wharton

County Mayor. The favorite to win the race due to his already high visibility and his reported $100,000 “war chest” left over from his last county mayoral race. Some have accused him of striking a deal with Herenton before the 2007 mayoral election to keep Wharton out of the race in return for Herentons promise to step down before his term was up. Herenton has denied that.

Wharton Odds of winning: 3-2

Myron Lowery

Current city councilman, soon to be Interim Mayor. He will be the third black mayor of Memphis, following J. O. Patterson Jr. and Willie Herenton. It looks like he’s going to take a lot of action in the three-ish months he’ll have the interim job. He’s already expressed his desire to get rid of as many Herenton cronies as possible. Most people would call that a successful career even if that’s all he does while he’s in charge.

Lowery Odds of winning: 3-1

Carol Chumney.

Former city concilwoman, longtime Herenton foe. Chumney was one of the two candidates (the other being Herman Morris) in 2007 that split the anti-Herenton vote, allowing Herenton to keep the job by default. Hereton “won” the race with roughly 40% of the votes. Chumney had about 35% and Morris had 20% (John Willingham and write-ins took the rest). Also, we used to go to the same 24-Hour Fitness. She might still go there, I have no idea.

Chumney Odds of winning: 10-1

Ken Whalum Jr.

Member of the Memphis city school board. I don’t know the guy personally, but I do read my newspaper. And judging from the info in the recent Commercial Appeal article, Whalum is a poor man’s Willie Herenton. Racially Divisive? Check! Uses his current city job as a stepping stone to a bigger job? Check! Doesn’t show up for work when he’s needed? Check! Refers to his abrasive, caustic, toxic personality as “passion”? Check! He’s got everything he needs to replace Willie except for 18 years of media exposure and name recognition. Even Thaddeus Matthews thinks this guy is a tool.

Whalum Odds of winning: 250-1

Possible Candidates

Kemp Conrad

City Councilman, elected in 2007 and former head of the Shelby County Republican party. He’ll get the votes of the hard core republicans, but I don’t know how much further his reach will go. He will be able to pull in money and that will give him an edge over the other candidates not name Wharton or Lowery. Some people don’t realize that a city mayor can’t change the laws about abortion or gay marraige any more than a city garbageman. Kemp, you MUST update your website. Please.

Kemp Odds of winning: 10-1

Jim Strickland

City Councilman, elected in 2007. Some of his supporters have set up a “Draft Jim Strickland for Mayor” group on Facebook. As of 12:00 on Thursday July 2nd, it has 1,000 members. Strickland seems to have the most support online of the undeclared candidates. There’s the Facebook page, this site, this guy, and another Facebook group.

Strickland Odds of winning: 15-1

Larry Godwin

Current Director of the Memphis Police Department says he’s listening to “leaders in the community” that are encouraging him to run. Speculation is those leaders are dumb. He has a name recognition over some of the second tier candidates because he’s on TV every night talking about the latest murder that happened on his watch. He also has a huge disadvantage because HE’S ON TV EVERY NIGHT TALKING ABOUT THE LATEST MURDER THAT HAPPENED ON HIS WATCH.

Godwin Odds of winning: 50-1

Edmund Ford Sr.

Ex-City Coucilman and the one guy to beat the rap on the Tennessee Waltz bribery case. In case you missed it, you can see the CA’s video of him accepting $4,900 cash via hidden camera here. All he has to run on is his last name which still carries weight in this town. He’ll get some votes, but he can’t win.

Ford Sr. Odds of winning: 50-1

Herman Morris

Former head of MLG&W and the third party in the 2007 election that Herenton barely won. If he or Carol Chumney had dropped out, the other would have won and we would be looking in the rear-view mirror at the Herenton and his posse. His main appeal was he wasn’t Willie Herenton and he had a chance of winning. With no Willie to run against, and plenty of other good candidates in the race, Morris doesn’t really have a shot.

Morris Odds of winning: 50-1

Charles Carpenter

The lawyer who ran Herenton’s five mayoral campaign victories. See also: “Crony”. The only way he’d really have a shot at winning is if Herenton campaigned for him, hard. Seeing how Willie is focusing on his upcoming congressional defeat to Steve Cohen, I’m going to bet Willie doesn’t have much time for his old lackey. In fact, I expect Carpenter to announce he’s running, collect some money from his Herenton contacts and then drop out to go work for his old boss.

Carpenter Odds of winning: 100-1

Wanda Halbert

City Councilwoman. If you believe “All publicity is good publicity”, then Halbert has receieved plenty of good publicity recently. She’s the lady who interfered with the police when her son was being arrested for drug possession. She showed up at the scene and got them to take the handcuffs off her son and write him a ticket instead of taking him down to 201 Poplar for some free lodging. She has no chance.

Halbert odds of winning: 250-1

James Harvey

Member of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners. He’s not going to win.

Harvey Odds of winning: 250-1

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

Prince Mongo.

Mongo Odds of winning: 1000-1