Daily Memphian Published: July 23, 2023 4:00 AM CT
Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner opened his mayoral campaign headquarters in East Memphis Saturday, July 22, with a lot of emphasis on the city’s crime problem and a picket line of a dozen protesters.
“If crime is the No. 1 issue, then ladies and gentlemen, I’m your guy,” Bonner told a standing-room-only crowd of more than 150 in a retail strip on Poplar Avenue across from East High School.
“Starting on day one, we are going to focus-in on crime. We’re talking about criminals and trigger pullers — the ones that are out on the streets and in violent crime — we are going to do something about it,” Bonner said. “I’ve got some friends outside — they want less police. We want more police.”
Bonner said if elected he would immediately seek to bolster police ranks by putting officers and even some MPD civilians working at desks on the streets.
The city’s current goal — as agreed on by the administration and the city council — is 2,300 police officers with the MPD stuck at around 2,000 for several years.
“Ladies and gentlemen, let’s be frank. It’s going to take two or three years to hire enough police officers. And we can’t wait. Memphis can’t be allowed to wait that long,” he said. “We don’t need a mayor that’s going to take two or three years to try to figure this out. I’m ready on day one.”
He also said that while he would encourage programs to deter youths from crime, he would also act aggressively to counter juvenile crime, something the city has a limited role in.
Juvenile Court is a county government entity with a leader elected countywide. The decisions about prosecuting juveniles and at what level are made by the Shelby County District Attorney General’s office, also elected countywide and which is also part of county government.
“Those juveniles that refuse to do the right thing — they are going to be held accountable. They must be held accountable. Their parents should be held accountable,” Bonner told supporters. “If we have to go and change a law in this state… then that’s what we are going to do. But everyone must be held accountable.”
“There’s just too much going on,” he said. “We’ve got to unhandcuff the police officers and let the police do what the police needs to do.”
The protesters were specifically outside the campaign headquarters because of the recent death of Jarveon Hudspeth, who was shot to death last month during a traffic stop by Shelby County Sheriff’s deputies. One of the deputies was injured in the incident. The death is under investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
Video from the body cameras worn by deputies has not been released and the sheriff’s office has not identified the deputy who shot Hudspeth.
Attorney Ben Crump is representing Hudspeth’s family and called for Bonner to release the video and other information as rapidly as Memphis Police and the District Attorney’s office did in the investigation into the death of Tyre Nichols.
Nichols died in January following two beatings by Memphis Police after a traffic stop by a street crime unit that has since been disbanded. Five of the officers were fired and are charged with second degree murder.
Crump represents Nichols’ family as well.
Bonner was critical earlier this month of what he called “cheap political stunts” by Crump in the Hudspeth incident, which in turn drew criticism from mayoral rival Van Turner, who has been working with Crump as an attorney and president of the Memphis Branch NAACP.
Turner too has said the information on Hudspeth’s death should be released rapidly.
“If it can be done, you should do it. And here we have the sheriff saying that he’s going to go against what should be the example for all, especially locally,” he said. “He’s refused to release the tape and refused to be accountable for what has occurred.”
Bonner referred to the protesters several times Saturday.
“I want to be tough on crime. My friends outside want to be less tough on crime,” he said. “They want to let people out of jail. They want to let all of these other things go on and we’re just not going to allow it. We’re not going to allow it. We are not going to stand for it.”
Percentages in past big fields.
The chatter in Bonner’s headquarters before the speech and the protest was about the size of the mayoral field — 19 candidates at Thursday’s deadline to file qualifying petitions with the Shelby County Election Commission to get on the October ballot.
Specifically, what that many candidates means for the winning percentage in a race that has no runoff.
Mayoral candidates and those running in the 13 Memphis City Council races have until Thursday, July 27, to withdraw from any of the races if they wish. But historically the extra week in setting the ballot does not significantly change the field in any local race.
The 2009 special election for mayor drew 25 candidates — a record for a mayor’s race under the city’s 55-year-old mayor-council form of government.
AC Wharton emerged as the winner with nearly 60% of the vote. His closest rival was Myron Lowery, who served as interim mayor following the resignation of Willie Herenton in July 2009 because Lowery was chairman of the council. Lowery got almost 18% of the vote.
The turnout for the special election was 23.3% of the city’s voters or a bit more than 111,000 voters.
Of the 25 contenders 18 each got fewer than 1% of the votes cast. And 14 of the 18 didn’t break 100 votes.
In 2011, with 10 contenders for mayor, Wharton won a full four-year term with 65.3% of the vote in an 18% voter turnout. Five of the 10 contenders got less than 1% of the vote.
In 1999, Herenton’s bid for a third term as mayor — before city term limits were enacted in 2011 — drew 14 challengers.
Herenton won with less than a majority of the votes — 45.7% of the votes in a 40% voter turnout for the regular city election ballot — the highest turnout for a city election in the last seven ballots.
Nine of the 14 challengers got less than a percentage point of the vote.
The same thing happened in 2007 when Herenton faced 13 challengers and won with 42.4% of the vote in a 37.7% turnout.
In 1995, Herenton posted the largest percentage for winning a mayor’s race in the history of the mayor-council form of government — almost 75% of the vote — in a one-on-one race against John Baker.
In a field of 8 in 2003, he won with 68.1% of the vote with a 17% turnout.
Setting criteria
People’s Convention cofounder Rev. Earle Fisher says the convention and its sponsoring group, UpTheVote901, are encouraging voters to use their criteria to evaluate the field of 19 in the mayor’s race.
The criteria includes name recognition, favorability, fundraising capacity, endorsements, campaign organization and polling.
“This is about probability, not ideology,” Fisher said last week in announcing the criteria. “We take no position on stances, just a candidate’s realistic chance to win.”
The convention is to be held Aug. 10-12 and could make endorsements in the mayor’s race and council races.
Fisher said he hopes some of the candidates will use the criteria and “re-evaluate their likelihood of victory.”
“For too long, Memphis voters have been in the dark on who can truly compete,” he said. “We want to change that by uplifting citizens with facts. This assessment gives more power to more people who want to decide who they should vote for in October.”
Similar criteria are already in use in determining who can participate in various local forums and debates.
Those events tended to take all comers at the start of the campaign earlier this year.
A Saturday forum at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church by the Black Clergy Collaborative, UpTheVote901 and 100 Black Men was limited to contenders Paul Young, Van Turner, Michelle McKissack and J.W. Gibson.
Bonner was also invited but was opening his campaign headquarters at the same time.
Brandy Price, who participated in an earlier forum at the church, showed up for Saturday’s event but wasn’t allowed to participate.
That after a lengthy discussion with Corey Strong, one of the hosts and a former chairman of the Shelby County Democratic Party.
Price is among those making their first run for elected office and comes to the race after joining protesters urging the city council to adopt stronger police oversight measures in the wake of Nichols’ death.
Corbin Carpenter of 100 Black Men said the event used polling and campaign finance reports to determine who was in and who was out.
“We don’t endorse or support any particular candidate,” he told The Daily Memphian before the event.
“We wanted to have a discussion of substance. We had our criteria to participate,” he said, adding that community service experience was also a factor. “If you satisfy each of those criteria then you could be eligible to participate in the panel.”