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August 17, 2009
House 62, Senate 31, Memphis Mayor Special Election Updates
A candidate forum will be held on Tuesday in Bedford County, where voters can meet the four Republicans and one independent who are running in the October 13 special election to replace former Rep. Curt Cobb. Cobb's brother, Ty Cobb II, will not attend. He is the only Democratic candidate. The primary election will be held on August 27. See the Shelbyville Times-Gazette for details.
In Senate District 31, the Republican field narrowed over the weekend to two likely candidates after Shelby County School Board chair David Pickler decided to drop out. Jackson Baker has the story in the Memphis Flyer (via Post Politics). Both of the remaining GOP candidates are members of the state House: Brian Kelsey in District 83, and Steve McManus in District 96.
As Baker points out, whichever of those two seats becomes open will be at the center of a partisan tug-of-war during the 2010 General Assembly session:
[E]ither Kelsey or McManus would be likely to resign from the House of Representatives upon winning the primary. That would hasten the way for an early special election in the vacated House district — something Republicans would push for so as to have a new GOP representative in place for as much of the 2010 legislative session as possible.
The Democratic-controlled Shelby County Commission would probably be inclined to appoint a Democrat in the vacated district to begin the session.
After Thursday's mayoral election bombshell, Memphians can't be blamed for being unable to concentrate on this Senate election or last week's expected official announcement by state Senator Jim Kyle that he is, in fact, running for governor. I'm speaking, of course, of the news that Willie Herenton, who voluntarily left office mid-term last month and is pursuing a primary challenge to incumbent Congressman Steve Cohen, pulled qualifying papers to run in the October 15 special election—to fill the seat made vacant by his own resignation.
There's no word yet on whether Herenton will go through with the qualifying process, but the mere possibility has people scrambling for answers to the obvious question—well, the second or third obvious question, after "Wha…?" and similar jaw-agape utterances. How would that work?
For more on the possible reasons behind this development, click through Kleinheider's link to read about a fascinating behind-the-scenes power struggle.
Political News , State House Elections , State Senate Elections , There are no words | By joe lance | 8:57 AM