Voter Turnout in the November 2006 Election

This map was a long time in the making (2 weeks), calculating the registered voters, number of votes, and percentage for each precinct in the county. It is interesting to see where turnout was lower, especially in east Memphis between Walnut Grove and Poplar. In addition, republicans in the county did not seem as motivated as democrats in the city overall. Also, some parts of Whitehaven had lower turnout.

You Can Call Him the Weather Maker

Last Thursday I was hanging out at Drinking Liberally. Much of the talk was about the Marrero/Spence race. Taking a step back and looking at the changes that have happened in the past year and half, it is kind of amazing the degree of change that has happened in the local political environment. Bowers is gone. The Fords have almost completely been vanquished by their own hands. The Herenton faction is riding high and Cohen was elected to Congress. The later events are of particular interest.

Cohen’s election has come at a cost to white Democrats. Cohen broke the unspoken agreement of white democrats holding seats like Senate District 30 and House District 93. With that agreement now gone, a candidate like Spence is going after Marrero. Some may have thought with Cohen’s backing, she was a shoe in for the seat. With early voting over, less than 350 people voted. Spence is running radio ads, robo-calling, and has signs around the district. All I’ve seen of Marrero is a few yard signs. It doesn’t seem like either candidate is doing much door to door canvassing. Late Thursday, we’ll know if Cohen has any political coattails.

The collapse of the Fords has contributed greatly to the ascendancy of the Herenton faction. That faction no longer is content to just have local elected positions and is moving on to state level offices after doing especially well with County Commission elections. District 30 was just the first spot open and some of the bloggers think 93 is next. But I don’t think the movement against these seats is driven by race or political ideology. The Herenton faction is doing this simply because it can. Why not consolidate power when you have the political forces to do it? I’m sure Herenton will push on the City Council as well. By the end of Herenton’s 16th year, he will be the sole, political weather maker. It’s Herenton’s world and we’re all just squirrels looking for a nut.

The question becomes, what are white democrats going to do? District 30 may be lost by Friday. Chumney’s city council position will be gone because she is going to unsuccessfully run for mayor. Mike Kernell will come up in 2008 again and he’ll probably face a primary challenger back by the Herenton machine. That will leave 89. One of Del Gill’s biggest complaints has been the over-representation of white democrats, especially on the Executive Committee. With the Herenton’s consolidation, I don’t think Del is going to have to worry too much about it anymore, aside from MSDIA. (Also, turnout in predominantly white areas was lower than in predominantly black areas in the November 2006 election.) So where does this leave Cohen? In 2008 he may be continuing his service in Congress at the pleasure of Herenton.

Tom Marshall Is a Good Councilman. NOT!

There has been a lot of heat coming down on Tom Marshall. He deservedly needs this attention, whether it is from his new “championing of ethics”, his shady contract with the city school system, and using his title as chairman of city council to try to block Methodist Hospital from shifting beds to Germantown.

I have found it most ironic that a person who has been on the council for so many years and has a blatant conflict of interest which has generated millions of dollars for his own company is so interested in ethics. There seems to be some question if Tom Marshall was on the City Council committee several years ago that wrote the current ethics rules. How can he be upset by the ethical grey areas if he helped make them? The rules certainly let him generate a pretty penny off the school system. Marshall’s previous role in shaping the ethics code needs to be examined.

While Peete and Edmund engaged in the crassest form of personal corruption, Marshall seems to have mastered systematic corruption. Just because you declare a conflict of interest, doesn’t mean it disappears. That school consulting contract worth millions didn’t disappear. The school budget is around $900 million and is the largest item the city budget. I find it hard to believe Marshall doesn’t peddle his influence to other council members’ pet projects in return for support of school budget. Now he maybe true to his word, but I have my doubts. Politics is about horse trading. (That big budget could sure provide a lot of political patronage.) This week he announced he’s dropping his school consulting contract this month. That certainly is nice of Marshall, but that contract was ending soon (this month?) anyway and he sure wasn’t going to renew it with all this heat. Perhaps he’d have more credibility if he would have dropped that contract when the media and FBI weren’t looking into the actions of local politicians.

Marshall’s contract raises questions about other construction projects done by the city school system. The Nutrition Center on Jackson was a $25 million project. The city school system built it in order to prepare all the meals and then distribute it to the schools. This was supposed to save money. It seems as though the Nutrition Center isn’t performing to the level expected, operating at less than 50% capacity and serving the same meals students got from their cafeterias. Marshall describes himself as an Educational Architectural Consultant (or something like that). What expertise did he have in evaluating the design of industrial size kitchens? How much input did he have on the Nutrition Center? There needs to be an examination of what happened when the Nutrition Center was designed, approved, and constructed.

The other thing really bothering me about Marshall is his opposition to Methodist Hospital shifting 100 beds from downtown to Germantown. The Commercial Appeal has done a couple stories about this already and the state board unanimously approved Methodist’s plan. When Methodist went before the state board, Marshall testified, as the Chairman of the City Council, against the plan and in support of St. Francis’ position. I don’t remember Marshall getting this fired up when Baptist just packed up and left downtown. Knowing how Marshall had a conflict of interest with the school system, does he have a conflict of interest with St. Francis Hospital? This is another thing the Commercial Appeal or Flyer should look into.

Naming Rights of Stadiums around the Country

I’ve been looking into naming rights of stadiums. Herenton has been throwing around the huge numbers like $200 million for the naming rights of Washington Redskins. (The contract is $7.6 million per year until the 2025.) Now these huge contracts are for professional sports teams such as the Redskins, Dallas Mavericks, and Carolina Panthers. Here in Memphis, FedEx pays $4.5 million per year in naming rights for the Grizzlies. (Check this site for values of naming rights- http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/sportsbusiness/news/story?page=stadiumnames )

As stadiums slide down to the minor league and college level the value of naming rights contracts drop as well. Here is what the site- http://www.namingrightsonline.com/ has to say about minor league stadiums.
“There are 107 deals in place in minor league professional sports including the top levels of junior hockey. There are 59 named facilities in professional baseball, three in minor league football, 37 in minor league hockey, five in minor league soccer and three in minor league tennis. The average known term of these agreements is approximately 11 years. The value of the average known deal is approximately $3.3 million making the average annual value approximately $280,000. There were 22 minor league facilities named in 1999 making it the year with the most completed deals.”

The biggest question for funding the new stadium is the value of the naming rights. The stadium would host U of M football games, the Southern Heritage Classic (maybe), and maybe one or two other events per year. Why would Herenton expect contract values like the Redskins (The most valuable franchise in the NFL) or the Dallas Mavericks Stadium (which hosts pro-basketball and hockey events.). To imply that Memphis will get a naming rights contract anywhere near the value of these stadiums is disingenuous.

A New Football Stadium?

A new football stadium? Is Herenton BATSHIT crazy! We don't have a pro-football team and we are not going to get one. Has he driven the city into the budgetary gutter already with his patronage and the goddamn FedEx Forum. Don't we have problems with our bond rating already. All the things wrong with this city and he wants a new stadium. (I hope we can get a MATA transit center in it!) With insane motherfucking ideas like this, it's a wonder anybody still lives here.