CORDOVA LEADERSHIP COUNCIL – POLITICAL FORUM – CITY OF MEMPHIS CANDIDATES
For Additional Information Contact:
Gene Bryan
486-9679

The Cordova Leadership Council in affiliation with the Memphis Area Home Builders Association invites residents to The Future of Cordova Politics - City Candidates Forum to be held Thursday September 13, 2007, at the Memphis Home Builders Association offices at 776 North Germantown Parkway. The event will get underway at 6:00PM. People are encouraged to arrive early and participate in a candidate meet and greet prior to the beginning of the program. Sponsors for the night’s event are the Bartlett Area and Germantown Area Chambers of Commerce. These communities in Shelby County share significant boundaries with Cordova and the various Council Districts.

Activities include presentations by the mayoral candidates, a question and answer panel with candidates from Districts 1 and 2, and a meet and greet with candidates from Super District 9.

Early voting for the October 4th City wide elections begins September 14th. Cordova’s early voting site is the Bert Ferguson Community Center located at 8505 Trinity Road. This is a new early voting location and replaces the Agricenter on Walnut Grove Road. Other early voting locations can be found on the Shelby County Election Commission website.

Cordova residents like other citizens in Memphis will have six races in which to vote: City Mayor, their District race, three seats in Super District Nine and the City Court Clerk race. City Council District One encompasses nearly all areas north of Dexter Road, from Whitten Road to Berryhill Road and City Council District Two encompasses the remainder of the Cordova area within the City of Memphis.

For additional information please contact Gene Bryan at esbryan@bellsouth.net or 901-486-9679.

Got a question for the mayoral candidates? Submit it and start a conversation.

In the spirit of the CNN/YouTube presidential debates, Mediaverse and the Tri-State Defender want to use the same style of voter-generated questions for an upcoming conversation with Memphis mayoral candidates. It’s called the Memphis Digital Conversation.

It’s not a debate. No podiums. It’s a much-needed, conversational forum, where the candidates will directly address voter concerns, not their own.

We need your video questions to make it happen!!!!

So, if you live in Memphis, get a video camera, or a web cam, or a picture phone and record your thought-provoking question in a 30-second video. You can submit as many single-question videos as you want.

(FYI: It is possible to make a creative, insightful and passionate video with your clothes on and using polite language that would make your Mother proud. We really like those videos.)

Upload your videos to http://www.youtube.com/group/memdigital. The deadline to submit is Aug. 31.

We’re planning a digital conversation for September. Date, times and location will be announced in the upcoming week. Visit mediaversememphis.com for updates.

Join the conversation, Memphis! Help us spread the word!

By Michael Roy Hollihan

Herman Morris strides through the doors of the Exum Towers, an African-American senior living center, and looks around. Only a few people populate the quiet lobby, none seeming to expect him. He sticks out his hand and introduces himself anyway. His wife Brenda and campaign volunteer William Connor spread out, looking around. They’re expecting something that’s clearly not happening.

It seems there’s been a glitch.

Such is life on the campaign trail. As Carol Chumney, Herman Morris, and John Willingham trudge that trail, seeking to unseat Memphis Mayor Dr. Willie Herenton, it’s a lonely and sometimes disappointing path, occasionally broken by friendly faces and cheering crowds. Nonetheless, they all walk it with purpose and hope.

When he entered his record fourth term, Mayor Herenton seemed nigh-on unbeatable. But a short three years later, a voter recall effort, rising crime, a child out of wedlock, and the MLGW imbroglio have taken their toll. He’s even acted out a fading boxer’s dream by getting into the ring with a far-past-his-prime Joe Frazier. The city’s finances have lurched from budget crisis, to windfall, to crisis again; from year to year it’s hard to know if a tax increase will be called for. He’s been criticized for not taking the lead in combating infant mortality in Memphis.

Herenton has never been as vulnerable as he seems today. Nor has he been more pugnacious. He’s told any whites who don’t like what’s happening in Memphis to leave. He called out his mayoral opponent, Herman Morris, with a schoolyard taunt of “boy.” (more…)

The Main Street Journal is the fastest growing, full color, monthly news and culture magazine in Memphis and the Mid-South. Subscribe online — it’s safe and easy!

Table of Contents: August

On the River
Jonathan Lindberg: Cluttering October Fourth

Michael Roy Hollihan: Clashing Paces, or Getting Memphis Online

Joe Saino: Politics Behind No Bid Contracts

On the Road
Nicholas Carraway: Oprah Winfrey

Judith’s Picks
Judith Conroy

Lead Article
Michael Roy Hollihan: The Race for Memphis Mayor: Part VI: The Contenders

Feature Articles
Opinion Editorial: City Councilman Myron Lowery: Concerning the Memphis Charter Commission

Edward F. Williams III: The Way Things Were: The Poplar Plaza Theatre

Ties that Bind
George Conory: Harry, We Hardly Knew You: The legacy of Harry Truman

Gregory J.W. Urwin: Israel’s Security System Truly worth Emulating

On the Shelf
Jason Middlekauff: The Cult of the Amateur: How today’s internet is killing our culture

On the Money
Chuck Bates: The Politics of Economics in Shelby County Government: Part IV