Saturday, July 25, 2009

Mongo In, Strickland Out

My Councilor, Jim Strickland, read the tea leaves properly and made the right call to not run in a potential mayoral special election. I WOULD like to see him as Mayor some day, I think he has the right temperament and the solid decision-making ability necessary to be the city's top executive. That he made this decision at this time proves that to me.

Here's his letter to the Facebook Group that sought him to run:
Dear Friends --

Thank you for the encouragement and support during the last several weeks as I seriously considered entering the special election Mayor of Memphis. I truly appreciate the faith and confidence you have in me.

After speaking with supporters, community leaders, and other Memphians throughout our city, I have decided not to run for Mayor at this time. I reviewed all aspects of the upcoming race and concluded that it was not the right time for me to launch a campaign for Mayor.

But make no mistake about it. I am still committed to our city and to work with the City Council to improve city services and the quality of life in Memphis for everyone. I will continue to push to make reduction in crime our number one priority. I look forward to working with our interim Mayor, as well as our next Mayor who will be elected in October.

I will always be appreciative of your efforts on my behalf, your encouragement, and your support. I am humbled by it all.

Thanks, Jim

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonder who Jim will support for Mayor.

Anonymous said...

I went down to one of the early hearings on the MSARC in late May. I had a chance to speak to Jim before the hearing and afterward and to observe the hearing. Jim doesn't represent my district and I had never met him. I found him to be courteous, smart, etc.

It's fair to say that with the current state finding that there's believed to be no unaccounted-for funds at MSARC currently (guess they had time to track it down and repossess it), some steam has gone out of one of Jim's potential issues. However, he was also making a point about young girls being turned away from the center, and no one has refuted that fact. Without his actions things would not have even started to improve, and I respect that.

It was beneath contempt for the mayor to accuse Jim of only caring about white children, comparing a city pool drowning (an accident and maybe one indicative of city negligence)with a lack of provision of service by the city after a sexual assault. The race of the victims doesn't matter to the people who were upset with the mayor's cronies. Their unnecessary victimhood and maltreatment did matter.

Anonymous said...

Mongo in, Strickland out?

Maybe only the truly crazy would even want the job. Too bad, because I always thought A.C. and Chumney were at least (whatever criticisms you may have of them)sane.

Anonymous said...

hey, LWC, know you've been sick and busy but what's with this site today? Better have the Hulk clean it up.