City elections in Memphis begin unadorned.
Yard signs don’t bloom until mid- to late summer, when the strategic use of television ads and the much higher cycle of radio advertising kick in.
Even by those standards, Jim Strickland’s Jan. 15 declaration of his bid for mayor was spartan.
No signage, not even a streamer and no familiar faces standing behind him to signify the citizens who, according to virtually every candidate, have been urging them to run.
“Memphis is at a critical juncture. Violent crime is up and jobs are down,” Strickland told the group of reporters assembled at the Falls Building conference room along with some of those who would be vying for his open District 5 Memphis City Council seat.
“By any objective measure, the Wharton administration is failing,” Strickland said.
Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. responded hours later.
“If that’s his way of seeing the city, then that’s okay for a personal view, but that’s not a view for a mayor,” Wharton said. “Where he sees gloom and doom, I see hope.”
[For more of this story, written by Bill Dries, go to http://www.memphisdailynews.co.../apr/11/whartons-way]
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