Shelby County Republicans tabled a move Thursday evening to censure Republican county commissioner Mark Billingsley for showing support for Democratic state Senate nominee Gabby Salinas.

Salinas is challenging Republican incumbent Brian Kelsey in the Germantown district in a closely watched contest on the Nov. 6 ballot. The race has drawn support for both candidates from their respective state party organizations as well as so-called “dark money” attack ads from third-party political groups targeting Salinas.

The censure resolution introduced by local Republican steering committee member John Niven mentions Billingsley “publicly and repeatedly” expressing support for Salinas.

“While giving this support he has referred to himself as a Republican,” the resolution reads. “These actions render him unqualified from being considered a true Republican.”

Billingsley, who showed up at the steering committee meeting in Germantown Thursday as the discussion was underway, later termed it “ridiculous.”

“I am a bona fide Republican,” he said, adding that his expression of support was not a formal endorsement.

In a social media posting by the Salinas campaign, Billingsley says he has been friends with Salinas for 10 years.

“Gabby is a Democrat and I’m a Republican. Our political parties don’t define our ability to be friends,” the statement reads. “She’s one of the smartest people I know and she has been a champion for others. Her journey is just beginning and it’s going to be even more powerful.”

Shelby County Republican Party chairman Lee Mills agreed that Billingsley stopped short of endorsing Salinas, according to attorneys whom he described as “people who parse words.”

“It’s implicit,” he said. “But it’s not technically an endorsement.”

Billingsley pointed to Republican incumbent Sheriff Bill Oldham’s endorsement and backing of Democratic nominee for Sheriff Floyd Bonner in the August county general elections, in which Bonner and other Democrats swept all 10 countywide offices on the ballot.

“Either you are a Republican or you are not a Republican.” 
John Niven, Local Republican steering committee member

He also mentioned the local Republican Party’s endorsement of Jim Strickland, a former local Democratic Party chairman, in the nonpartisan 2015 city of Memphis elections.

“I’m a reliable vote,” Billingsley said, referring to his votes on the County Commission. “Are we always going to put the people under the party?”

Niven said the resolution was “nothing personal.”

“Either you are a Republican or you are not a Republican,” he added.

The resolution was tabled until the December meeting of the committee after it became apparent there was disagreement within the group on its merits.

Niven said his resolution wouldn’t have kicked Billingsley out of the party. Only the state party can declare someone is not a bona fide Republican, and a bona fide Republican is considered someone who has voted Republican in three of the last four primary elections or someone who is vouched for by a bona fide Republican.

Steering committee member Randy Hendon said the last attempt to censure a local party member was in 1994 when then-City Council member Jack Sammons, a Republican, ran for Shelby County mayor as an independent with help from Democratic U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Sr. The local party backed attorney John Bobango in the 1995 nonpartisan city elections in a challenge to Sammons and Bobango won. Sammons later returned to the Republican fold.

“This is a can of worms that we all are going to lose from,” Hendon said of the Billingsley resolution as he moved to table it.

The committee voted 14-8 to table the measure.