Former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton plugged a political action committee as he opened a campaign headquarters Saturday, July 15, in the Southgate shopping center.

Herenton also said his campaign will mount some kind of fundraising effort between now and mid-September when Memphis voters start early voting.

“We didn’t have any money,” he said, referring to the 1991 campaign that made him the city’s first Black elected mayor. “We don’t have any money now. But you know what’s going to win? People power.”

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The “super PAC” was identified by Herenton as “Save Memphis,” and he told a group of around 150 supporters that it will be involved in other political efforts.

He also said “anti-Herenton” donors are contributing to other candidates in the mayor’s race.

Herenton was critical of rival contenders Paul Young, the president of the Downtown Memphis Commission, and Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr.

Young has campaigned on being the first professional city planner to ever hold the office of Memphis mayor if he is elected, and he has said he is the best-qualified candidate in the field that now stands at 18 candidates.

Herenton referred to the claim but didn’t mention Young by name as he called him “young and immature.”

He also didn’t mention Bonner by name.

“When I was mayor, we had a complement of 2,500 (police) officers. I am telling you the city of Memphis police department is vastly different from the sheriff’s department,” Herenton said. “And I hope we will talk about so many people who have died in the jail. And we need to talk about that.”

The MPD didn’t hit the mark of 2,500 officers until 2011 when A C Wharton was mayor.

If voters return him to the mayor’s office he left 14 years ago this month, Herenton pledged to bring back the “Blue Crush” program of policing that masses officers on statistical crime hot spots. 

“We’re going to bring back Blue Crush, but it’s going to be a cadre of well-trained police officers who have supervisors,” he said. “We’ve got to have special units, but they have to work within a Constitutional framework.”

He also ridiculed Bonner’s campaign slogan of “ready on day one.”

“You tell that gentleman he’s ready to fail and fall on his posterior,” Herenton said. “That’s a recipe for failure. I had five police chiefs, three of them I fired.”

Herenton’s policy points in his remarks focused on crime and the claim that crime, especially violent crime, wasn’t as prevalent during his 17-year tenure as the longest-serving mayor in the city’s history.

Herenton and police director Larry Godwin switched to the Blue Crush strategy in 2006 at a time when the police force had more officers than it currently has. But Blue Crush was also one of several attempts to recover from a crime spike.

“They already know that I am for effective law enforcement, honest law enforcement, integrity, transparency,” he said of voters.

“I talk to a lot of white people. I want white people to understand we have Black people scared of these hoodlums,” Herenton said. “Why do you think when I pull up to the gas station I’ve got that Glock?”

Turner on Bonner

Bonner, meanwhile, is staking out a hard line against a quick release of body camera and other video from his deputies in the June death of Jarveon Hudspeth in a traffic stop.

And the stand is the first contact between Bonner, who is running for Memphis mayor, and rival contender Van Turner.

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Attorney Ben Crump and the family of Hudspeth called last week for the release of the video and more transparency from Bonner as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation handles the probe of the shooting in which a deputy was injured.

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office has not identified the officer who fired the shot or other officers involved in the stop, and there is no timetable for the video’s release. TBI officials said last week a request to make the video public can be made once the investigation is completed.

Bonner reacted strongly to Crump’s press conference.

“I strongly condemn these cheap political stunts aimed at manipulating public opinion and causing distress for all involved,” Bonner said in a statement. “My primary focus remains on protecting the integrity of this investigation and providing support to my deputy, who is still recovering from serious injuries.” 

Turner called Bonner’s comment “disappointing.”

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“I think it’s slightly dangerous to say what attorney Crump is doing is a cheap political stunt. This man has a record from Trayvon (Martin) back in 2011 and 2012 up to now,” Turner said of Crump.

“He’s been fighting this fight for more than a decade. That cannot be just a political stunt,” Turner told The Daily Memphian.

“George Floyd cannot be a political stunt. Breonna Taylor cannot be a political stunt,” he said of others killed in interactions with police across the U.S. “I think the sheriff needs to take a look at what he’s saying. I just think that those were not good comments.”

Turner also said Bonner should abide by the precedent set by Memphis Police Department Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis in rapidly releasing police body cam and other video of the beating of Tyre Nichols earlier this year.

“And she took action against those officers. As attorney Crump stated, that is the blueprint now,” Turner said. “If it can be done, you should do it. And here we have the sheriff saying that he’s going to go against what should be the example for all, especially locally. He’s refused to release the tape and refused to be accountable for what has occurred.”

Johnson’s exit from the city council

Memphis City Councilwoman Cheyenne Johnson will not seek reelection to the council at the end of her one and only full term.

Johnson was one of three interim council members appointed to the body in 2018 after three council members won county office in the 2018 elections.

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She was the only one to win election to a full four-year term in the 2019 elections. Gerre Currie and Sherman Greer, the other two appointees, lost their races.

Johnson made formal what had been rumored among council members for about a month as attorney Janika White announced her candidacy Saturday for Johnson’s Super District 8 Position 2 seat.

Johnson introduced White to a group of 75 in Hickory Hill Saturday afternoon at a rally that doubled as a surprise 80th birthday party for White’s father, John White Sr.

Johnson will be White’s campaign treasurer.

White comes to the council race a year after she ran in and finished second in a three-way Democratic primary for Shelby County District Attorney General.

“I think it’s time for a change,” Johnson said of her decision to not seek a second full term on the council even though she picked up a qualifying petition earlier.

Her decision means there will be at least five new faces on the council that takes office in January 2024.

White says the run for council incorporates some of the same themes from her run for DA last year.

“A lot of times on the campaign trail, I talked about preventive measures. I talked about what we can do to bring people together, being the voice advocating,” she said later.

“I was talking about it more from a policy standpoint. I also talked a lot about boots on the ground,” White said. “And now I can actually be the boots on the ground, in-person, in the community, finding out face-to-face in real time what people really need.”

“I think it’s time for a change.”

Memphis City Councilwoman Cheyenne Johnson

White was hired by the Shelby County Commission earlier this year to be its attorney. White says the commission is a client of her private law practice and she sought a legal opinion on the matter to ensure there was no conflict.

She is one of six contenders who have been issued petitions for the race. Four of the likely candidates also checked out petitions in other council races, primarily other council seats without an incumbent seeking re-election.

Retired Memphis police officer Davin Clemons filed Friday – the same day White filed – for the same council seat, taking him out of the District 6 and Super District 8 Position 3 races he had also checked out petitions in.

Clemons ran for District 6 four years ago in a race won by incumbent council member Edmund Ford Sr., who is seeking reelection this year.

The most council seats to change hands in the 55-year history of the mayor-council form of city government was in the 2007 elections when nine new council members were elected. Four years later, there was the smallest turnover in the history of the modern council with only one of the 13 seats changing hands.