Suburbs

Election Day for the suburbs on Thursday sure lacked a lot of drama, didn’t it?

I am not minimizing the contested races in Arlington and Collierville, but let’s face it — unopposed carried the day.

From Germantown to Lakeland to Millington to Arlington, many a race — whether a primary or a general election — had only one candidate, making for easy campaigning in those races.

Some of this can be tied to the legislative directive for primaries in school board races. To be blunt, not a load of Democrats are hopefuls in a party playoff in the Republican-strong outer municipalities. There may be a percentage of Democrats in the suburbs, but by the unofficial reading of the tea leaves, they are a small lot who would have an uphill battle to win such a race.

The same uphill battle that Republicans face in citywide Memphis AND county elections that encompass all of Shelby.

Suburban races will occasionally draw a competitive field, but incumbents usually have a distinctive edge. Even in races like mayor. If an incumbent mayor chooses not to run, the next candidate up tends to be from the city’s legislative body — an alderman or commissioner.

David Parsons came off the Bartlett board to become mayor. Maureen Fraser took the same route in Collierville when Stan Joyner stepped down. Mike Palazzolo was the heir-apparent when he ran to replace the retiring Sharon Goldsworthy in Germantown. Occasionally, another board member will seize an alternative group of voters against the administration and give the incumbent good competition as John Barzizza did against Palazzolo.

Whether the transition from alderman to mayor is part of the suburban DNA, or residents are generally happy with the way things are going is anyone’s guess. But the trend does often mean a less-than-interesting campaign season.

Kind of like Thursday.

Name the County Contest

Bartlett Alderman David Reaves continues to bring up the idea of the suburbs splitting from Shelby/Memphis. He floated the idea recently in a social media post.

Reaves resurrected the idea, relying on the old Neshoba County name first brought up some 36 years ago. That would mean creating a new county. But the Bartlett official put a new twist on the idea with the suburbs to the north sliding into Tipton, and those to the east becoming part of Fayette County.

Look, there must be some lingering interest about such a move, otherwise it wouldn’t still be discussed since a 1990 rally in Bartlett. At that time, education was a main focus — an issue that changed when the state Legislature gave the suburbs the right to start municipal school districts.

This time, Reaves is hammering home reports of mismanagement in the county and Memphis. As reporter Michael Waddell wrote earlier this week, the Bartlett official seized upon recent reports of money problems in the county, continued issues with County Clerk Wanda Halbert’s office and the recent federal charges against General Sessions Court Clerk Tami Sawyer.

“There are obviously some real concerns about the capabilities of the people being elected in Shelby County and no controls to be able to correct any of it,” Reaves wrote. “What’s going on in Shelby County government will destroy the entire county.”

Here’s the reality of this — starting a new county would be extremely difficult. According to Waddell’s story, the last time a county was created in Tennessee was Chester County in 1879.

A cursory effort to reach anyone alive when that Chester County decision was made was unsuccessful.

There are many other hurdles such an effort faces. Enough problems that every time this is brought up, it fails to get any real traction.

While it is easy to be critical of the larger government, as county residents, the suburban leaders have a right to look for alternatives. There just doesn’t seem to be suburban candidates who can garner enough votes to win a countywide election.

Sort of like a Democratic candidate would face in a suburban primary. - Suburbs editor Clay Bailey

We hope you enjoy reading the latest news from our suburban reporters. If you’re a Daily Memphian subscriber, we appreciate your support. If not, please sign up for unlimited access to all of our local news coverage.