Strickland exits as a tough political foe and dominant force in local politics
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland celebrates with supporters during an election night party at the Memphis Botanic Gardens on Oct. 3, 2019 after decisively winning a second term. (Jim Weber/The Daily Memphian file)
With an ability to cross racial lines, the outgoing Memphis mayor was a boss who knew how to delegate and trust experts but did not abdicate responsibility for making decisions.
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Samuel Hardiman
Samuel Hardiman is an enterprise and investigative reporter who focuses on local government and politics. He began his journalism career at the Tulsa World in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he covered business and, later, K-12 education. Hardiman came to Memphis in 2018 to join the Memphis Business Journal, covering government and economic development. He then served as the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s city hall reporter and later joined The Daily Memphian in 2023. His current work focuses on Elon Musk’s xAI, regional energy needs and how Memphis and Shelby County government spend taxpayer dollars.
Bill Dries
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
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