WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (WKNO HOST): The media spotlight has been on the Democratic National Convention this week. And while Tennessee is not in play as a swing state, Tennessee Democrats did get some national attention. With us again is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back!
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris, good to be back with you.
BLANK: Here we call them the Tennessee Three: Justin Pearson, Justin Jones and Gloria Johnson. They were supposed to speak Thursday night, but they did not get a chance. But for state politicians -- Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, especially -- they got a lot of press coverage this week. Rep. Pearson hyped Tennessee during the roll call. What do they represent to the Democratic party?
SANFORD: Well, I think they represent the future, especially the two Justins. They see them as the future of the party because the party is trying to attract younger voters and energetic younger voters. The national Democrats see them as the future.
BLANK: You spoke to Rep. Pearson this week, I read in your column in the Daily Memphian. What did you guys talk about?
SANFORD: We talked about what he was going to talk about last night, which was the need for doing more to control the epidemic of gun violence in America. That's what projected them onto the national stage in the first place. You know, they talked about that. And they talked about how going forward, that is the one of the major issues in this nation. And also Justice.
BLANK: Rep. Pearson is nothing if not optimistic about the future. You are not so much when it comes to statewide elections in Tennessee. Do you see any political implications, locally, from the Kamala Harris nomination?
SANFORD: Well, yes, I do and I agree with Justin on this because he told me that the energy is sky high now among Democrats. And he's right about that. I expect that there will be a large voter turnout in Shelby County in November.
BLANK: As opposed to what happened in August.
SANFORD: Oh, yeah. Well August was nothing -- what 12 percent turnout? That was probably going to be the case no matter what. But now that Kamala Harris is at the top of the ticket there is unbelievable energy, and it would not be a surprise to see voter turnout in Shelby County in November reach well above 60 percent.
BLANK: So this could rival, maybe, Barack Obama's first campaign for voter turnout here in Shelby County, I think is what you're saying.
SANFORD: Oh, absolutely, and and as a matter of fact, I would not be surprised, Chris, if it exceeds that, and again, possibly get close to 70 percent turnout, which would be amazing.
BLANK: Well Otis, switching to some local issues here, the Memphis Area Transit Authority is in big trouble. First came the announcement that it was 60 million dollars in debt, then came an audit by the mayor's office. And now this week the agency says it's laying off half of its 500 employees. They've shut down the trolley system completely. This seems terrible.
SANFORD: It is terrible and I don't know exactly what's going on because I don't have any inside sources in Memphis Area Transit Authority. But I do know this: it is worse than what we even know, Chris. MATA is in deep trouble. And so, I think the news is only going to continue to get worse before it gets better.
BLANK: Memphis, as you know, is a car city. It is just built that way. And I think for years, public transportation has been a very low priority with voters. Nobody runs for office on a public transportation platform. But, you know, advocates will say that it is vital for many low income people, or elderly people. But given the challenge's Mayor Young wants to deal with, what do you see his administration doing about public transportation?
SANFORD: What we need is a total rethinking of what MATA does, which means targeted service, smaller buses -- and we don't have time to talk about the Blue Oval City and the delays there, but there was some expectation early on that the Memphis Area Transit Authority would be the vehicle, so to speak, to get people from Memphis up to that plant in Haywood County. That has to be factored in to this even though it's going to be delayed now. Mayor Young has a lot to deal with here with this, because this is crucial. And there are some people who depend on MATA to get to their jobs. And if they can't get there, then their situation is a lot a worse. So yes, he has to he has to figure this out. But he has to have some help -- Transit Authority or transit experts to help him do it.
BLANK: Are you surprised they haven't already started talking about a change of leadership over there?
SANFORD: My understanding: they have fairly new leadership. The person in charge there now hadn't been there all that long. So I'm not sure that they're talking about that right now, but I wouldn't be surprised if that comes up later, if the audits and everything that we learn about what's going on at MATA gets worse. And I expect that it will get worse.
