WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): A week after Tennessee's congressional redistricting, the state remains at the center of a national conversation about voting rights. With us to talk about that and other issues is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back.
OTIS SANFORD: Great to be with you, Chris.
BLANK: Otis, before we get to that, let's catch up on local government for a moment. Lee Harris just presented the last budget proposal he'll make as county mayor. He calls it "lean and mean." What does that mean for the county?
SANFORD: I think he's trying to say because he's not proposing a tax increase -- in fact, his budget calls for a tax decrease-- that's why he says it's it's very lean. Plus, he's proposing a new school. And so, I think he's thinking that this is aggressive, while also being very cost effective.
BLANK: And in some way, it's looking ahead. It's a transitional budget. We know we're going to have a new mayor coming up next year. And for that county mayor's race, it's going to be Democrat Mickell Lowery, who is a county commissioner, against Republican John DeBerry, former Democrat, who has been Gov. Bill Lee's senior advisor. You know, there seems to be a lot of external forces at play here: the Memphis Safe Task Force, the redistricting, the school takeover. How do you think all that stuff will impact this election?
SANFORD: Well, I think pretty much all of it will impact it, but especially the redistricting. And that's bad news for John DeBerry. John DeBerry has worked for the governor. The governor was the one who called the special session and then, legislature rushed this redistricting plan and he signed it right away and it has angered pretty much the majority of people in Memphis, and I would say in Shelby County. That's not good news for John DeBerry, who's going to to have to try to defend this. Plus, it was bad news for him when Mickell Lowery won the Democratic nomination anyway. Mickell is going to be a real tough opponent for him. He would have been much better off running against someone like Marie Feagins or even JB Smiley, honestly.
SANFORD: Well, speaking of that redistricting, we are now up to four state and federal lawsuits challenging these new maps. The federal case being made is that carving up Memphis into three districts is substantially different than what the recent Supreme Court ruling allows. How is that?
SANFORD: As I read it, Chris, and I'm no lawyer, but as I read it, the Louisiana case involved creating a second Black district by snaking through Louisiana to connect enough African Americans to make it an African American district and it really wasn't uniform. That's not what we have here in the 9th congressional district that covers Memphis. That district has been there all along. It was never created as a Black district. It became that way because of population shifts. And the fact that it's a contiguous community that's large enough to have its own legislative district, that is what has happened. And if the Supreme Court is saying that you can't create a district based on race, well, then that is exactly what the Republicans have done in this case. They have carved up Memphis and created three districts that are majority white even though they deny it. Those are the differences that I see.
BLANK: And this redistricting has also created political upheaval across the state, as we are seeing a host of new candidates signing up. Today is the deadline. But the maps are designed, really, to pit white rural communities against Black urban voters. How will this affect how Republican candidates are running in this election?
SANFORD: I don't see that many Republicans, and especially white Republicans, doing much campaigning at all in Memphis and Shelby County. I think that the Republican candidates are going to spend most of their time trying to drum up enough support in the rural areas of these districts to overcome any challenge that they would have from voters here in Memphis and Shelby County.
BLANK: There were times in Tennessee's past when moderates from either party could try to find some common ground, maybe over the economy. Now that these districts do combine urban and rural areas, you would think that a moderate or an independent might be able to to make a good run in one of these districts. Do you see that is even possible in this political climate?
SANFORD: I just think, Chris, that any Republican in any of these districts are going to be toxic for Memphis and most of Shelby County, just because the overwhelming majority of people here distaste what happened here with the redistricting and the way it was done. In the past, you know, we have had a lot of moderate political leaders in both parties who were able to be moderate and connect with voters no matter what race you were. We don't have that anymore. This is a very divisive atmosphere that we are in. It's a shame, but that's where we are.
