Posted on 09/08/2007 2:45:44 PM PDT by SmithL
While some Memphis City Council races are thinly populated with two or three candidates, voters in District 6 will choose from among 11.
There's a new Ford Jr. in the arena this year, but not a Harold. This is Edmund Ford's son who is vying for his father's seat on the council.
Four other candidates have run for political office, several in past races for this seat. Eight of the candidates responded to a questionnaire submitted by The Commercial Appeal.
District 6 includes Southwest Memphis and parts of Whitehaven, South Memphis and Downtown.
Residents are worried about abandoned houses, high weeds, crime and bringing growth and development back to the neighborhood, the candidates said.
"If you go down Third headed south and turn left on Weaver, you do so at your own peril," said James O. Catchings, 68, a retired principal for Memphis City Schools who is running his first political campaign. "We need community policing. We need to change the whole paradigm so people see police as an ally."
Other issues bother him and other candidates.
Willie H. Justice, a foster parent liaison for the state Department of Human Services, said he wants Whitehaven and other neighborhoods in District 6 to fight to keep talented and educated people from moving out.
He believes in term limits, consolidation to save taxpayers money and finding jobs for young men, especially those convicted of a crime.
"I found something like 30 young men who couldn't sign my petition because they were convicted felons," Justice said. "They want to work but no one will hire them. We need to come up with alternatives and help them find employment."
(Excerpt) Read more at commercialappeal.com ...
His uncle, former state senator John Ford, was recently sentenced to 66 months in prison, after he was found guilty of accepting bribes.
His father still faces charges of bribery and extortion and is due in court on Sept. 21.
The younger Edmund doesn't see his family name as a pro or a con in his first political race.
If the “citizens” of Memphis elect yet another corrupt Ford - it will be another step toward their self imprisonment on the leftist’s plantation....
It’s all been a very expensive and damaging social experiment...it seems to have failed.
What a blight on the body politic that family is. And I have a problem with 28-year-olds who think they ought to be running the world.
Just watch they will elect another corrupt FORD...they can’t help themselves...seveal said in interviews after john ford’s sentencing on the news that after he was released if he’d run again they’d vote for him again. DUMB as boxes of rocks is all I can think. You can’t save people from themselves.
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