About 50 say Herenton should go (Recall meeting in Memphis TN)

Memphis Commercial Appeal ^ | 1/19/06 | Jody Callahan

[Sybeck1]

Eddie Neal voted for Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton four times, but now says enough is enough.

Neal was one of about 50 people who gathered at an East Memphis Marriott Wednesday night to discuss plans to force a recall of Herenton, who has been in office for 14 years and is halfway through his fourth term.

The group, organized by Memphian Thaddeus Matthews, needs to get about 70,000 signatures on a petition to place a recall measure on the ballot.

"I tell you what did it for me -- any time the mayor can say to people that pay his salary, that we can leave Memphis if we don't like where the city's going," said Neal, a 60-year-old masonry contractor who lives in the Bethel Grove neighborhood.

"I want to put my name on the petition to show my grandchildren and others that there's

something you can do about a predicament."

Others there clearly felt the same way.

Camellia Rodney, a 56-year-old nurse manager, moved to Memphis from Brooklyn about 20 years ago. She voted for Herenton twice, but now wants him gone.

"There has to be an end to it. Everyone who has loved Memphis like I've loved Memphis is moving out. The money is leaving. He's just running it down to the ground," she said. "Getting that young girl pregnant (was the last straw). For the leader of our community to do (that) and to laugh about it. He's in over his head."

Added Ralph Noyes, who voted for Herenton once: "He needs to be replaced. We need a new mayor. We need a regime change."

The mayor's spokeswoman Gale Jones Carson said Herenton had no comment on the meeting. Earlier, Herenton labeled Matthews a "societal misfit" and described the recall efforts as "nonsense."

Matthews held the floor during most of the meeting, explaining the recall process and asking for volunteers to head committees. Those committees expect to begin collecting signatures by mid-March, after the petition has been approved by the Election Commission.

Matthews said they hope to to have all the necessary signatures by June 1. He also hinted at a plan, which he declined to explain, to collect 30,000 of those in one day.

The group plans to meet again Feb. 21, possibly at the same Marriott, 2625 Thousand Oaks at American Way.

Matthews, owner of an auto repossession company and a former talk radio personality, said he was pleased with the turnout, which included about a dozen black people.

"I was expecting about what we got," said Matthews, who paid $400 for the room and security, although a hat labeled "Recall Willie" was passed at the meeting to offset that.

"To see people of mixed races from all over the city to come, that's exactly what we need. We got 50 people on a night that there are some (basketball) games going on."

-- Jody Callahan: 529-6531

Copyright 2006, commercialappeal.com - Memphis, TN. All Rights Reserved.

[jmaroneps37]

Now tell me again how this is going to be good for lil harrie ford and he will be the next senator from Tennessee?
PULEEEEEEEEEEZE!!!!!!

[Emmett McCarthy]

Won't work. Apparently there's a federal law against removing Democrats from office in Memphis.

[Mysfit]

I say we put Willie Herenton and either one of the Ford brothers or AC Wharton in a wrestling match. Whoever wins becomes Mayor.