MEMPHIS, TN: Two high-profile foes have tangled before (ford machine v king willie machine)

Two high-profile foes have tangled before By Jody Callahan callahan@gomemphis.com June 23, 2002

In 1999, lawyer Richard Fields filed a lawsuit against John Ford, claiming the longtime state senator and others schemed to divert millions of dollars in federal child care money for their own use.

Fields, 54, is running against Ford, 60, in the Democratic primary for the state Senate seat in District 29. Ford, who won that seat in 1974, has not faced a strong opponent since that election.

Their head-to-head battle has the potential to produce more sparks than any other race on the Aug. 1 ballot.

The race is expected to revolve around questions about Ford's residency in the district, education and, particularly, the day care industry.

Firmly entrenched after seven terms, Ford has access to local Democratic contributors as well as state PAC funds. Jackie Welch, one of the city's biggest developers, hosted a $1,000-per-person fund-raiser for Ford on May 28, raising what Welch estimated at $25,000.

Fields, making his first bid for public office, is a high-profile civil rights lawyer with a history of controversial cases. Though making his first run for office, he is well connected and may prove to be a potent fund-raiser as well. Fields has scheduled two fund-raisers for late this month. "I do expect a lot of money to be spent because Fields is backed by the Herenton machine and Ford is backed by the Ford machine. They both have deep pockets," University of Memphis political science professor Ken Holland said. "I'm thinking maybe half a million, combined."

At that level, the battle would not approach the $800,000 spent on a Senate campaign between Nashville-area rivals Robert Rochelle and Phillip Warren in 1998. But it's about double the typical cost of a contested primary with no contested general election, as this race is. Jim Kyle, a longtime state senator from Memphis, estimated such an election would normally cost a combined $250,000.

Holland believes each candidate will have to raise at least $100,000. He also believes $300,000 more will be raised and spent as "soft money," primarily by the party and outside supporters such as unions and developers.

It's uncertain what the candidates think. Ford failed to return several phone calls and when encountered in public declined to comment. "I ain't got time to talk to you now," Ford said. "I'm real busy."

Fields declined to comment regarding how much he has raised or what his fund-raising goals are.

"If someone's estimating $500,000, that may be an accurate figure," Fields said. "The main thing is raising the issues. You can't buy the election. Money helps."

Fields said his campaign will include television and radio advertising, which can quickly escalate a race's cost.

If Holland's $100,000 estimate holds true, it will apparently match the most Ford has ever raised and spent on a single election.

Ford has spent about $475,000 combined on his campaigns in the past 12 years. The largest amount Ford spent in a single year was $102,744.23 reported for 1990. In his most recent financial disclosure statement, dated Jan. 16, Ford reported having $25,463.63 on hand.

In 1990, Ford handily beat Carl Johnson, a political supporter who didn't campaign after he was unable to withdraw from the race. In 1982, 1986 and 1998, Ford faced no opposition in either the primary or general elections. In 1994, Ford faced no primary opposition and handily won the general election. In 1978, he won the primary over J. O. Patterson Jr.; he had beaten Patterson for the seat in 1974 and faced little opposition in the general election. In that '74 primary, he bested Patterson by about 4,500 votes before handily winning the general election. "John Ford has been a state senator for a long time; there are many, many interest groups in the state who owe him for favors he's done. So his money will come from both public and private organizations," Holland said.

For Fields, Holland expects Herenton and campaign treasurer Sidney Chism to tap into their contacts, including developers and businessmen. "And Fields, although he's relatively new, he's well connected with Herenton," Holland said. "And Herenton is well connected with developers."

But Fields denies Herenton will play a significant role in fund-raising or in the overall campaign: "We've been friends for 30 years. We agree on things. We disagree on things. But this is my decision. He wonders why I want to do it. He says it's a hard way to go." Herenton spokesman Gale Jones Carson said the mayor declined comment.

Richard Fields should be remembered as a man arguably key or even most responsible for the final demise of Memphis from the late sixties forward. Fields was the attorney who brought us bussing. Now, entire areas of the city that in 1970 were desireable, nice, AFFORDABLE, with neighborhood schools and no crime----these are now the streets on which we daily have three-year-olds killed in gang and drug warfare, daycare centers where the center is a crack house and the bus driver is stoned out of his gourd, home invasions on a daily basis, areas where the police won't venture even in daylight, and a city in the top five of every violent crime category....etc.

Now, people who love their kids have to mortgage themselves up to their eyeballs to afford a home outside of the city in a place where kids are safe and where schools aren't the cesspools of guns, drugs, violence and sex that they are in Memphis. What was done to Memphis destroyed the value of neighborhoods full of nice, affordable homes, and now to get that same home, people have to move into a suburb incorporated town where the laws of supply and demand make the same home cost twice as much---just to get their kids and women into a place where there is a reasonable expectancy that if the car breaks down one won't be pounced upon by a dozen or so of the 100,000+ career criminals now living in the homes that GOOD people had to FLEE to get AWAY from the criminals---criminals created by the left, by the Fords, Fields and Herentons. Just to get their kids and women into a place where they are reasonably sure that walking from the car to the door everyday is not a 1 in 4 risk of being raped, as it is in Memphis.

The Memphis prior to that was a very nice place (for families, for people who worked, for people who fought WWII, etc. ....not such a good place for the Willie Herentons and Richard Fields of the world.) I imagine there were quite a few livable, memorable cities prior to the left's reign of terror of the last forty years. Memphis was one of them. I am barely fifty, but I remember when Memphis was a safe place. Cops and the city government didn't put up with any crap. So when, as a teen, my friends and I went out at night, my parents didn't worry about us getting our throats slit for five dollars so some homeboy could buy a rock. Criminals were dealt with with an iron hand back then. They simply were not tolerated. Mayors did not abide crime in their city.

Now Memphis has a mayor who recently gave a speech praising the diveristy of the patrons of the recent boxing match, pointing out that we'd have "pimps and prostitutes" sitting side-by-side with us in the arena, as if this was progress toward a more pluralistic society.

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