This is really, really horrible. But it's also really, REALLY funny.....
Right out of Millsaps I worked as a runner for a law firm in Jackson. One of the partners had attended a public event where Frank Melton, the CEO of WLBT-Channel 3 was the featured speaker.
According to the Partner, after the speech Melton was mingling with the folks there, and the city government came up. The discussion was light-hearted enough. As Melton was turning to leave a group of people he'd been speaking with he said, "Guys, remember one thing about the City Council: Fee fi fo, fee fi fo fo. That's Kenny Stokes' phone number."
There is no getting rid of Stokes
June 11, 2003
Deputy AG: Stokes can't be councilman, supervisor
By Clay Harden
charden@clarionledger.com Kenneth Stokes must leave the Jackson City Council behind if he succeeds in his third attempt to be elected a Hinds County supervisor.
Holding both offices violates the separation of powers in the state constitution, said a spokesman for the attorney general's office.
"Supervisor is considered a judicial position and city council is legislative," said Mike Lanford, deputy attorney general.
Those facts give Stokes' supporter Lloyd Mason, 56, mixed feelings about the 2003 election.
"I hate to lose Stokes at the city, but I think he can do more as a supervisor," Mason, a Maple Street resident, said during a telephone interview Tuesday. "I know he is sometimes controversial, and I may not agree at how he goes about things sometimes, but he has done a good job of representing the people in his ward."
Stokes is trying to unseat 24-year incumbent George Smith, the senior member on the Hinds County board of supervisors, in the Aug. 5 Democratic primary. The two are facing off to represent District 5, which extends from Woodrow Wilson Boulevard, through downtown to I-55, then Terry and out to Utica.
To defeat Smith, Stokes must win in Terry, where Smith resides, and parts of Byram.
Byram businessman Henry Whitfield, 76, said he doesn't think that will happen in a climate where Byram is seeking to re-incorporate and dodge annexation by Jackson. Whitfield, who is white, said he thought Stokes made racist statements when Jackson was seeking to annex Byram .
"Didn't Stokes say that if Jackson annexed Byram it would dilute black voting strength?" Whitfield asked.
Stokes said last year that If Jackson annexed too much of Byram, it might lead to the possibility "of not having a black mayor." Byram is a majority white community.
Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. was elected Jackson's first black mayor in 1997 and re-elected in 2001.
Georgetown resident Mary Jordan said she will support Stokes for supervisor.
"If that is what (Stokes) wants to do, I am going to vote for him," Jordan said. "Whatever makes him happy."
Stokes claimed voting irregularities in both the 1999 and 1995 elections.
Lee County Circuit Judge Lee Ford declared Smith the winner over Stokes after the Aug. 3, 1999, Democratic primary. Smith had 2,969 votes to Stokes' 2,788.
Similarly in 1995, a special tribunal appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Smith the winner over Stokes in the Democratic primary runoff.
Stokes had 2,776 votes to Smith's 2,852.
Stokes earns $25,000 in the part-time council position. A Hinds County supervisor earns more — $37,000 annually and also gets a car
