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MEMPHIS — A Congressional race in Tennessee has become freighted with racial overtones almost a year before the election, with a prominent black politician saying the white incumbent cannot properly represent black voters. The black candidate, former Mayor Willie W. Herenton of Memphis, has argued that Tennessee needs a black voice in its currently all-white delegation. He is running a blistering campaign against Representative Steve Cohen, a fellow Democrat with a precarious hold on the majority black district. “To know Steve Cohen is to know that he really does not think very much of African-Americans,” Mr. Herenton said in a...

Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton is still leaving office next week, but not without taking some powerful shots at his critics. Wearing a “Herenton 2010” shirt and blue jeans, the mayor said this morning that his critics on the City Council and Shelby County Election Commission - who he feels are trying to push him out of office - are “perverted” and racist. “I’ve never seen this type of insanity,” said Herenton. “It’s a perversion. It’s perverted behavior. It’s racism. It’s small time thinking. It’s all of that.” Despite Herenton’s wishes, the City Council on Tuesday finalized approval of a resolution...

Herenton explains why he wants to run for Congress by Dr. Willie W. Herenton Special to the Tri-State Defender Many people have stopped and asked me that question, why would you want to run for congress and as a beginning to answer their question, simply stated I am better qualified to represent the Ninth Congressional District than the incumbent. I identify more keenly with the needs and issues facing the citizens in the Ninth Congressional District. Let’s keep it real. Many citizens will be concerned with race and representation. There is strength in diversity, but currently the Tennessee Congressional Delegation...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Steve Cohen, a two-term white congressman from a mostly black House district, faces a bruising Democratic primary next year and race again will likely be at the center of the campaign. Willie Herenton, the first elected black mayor of Memphis, recently filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for Cohen's 9th District House seat. Cohen has shrugged off black challengers before, but none with the political savvy and combative style of the 6-foot-6 mayor—a former Golden Gloves boxer who doesn't shrink easily from a fight. -snip-

Collection of stories about the soon to be congressional race between congressman Steve Cohen (compared Obama to Jesus and Sarah Palin to Pontius Pilate) and Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton (currently under FBI investigation). Obama=Jesus link http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2008/09/10/rep-cohen-compares-obama-to-jesus/ Enjoy

While Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton was preparing to call for a 17 percent hike in city property taxes, he had a little tax problem of his own: unpaid city and county property taxes. This morning, Herenton paid $5,768 in Shelby County property taxes on his home at 5281 Horn Lake. They were due Feb . 29. The amount paid this morning included $168.02 in interest and penalties. City taxes on a property owned by Herenton Investment Co. at 270 Dubois, located in the Banneker Estates subdivision that Herenton is developing and where he lives, were paid yesterday. As of Wednesday,...

As first reported by WREC's Mike Fleming, Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton is stepping down on July 31. Sources suggest that he plans to campaign for superintendent of Memphis City Schools. ... Herenton was re-elected last fall and has served as mayor for 16 years. Recently a federal grand jury exploring Herenton’s ties to a city contractor has served subpoenas at the Memphis Area Transit Authority offices.

Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, who for more than a decade has advocated for the consolidation of Memphis and Shelby County governments, would like to eliminate a major obstacle in his way: the veto power of suburban voters. In his annual state of the city address delivered Wednesday, Herenton said he plans to seek legislation that would eliminate the requirement that suburban voters separately ratify city-county consolidation, thus making a merger of the two governments more likely. Such a proposal could require a change to Tennessee's Constitution. Not surprisingly, suburban mayors did not respond favorably. "It's just a bad idea," Arlington...

MEMPHIS — The FBI is investigating a computer programmer’s claim that a city subcontractor owes him $79,440 for work he did for the city. Bala Karri said he’s been unable to get Reginald French — a close friend of Mayor Willie Herenton — to pay him for software work he performed on city computers. French, who owns a technology firm, denies the allegation. After months of wrangling behind the scenes, Karri took the dispute public with an e-mailed plea to members of the City Council, and now the FBI is asking questions. Agents have asked about Karri’s e-mails in recent...

Despite facing two high-profile candidates, Willie Herenton won a fifth term as Memphis mayor. Herenton received 43.4 percent of the vote. His two leading challengers trailed well behind: City Council member Carol Chumney garnered 37 percent, and former Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division head Herman Morris obtained 18.4 percent. Despite poll after poll indicating a three-way split among Herenton, Morris and Chumney, the anti-Herenton voting bloc in Memphis was unable to unite behind a consensus candidate who would have otherwise toppled Herenton. Instead, voters hoping to oust Herenton and his scandal-plagued administration split their votes between Chumney and Morris....

Memphis voters go to the polls today to decide who will lead the city through 2011, capping one of the city's most racially polarized mayoral campaigns. In addition to the mayor, voters also will cast ballots for City Court clerk and all 13 City Council positions. Seven of the council seats have no incumbents in the race and two others have incumbents appointed just this year. Willie Herenton, the first elected black mayor of Memphis, is trying to win a record fifth term. He has been running on a platform of continuing progress. His chief opponents, Councilwoman Carol Chumney and...

Memphis police are investigating allegations by a former topless club cocktail waitress that she was recruited as bait in a plot to blackmail Mayor Willie Herenton by luring him into a sexual rendezvous. The waitress, who has told her story to Herenton and Police Director Larry Godwin and who says she will file legal papers today, says the plot was never consummated. Advertisement Yet, Gwendolyn D. Smith has touched off an official inquiry with her account, contending that she's been paid as much as $18,000 -- money she says came from rich businessmen trying to smear Herenton, the city's first...

Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton has weathered acrimonious political feuds, tongue-wagging over fathering a child out of wedlock, an overhyped bout with an aging heavyweight, a tremendous dip in polls and a concerted effort among some of the region's political power brokers to replace him. So it should come as little surprise if the turmoil surrounding Herenton appointee Joseph Lee's actions while head of Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division rolls off the mayor like grease off Teflon. "A day in politics is like a light year," said Susan Adler Thorp, a political analyst and former political columnist for The Commercial...

They didn't even keep their shirts on. Instead, hundreds at The Peabody Thursday were exposed to the AARP-age man boobs of Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, 66, and former heavyweight champ Joe Frazier, 62. As I watched the exhibition match between a bouncing braggart and a punch-drunk former great, I had to keep reminding myself that this was a fund-raiser for the Shelby County Drug Court. Otherwise, I would have left in disgust. I know it's supposed to be entertainment, but what's entertaining about seeing just how far Smokin' Joe has declined? During three one-minute rounds, Herenton batted at Frazier's head...

Willie Herenton's "My Way"

It's been 40 years since Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton strapped on boxing gloves and stepped into the ring. But next Thursday the 66-year-old mayor and amateur boxing champion will do just that in a three-round charity bout at The Peabody with 62-year-old former world heavyweight boxing champion Smokin' Joe Frazier. Proceeds benefit the Shelby County Drug Court, an alternative program for nonviolent adult offenders with drug charges. The feats of Frazier are not things that Herenton takes lightly -- he even had to sign a waiver releasing Frazier from liability should he hurt the mayor. "He's been hit by the...

Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton demonstrates some moves he might use when he takes the ring in a charity boxing match with former heavyweight champion of the world Joe Frazier on Nov. 30. Referee Arthur Mercante directs Joe Frazier to a neutral corner after Frazier knocked down Muhammad Ali in the 15th round of their title fight in Madison Square Garden in New York on March 8, 1971. The date is set for former world heavyweight boxing champion Smokin' Joe Frazier to climb into the ring with Memphis amateur boxing champ Mayor Willie Herenton for charity. The 62-year-old boxer will mix...

Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton has already declared he doesn’t have a "punk bone" in his body. Come September he will prove it in a huge way when the 65-year-old climbs into the ring with former world heavyweight boxing champion Smokin Joe Frazier, who is 62. The three-round boxing match will be held at The Peabody as a fund-raiser to help Herenton’s financially struggling alma mater, LeMoyne-Owen College, said Herenton’s spokeswoman Gale Jones Carson. LeMoyne-Owen faces a debt of more than $6 million. — Yolanda Jones Copyright 2006, commercialappeal.com - Memphis, TN. All Rights Reserved.

Did Willie Herenton Use MPD To Cover Up The Death Of Michael Simon Who Was Rear-Ended And Killed By His Daughter-in-Law On May 29, 2003 Michael Simon was rear ended and killed on the expressway by Andrea Herenton,daughter-in-law of Willie Herenton. There were reports that she had just left a party where she had been drinking. The dead man was given a alcohol test where it was found that he had NO alcohol in his system.But Andrea was never given such a test. Maybe because the mayor was present,and Bobby Todd Commander of the traffic division and close friend of...