Jackson Free Press

February 16, 2005

On Monday, Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. announced what everyone already knows—that he will be on the ballot for mayor in May. Two hours later, challenger Frank Melton made another in a string of announcements—this time focusing on one of the more unfortunate citizens of Jackson: a woman who lives in a rundown house. Melton admitted later that the announcement was timed to coincide with the mayor's.

"I would be dishonest if I said that we did not plan this announcement against the mayor's," said Melton in an interview. "We wanted to bring attention to Ms. Bobbie Johnson who lives in a house in an alley on Lamar Court."

While Melton selected the day to clash with the mayor's agenda, Johnson said he chose Valentine's Day because it is the day to express love. "I love this city and the people who live here—all of the people—and I love this job," Johnson said to cheers from the crowd gathered at Union Station downtown. As a section of the audience chanted "FOUR MORE YEARS!", Johnson continued, "Love is about making a long-term, lifelong commitment to work tirelessly for the well-being of those you love—to work through the tough times and celebrate the victories, together, and believe me, there have been plenty of both of those over the past seven-and-a-half years."

Standing with his wife, Kathy, and daughter, Sharla, Johnson spoke of his commitment to the city. "I pledge that I would make sure there was a place at the table of our civic life for all citizens, for every point of view," Johnson said, "especially those who had been denied being full participants, whose passion, energy, ideas, spirit and values had been ignored for so long, but who loved their city nonetheless."

Melton, who seems to be trying to deflect criticism that he is a one-issue candidate (crime), also mentioned quality-of-life issues. "I think that every one in our city should have a nice place to call home," Melton said. He says that much of his campaign will deal with the city's problems with fair and affordable housing. "I want to focus on strengthening the leadership in our city," he said. His plan for fixing the city's housing problem is to replace rundown houses with single-family affordable dwellings, and to repair rundown homes that can be repaired, but did not focus on how he would pay for it. "Our homeless population in Jackson is incredibly high, and we need to make housing affordable for all," he said.

Johnson honed in on the positive: "See the cranes in downtown Jackson, the revitalization of the heart of the city. See the people moving into our cit— attracted by the sense of the home and place, the newly energized neighborhoods, the involvement of people in improving their neighborhoods and their city."

The mayor, how—ever, did not ignore Melton in his speech. Perhaps the part of his announcement that solicited the most response from the group was his comment eluding to Melton's recent behavior concerning the police force. "I have never pretended to be a trained law enforcement officer and when others do, it is offensive to those men and women who have been trained to put their lives on the line to make us safe," Johnson said to loud applause.

Read Johnson's full remarks.

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168674

Comment

Saw this today in the C-L online... It seems Melton has claimed he won't run a negative campaign against Johnson. The C-L challenges that claim by listing Melton's recent one-liners against Johnson. Seems Melton has had little to say except negative things against the city and the current mayor. Some include: [quote]# "The last six months have been the most disgusting, pathetic experience of my life. Politics is self-serving. People I've admired for 21 years have broken my heart. It's all about what you can do for them." # "The truck is in the ditch, folks, and the wrecker hasn't been called yet. The truck has been in the ditch for years and no one will call the wrecker." # "It's 5:15 p.m. and the roads have bumper-to-bumper traffic with people leaving the city. I plan to have a council of mayors from suburban cities because obviously they are doing something right." # "Farish Street has the worst housing in the United States of America. The city re-did 35 houses. Now 30 of them are boarded up that are less than five years old. My first priority is to rebuild the inner city." # "I have 80 percent of the Caucasian vote and 77 percent of the African-American vote. Everybody is frustrated. This is not a black-and-white issue. You can leave all that political stuff at the house. You can leave all that racial stuff at the house. We are in trouble." # "I noticed that when the mayor announced his re-election campaign, he said I was a wannabe cop. Well, he's been masquerading as a mayor for the past eight years." # "The biggest difference between Harvey and myself is that in the last 25 years, I've had to make payroll for 600 people. For the last 25 years, Harvey's been on somebody else's payroll."[/quote] Agnew goes a step further in the conclusion: [quote]Melton is a gifted speaker, but he must convince voters he can translate words into actions. And that, my friends, is the bottom line.[/quote] - Source It's gonna be a dirty race folks. Also, does anyone else find it ironic that the editorial board are being critical of Melton's negative attacks on the mayor and the city?

Author

kaust

Date

2005-02-27T09:35:43-06:00