Jackson Free Press

The Ledger reports:

As a teenager, Rick Whitlow used to beat the blacktops of Chicago, trying to find a game.

Today, Whitlow is after the biggest game in town — the mayoral post being vacated by Harvey Johnson Jr. The Republican candidate, a former TV sportscaster, will face Democrat Frank Melton in the June 7 general election.

"I grew up a kind of tough, urban kid playing ball on the Chicago blacktop," Whitlow said. "In the 1970s, all you needed was your car, your sneakers and a basketball. We rode from city to city and always knew where to find a game."

Jackson's mayoral post is a four-year term paying $120,000 annually. Melton defeated Johnson, the two-term mayor, in last week's Democratic primary by taking nearly 63 percent of the vote.

Whitlow's campaign has been nonglamorous meetings with few public appearances. He had been waiting for the Democratic winner while attending ward debates as an audience member, hustling off to community meetings and making handshaking rounds. Few people give him a chance against Melton, but that has not stopped the 51-year-old divorced father of two.

Full article here.