Former Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. racked up endorsements today from organizations representing city employees, and from acting Mayor and outgoing Ward 2 Councilman Leslie McLemore, and from Hinds County Supervisor Doug Anderson.
Jackson Police Officers Association President Juan Cloy endorsed the former mayor shortly after noon, and was joined by city union head Brenda Scott, who spoke for a city employee union representing more than 500 city employees.
Cloy said the police union—which contains about 200 city police officers—came to their conclusion after several "intense" meeting with the two candidates. Cloy said former Councilman Marshand Crisler didn't show enough willingness to help city police officers achieve better working standards during his years as a city councilman.
"Crisler was a city council person for eight years and a law enforcement officer for 17 years … but we told Mr. Crisler about several occasions when the union had sought a better quality of life for the police officers of Jackson and we did not feel that he pushed at all for the officers of Jackson," Cloy said, and referenced several instances when the union lobbied the Mississippi Legislature with pro-police bills that they claim Crisler did not stand behind.
"We were not able to get the support that we wanted and we felt we needed from Mr. Crisler," Cloy said. "We felt that as a council person he could have given a lot more support, or even birthed some ideas, to raise the quality of life for officers and we feel he didn't do much."
Cloy first hit the news as a supporter of the fledgling Melton administration four years ago, though he said he eventually grew cynical about Melton's promises to improve the lives of city police officers.
"We recognize that there are some things that we need to do jointly that we didn't do these last couple of terms," Cloy said. "There are some things that we as police offices and citizens need to do to help Mayor Johnson and the city out. We're all going to have to band together and realize that we need to work together."
Cloy added that he felt Johnson "would listen" to the union, and said both parties had committed to one another: "There was no ‘I'm going to do the best I can' type of statements between us," Cloy said. "We all made some commitments and we're going to stand by those commitments."
Crisler would not comment on the union endorsement, saying that "people made a conscious decision four years ago" to remove Johnson as mayor.
"If everything was as fantastic as my opponent says it was we wouldn't have had a change four years ago. People don't send you home for doing a fantastic job. When they send you home is when they're dissatisfied," Crisler said.
Acting Jackson Mayor Leslie McLemore astounded reporters by standing with Cloy and other Johnson supporters today, after weeks of refusing to commit to a candidate—or even to comment on political issues regarding the mayoral race.
"Harvey Johnson Jr. is by far the best person in this race. I served in the Johnson administration for six years. I served on the council with Crisler for almost eight years and I considered the political maturity, the knowledge on the job and the readiness to hit the ground on Day One," McLemore said. "I think fundamentally we should not be experimenting with city government again. We went through an experiment over the last four years and I think that's over."
"This is nothing against Crisler," McLemore added, "but when I compare the two, Crisler does not measure up to the knowledge, the background, the experience and the ability to be mayor on Day One."
McLemore said he had been unable to keep his opinion to himself on the mayoral race after countless requests from his constituents.
"I couldn't stand and sit idly by representing Ward 2 for almost 10 years and not say something." McLemore said. "I was in the grocery store at McDades two days ago, and I was in there 15 minutes. Five people asked me who I am going to support, black people and white people, and I told them Johnson. Their question then was ‘why can't you do that publicly?'"
Hinds County Supervisor Doug Anderson, who supported former mayor Frank Melton over Johnson four years ago, said he was driven by false political ads by Crisler supporters to endorse Johnson.
"What really tilted the scale (for me) was some literature that was passed out at the churches that condemned (Johnson) for his stance and attributed some stances to him that he would never have committed to," Anderson said. "I could not stand to see people passing out literature that was definitely degrading to the mayor. I made up my mind on (radio show) Straight Talk that I would support Harvey Johnson and I went to sleep last night feeling good about the decision that I have made."
Sen. John Horhn, who had already endorsed Johnson over Crisler last week, was also in the crowd, and addressed accusations from Crisler supporters that he had attempted to sell his endorsement to the Crisler campaign.
Crisler had denied Horhn had approached him for an endorsement sale at an earlier press conference today, but Horhn took it a step further this afternoon by accusing Crisler of approaching him with the offer to buy it.
"I've not sold my endorsement to anyone. I will say that the Crisler campaign actively recruited me, made a number of offers that I chose not to accept because (Johnson) is the best man for the city of Jackson," Horne said.
When asked to specify what type of offers Crisler's people had approached him with, Horhn answered "financial offers."
"They offered to cover my (campaign) debt and they offered a number of other inducements," Horhn said.
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