City Hall notebook: Swearengen resigns, partisan elections fail
Memphis voters will not get to decide whether they want to elect members of the Memphis City Council and the Memphis mayor in partisan elections.
The Memphis City Council voted 7 to 4 against putting a referendum on the November ballot that would've asked voters whether they wanted partisan elections. The vote came after Councilman Martavius Jones brought the proposed referendum off the table after delaying it this spring.
The brief debate over partisan elections included many of the same talking points from previous debates on the issue.
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"The results the other night are clear. ...We are a Democratic city.. We are the only progressive Democratic County in a red state," Jones said. He argued that voters should know where their Memphis leaders stood and the city should not be afraid of being a progressive Democratic city.
Opponents, including moderate members of the council who would either identify as independents or Republicans if the measure had passed, argued against it and said it would inject partisan politics into City Hall, which is often a place of compromise
"People are utilizing partisan hackery to dictate the people's vote and political will," Councilman Chase Carlisle said.
Councilman Jeff Warren, who is a progressive Democrat from Midtown Memphis, also spoke against it.
"We have two different realities in our country because of what people look at on the news," Warren said. "The primaries have become who is most radical... and the center can't hold."
The vote went as such: Yes: Martavius Jones, Rhonda Logan, JB Smiley, Jr. and Jamita Swearengen. No: J. Ford Canale, Chase Carlisle, Frank Colvett, Edmund Ford, Sr., Cheyenne Johnson, Worth Morgan and Jeff Warren.
Patrice Robinson and Michalyn Easter-Thomas did not have votes recorded.
Swearengen resigns
Swearengen resigned her seat Tuesday. She said it was her last meeting as a voting member and her resignation would be effective Aug. 19. The council voted to accept her resignation.
Jones replaces Swearengen as the council chair and Smiley replaces Jones as the vice-chair.
Samuel Hardiman covers Memphis city government and politics for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by email at samuel.hardiman@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter at @samhardiman.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: City Hall notebook: Memphis partisan elections referendum
