Rev. Kenneth Whalum Jr. and County Commissioner James Harvey have told The Commercial Appeal in recent days they are not interested in running in a special election, but are strongly considering a bid in the 2011 city election.
Strickland has gained lots of fans - including several hundred on a Facebook page aimed at persuading him to run - for his leadership trying to cut the budget, for helping force the city to hand over control of the rape crisis center to the city and for advocating to relax police residency rules.
In both his losing 2003 bid against Carol Chumney and his winning 2007 Council run, Strickland raised impressive amounts of money and said today that fundraising is a primary factor.
"You have to figure out whether you can raise enough money to be a viable candidate against Mayor Wharton, who already has a lot of money," Strickland said. "That's the bottom line."
Conrad, the former chair of the Shelby County Republican Party, built a broad coalition running races for council super districts in 2007 and 2008, and he admits there is some appeal to running.
"You've got to come to the table with a base, but you cannot be one-dimensional," Conrad said.
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