If Internet presence says anything about the seriousness of a campaign, then Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton takes the lead - at least online.
Multiple names have surfaced in the special election to replace
Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, but so far Wharton is the only candidate
with a campaign Web site, acwharton.com. He also has three campaign-oriented pages on Facebook.It might still be too early to gauge Web presence. Candidates won't have to officially file with the Shelby County Election Commission until mid-July and Herenton hasn't even vacated the office yet (word surfaced earlier today that he's reconsidering!).
But one would think a candidate as gung-ho as former City Councilwoman Carol Chumney would have fired up a Web site by now. She confirmed her run minutes after Herenton announced his resignation last week.
Instead, Chumney hasn't maintained carolchumney.com - the link leads to a generic page saying "this domain may be for sale." And a "Carol Chumney for Mayor" page on social-networking site Facebook dates back to her mayoral bid in 2007 (the page refers to Chumney as chair of the council's MLGW and budget committees). A second page, "Carol Chumney for Memphis Mayor" again, was evidently created the last time Herenton "resigned" in 2008. (The page alludes to Herenton's resignation as of July 31st; this year he's supposed to resign on July 10).
We can't find a Myron Lowery web site either, but at least he's keeping his Facebook page fresh with frequent updates about his transition team and his mayor pro-tem swear-in ceremony ("See you there!").
Jim Strickland also has a page on Facebook. As reported last week, the Draft Jim Strickland group had 708 "friends" the day Herenton announced his resignation. Thursday morning the group had 995 members.
City Councilman Kemp Conrad has also formed a draft page with 332 members.
We can't find any campaign pages for Herenton ally and attorney Charles Carpenter and Memphis City School board commissioner Rev. Kenneth Whalum Jr
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