After participating in a debating free-for-all last week, Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton said today he’ll think twice before agreeing to participate in another debate for Memphis mayor.
Speaking after an infant mortality event in Frayser, Wharton said he was disappointed last week when WMC-TV Channel 5 invited him to participate in a debate with other candidates and then changed the event’s rules at the last minute.
Prior to the debate, Wharton wrote a letter to WMC executives saying he was considering dropping out of the forum because he had accepted the invitation under the assumption that the debate would include “only serious candidates.”
When he learned of the other debaters - Robert “Prince Mongo Hodges” among them - Wharton said he was having second thoughts.
“I’m a lawyer and when you set the rules to a game, you follow them,” said Wharton today.
Wharton, who wound up attending the debate anyway, denied that his protests had anything to do specifically with Hodges.
“I never singled out any particular candidate, that would be giving too much credence to anybody and I’ve been in politics long enough not to give anybody any credit,” he said. But the experience left a sour taste.
“I indicated in that letter that I was reassessing all these debates and forums,” Wharton said. “If I accepted every invitation, I wouldn’t have time to campaign, I wouldn’t have time to serve as mayor of Shelby County.”
Rather than participating in every candidate forum that comes along, Wharton said he needs to spend his time running the county and bringing in dollars from Washington and Nashville.
“I think I can better serve the citizens of Memphis and Shelby County by getting those funds in here to fight those causes than I can somewhere jibber-jabbering in some loose format called a debate,” he said.
Wharon actually said, "I’ve been in politics long enough not to give anyone any credit.”
I guess that means anything good that happens, he'll take ALL the credit for it. Nice. Typical politician.
Willie herenton didn't participate in any debates either. Is this a play from willie's playbook? Was it originally wharton's idea when he was willie's campaign manager?