Did A C Wharton win a mandate? That's the question that will be bandied about for some time, possibly until the 2011 municipal election. Former county commissioner Julian Bolton, Wharton's campaign manager, believes the numbers back up a huge mandate -- it's the third straight election Wharton has won with at least 60 percent of the vote, and Wharton got three times as many votes as the second most-popular candidate, Memphis Mayor Pro Tem Myron Lowery. Wharton got more votes in early voting than Lowery and Carol Chumney got, combined, in the entire election.
Lowery easily outdistancing third-place Chumney, the former city councilwoman and state legislator, is in some ways a vote for Wharton's agenda, as well. As Lowery himself pointed out throughout the campaign, he and Wharton agree on many issues, including some of the most important facing the city like consolidation, single-source funding for public schools and transparency in government.
So throw Lowery's votes into the mix and its 78 percent of voters picking a candidate promising to pursue the sort of agenda that Wharton laid out on his website.
One thing is for sure -- anyone thinking of running in 2011 will have to think long and hard about challenging a candidate who continues to prove his popularity among voters of all races and throughout all neighborhoods.
He hasn't even taken office and already the CA flacks are flogging AC for re-election.
Sixty percent of 25% is 15% where I come from. I don't think anyone with a familiarity with math would translate that into a mandate. Adding Lowery voters to Wharton's total is the sort of fuzzy math only Memphis voters could fall for.