Charles Crawford, the University of Memphis historian, also confirms the point that in the modern history of the city, Memphis has never had a newly-elected a mayor who combines the experience and undisputed popularity Wharton brings to office.
The experience: For years before becoming county mayor in 2002, Wharton had managed Memphis Area Legal Services, headed the public defender's office, served on numerous community and corporate boards, ran his own private law practice and helped manage political campaigns.
The popularity: Wharton got 60 percent of the special election vote in a hugely crowded field, and won by mega-landslide margins in the 2002 and 2006 county mayor races.
Crawford's analysis, from a story we ran Sunday: "He is starting with a great deal of public support and a great deal of public hope that he can solve problems and pay the city's bills and things like that. Yes, that can be intimidating to other candidates and discouraging to rivals."
Whether that means Wharton can become a great mayor -- the first great mayor in the modern era of Memphis? -- is a question even some of his most staunch supporters will admit they cannot yet adequately answer. See the post below for more on the challenges Memphis mayors face, although Wharton is not shy about presenting an ambitious vision of Memphis's possibilities.
In that Sunday story, Wharton repeated his view that those who choose to challenge his administration will do so at their own political peril. Talking about the way City Councilman Joe Brown's behavior last week had "gone viral" on the Internet, with the entire state hearing about Brown's outburst about being "a real black man" and adopting a challenging tone with Wharton in saying "welcome to the world of fire," the mayor-elect said he trusts voters to determine whether they prefer Brown's approach or his.
"It's not about me, it's about how do the people feel about that, do the people deserve better than that," Wharton said. "I am in pretty good authority to speak about this because obviously I connected with the better side of people. These people who talked to me one-on-one and embraced me sometimes with tears in their eyes crying for a better city, they reject that and despise it and feel it has no place in government.
"I learned in trial law sometimes if a witness is on the stand and he is telling a lie, the worst thing in the world is to jump up and object or whatever. Let 'em keep talking. Let 'em tell an even bigger one. And then they just become ludicrous."
The strongest Wharton critics predicted during the campaign that Wharton was too nice and conciliatory to change the tone. Nobody was more relentless in attempting to paint Wharton as an extension of the Willie Herenton status quo than Carol Chumney, and she has continued to pepper Wharton with criticisms even after her the special election, where she finished third with 10 percent of the vote.
Though Chumney's political attacks appear not to have helped her at the polls, they did plant the seed in the minds of some voters that Wharton could not be a great mayor because he was too much affiliated with Memphis's old way of doing things. It will be interesting to watch what Wharton does in his first days and weeks as mayor to disprove that thesis.
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