Dr. Herenton is a graduate of Le Moyne-Owen College in South Memphis, and the University of Memphis. He received his doctorate in education at Southern Illinois University, and is also a recipient of two honorary doctorates from Rhodes College and Christian Brothers University. He has four children, the youngest of which was born in late 2004 to a local waitress.
He is the first African-American to be elected mayor of Memphis. He won his first term by defeating incumbent mayor Richard Hackett in 1991 by a mere 146 votes. Prior to serving as mayor, Herenton was the superintendent of Memphis City Schools for twelve years. In his State of the City address on January 1, 2006, Herenton announced his intention to run for a fifth term in 2007 and refused to debate his challengers during the campaign.
He was elected to his fifth term in office on October 4, 2007, thus making him the first Memphis mayor to be elected to five terms of office. Despite his win, Herenton garnered only 42% of the popular vote on the October 4, 2007 election. Nonetheless, run-offs for Memphis city-wide elections have been banned by court order since 1991, on the premise that the intent of run-offs was to give white candidates an advantage. Indeed, Herenton also scored his initial 1991 victory as well as his 1999 re-election with less than majority support (thank you wikipedia).
The City of Memphis has a total population of roughly 680,000.
The State of Alaska has roughly the same.
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2 comments:
Therefore what?
Are you suggesting that Dr. Herenton should run for Vice President?
And let's not forget, Sarah Palin has more executive experience then Barack Obama (he has none!)
It's not a therefore what sort of post. It's just an observation I found interesting. I always wondered about Governor's from small states and how they measured up to mayors from big cities. Mayors can effectively run for president no questions asked when they come from big enough cities (Guliani and Bloomberg come to mind).
But, truth be told, Sarah Palin has more executive experience than John McCain too, or any Senator who became a president for that matter (Monroe, Quincy Adams, Jackson, Truman, Kennedy and Nixon). So, I've always found that argument a bit silly. What is the nature of executive experience in the state of Alaska is sort of the observation I'm making.
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