Another city mayoral election; another runoff

Four years ago, I was ecstatic when Jerry Woods made a late run in the city mayoral race and overtook Jimmy Eldridge to force a runoff with Scott Conger. It was a big deal. Regardless of who would win the run-off election, Jackson was going to be in good hands. We would either have a young, progressive mayor or the first African-American mayor in the history of Jackson. It felt like a win/win situation.

In the weeks that led up to election night four years ago, the candidates running for mayor had run clean campaigns. Each candidate had laid out a vision for their community without wading into the murky political waters of slander and gossip; their campaigns were community centric – focusing on managing a city that would be able to serve all of its residents. Four years feels like an eternity.

Last Tuesday night, the city of Jackson once again found itself having to wait six weeks to find out who would be running our city as mayor but the path to get to that runoff was riddled with the potholes of politics – negative narratives and verbal attacks that attempted to misalign a certain candidate’s character. It was disheartening and discouraging, but it also provided a stark juxtaposition to one candidate’s political and moral character.

I first met Dr. Jerry Woods in 1993 when my mom taught at Whitehall Elementary School. He was the interim principal there. Every time I walked in the building, he always greeted me like he knew me – welcomed me with his genuine smile. Over the course of the past thirty years, I’ve crossed paths with Dr. Woods multiple times. Every single time I see him – without fail – he always asks how I’m enjoying teaching. He always asks how my parents are doing. He names them by name.

In 2019, when I was working with Our Jackson Home, we reached out to each candidate running for mayor and gave them the opportunity to tell their story by writing a personal narrative. I can remember reading Dr. Woods’s narrative piece and feeling connected to the way he described his view of Jackson as a young boy growing up in Pinson. His reverence for the city and the opportunities it eventually afforded him shone through the text and framed Jackson in the best way possible. Much like that narrative four years ago, Dr. Woods’s optimism continued to shine during this campaign, too.

The 2023 mayoral campaign season never quite found the optimistic tone of its predecessor and only seemed to degenerate the closer it got to election day. From Paul Sherrod’s arrest to Lisa Lyons’s Facebook Live nonsense to the polarizing propaganda  of “We the People of West Tennessee”, there was enough negative publicity to go around. When there’s that much vitriol being spewed, the easy thing to do is to get caught up in it; it’s hard to stay above the fray. Jerry Woods made it look easy, though.

During every debate or forum I watched or listened to, Dr. Woods’s message was always about the city and his plans for it. He communicated how much he believed in Jackson and how much this city had given to him over the years. When certain candidates went low, Dr. Woods didn’t flinch. He didn’t jump on the bandwagon of rumor and innuendo; he cut his own path of optimism and honesty. It’s a road that he’s traveled as long as I’ve known him.

I sat down with four candidates on separate occasions – Daryl Hubbard, Lisa Lyons, Jerry Woods, and Scott Conger –  for nearly an hour three weeks before the election. Each conversation was enjoyable and none of them delved into salacious narratives or irrelevant transgressions. The conversations were about the candidates as people, not politicians. What struck me the most, however, is that Jerry Woods was the same in that conversation as he was on the debate stage. He was the same on the debate stage as he’s always been when I’ve crossed paths with him over the last thirty years. Jerry Woods the candidate was the same as Jerry Woods the man – someone of high character who simply wants to make his city a better place to live for everyone.

Dr. Woods didn’t win the runoff election in 2019; he didn’t even make it to the runoff this year. He’s made our community better, though, if we simply take enough time to appreciate what happens when people of high character find themselves in the grimy world of politics and come out of that world without any dirt under their fingernails.

There’s a way to run a campaign that doesn’t rely on false narratives or polarizing issues. Mayor Conger has done it; Jerry Woods has done it. And, I am so appreciative of both of them for doing what’s right for our community.