One freaky week

As I write this the night before we go to the polls, it feels like I’m in an episode of “The Twilight Zone.”

Here on the most western street in District 2, I’ll be heading to the Via Center in the morning to fill in the bubble for either the living former Mobile City Councilman William Carroll, or the recently deceased former Mobile City Councilman Levon Manzie. This isn’t meant disrespectfully to Levon, but it is bizarre to consider that voters may elect a dead man tomorrow to represent my district. 

My neighbors over the back fence will be deciding whether they should put former “spanking judge” Herman Thomas in the District 1 council seat. Most of that decision, it appears, will be based upon whether they believe current D1 Councilman Fred Richardson who says Thomas told him he won’t vote for annexation, or Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran who says Thomas told him he will vote for annexation. Thomas hasn’t publicly said what he would do. 

Meanwhile, the District 2 candidate who came in fourth and was 2,000 votes away from even sniffing the runoff, is suing the city and the mayor attempting to get the entire general election thrown out because he claims there were “voting irregularities.” Toss the whole election and start over? Sounds like the popular thing to do, right?

I’ve never seen anything like it.

There has been an amazing flurry of activity in the past week as Manzie supporters came together to honor his legacy by getting him reelected, even though he’s no longer here to serve. The brand new signs quickly popping up all over the district talked about “legacy,” but the effort was much more about forcing the special election that would be triggered by a Manzie win. 

Sitting on my fancy new sectional couch less than nine hours before the polls open, I really have no idea what’s going to happen. Will the ridiculous number of mailers urging a vote for Manzie irritate residents and make them suspicious of the business PACs that rained money on the late councilman’s campaign in recent days? Or will voters listen to the cadre of ministers who have alleged all sorts of shenanigans are afoot aimed at ramrodding annexation through and doing away with the beloved “supermajority” voting rule on the council? 

There are so many questions. 

If Manzie does win, who will run in the special election? Nobody said they would before the polls opened, but we have been assured of “more qualified” candidates if a special election does come to pass. I’m still not sure why the inference is being made that William Carroll isn’t qualified, when he’s actually held the position before and clearly understands the job. 

Meanwhile, the same people calling Carroll unqualified are supporting Herman Thomas, who absolutely moved cases off other judges’ dockets, pulled prisoners out of jail and took them to his secret office in Government Plaza — where semen was found — and also admits to having sort of a freelance gig spanking young men while he was a judge. These are the things he admits to, even if you don’t want to believe the part about him forcing prisoners to have sex with him, as was repeatedly alleged by numerous young men. Maybe it’s time to revisit the meaning of “qualified.”

If Carroll wins, there’s also the question of, “How irritated is he by all of this?” Have the political masterminds behind trying to force the “reset” via the dumping of PAC money into Manzie’s campaign account and use of mass-mailing and phone calls alienated Carroll if their plan doesn’t work? 

In D1, things got even stranger Monday after Fred Richardson claimed Thomas told him he won’t vote for annexation and will use the same lame excuse Freddy D himself did to justify denying a referendum — the ol’ “fix what we’ve got first” gambit.

But wait, all these White Republicans were coming out of the woodwork a couple of weeks ago in support of the most corrupt judge in recent history because he was supposed to be a lock to vote FOR annexation. We called the only person who claims to have heard Thomas say he will vote for annexation — Sheriff Cochran — on Monday to ask what he thought of Richardson’s claims, and Sam pretty much pushed all his chips in on Spanky. 

“I haven’t seen that,” he wrote to us. “All I can go on is my conversations with Herman. Probably the only thing I’ve agreed with Fred [on] is supporting Herman. Herman is widely respected in the law enforcement community. He has a long record of community involvement.” 

Widely respected in the law enforcement community?! Like I said, it’s total “Twilight Zone.” I never heard Cochran talk about Thomas being a “good judge” or saying how respected he is in the law enforcement community when the man was on trial for paddling and having sex with prisoners 12 years ago. Cochran never talked about those things when he changed jail policy due to Hermie’s habits of popping in and grabbing a couple of boys to go. 

At the core of all of this insanity is our basic racial distrust of one another. Black Mobilians are sure they’re about to be screwed and White Mobilians are sure the city’s about to be taken down the wrong road. It’s like two people rowing a boat in opposite directions — it just spins in place. 

Annexation needs to happen for the future of all Mobilians. If it continues being blocked at the City Council level, perhaps there’s a way via the Legislature. But those who are worried about losing or gaining some kind of political edge need to remember political outcomes here haven’t always been determined by the city’s racial makeup. Sam Jones was elected mayor twice by a majority White city. Sandy Stimpson has been elected mayor three times by a majority Black city. 

All of this freaking out and attempted king-making is of zero value. Regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s runoffs, hopefully, we can dial the crazy back down just a bit and realize we’re all in the same boat.