MEMPHIS, TN - After winning two back-to-back terms for Shelby County Mayor, A C Wharton will move across the street to Memphis City Hall in a few weeks.
On Thursday, October 15th, 2009, Wharton handily defeated the competition. With 60-percent of the vote, he earned more votes than all the other 24 candidates combined.
During his acceptance speech at Minglewood Hall in Midtown Thursday night, Wharton told his supporters that is was a night to celebrate a hard-earned victory. He called it a victory, not for him, but for the city of Memphis. It proved, he said, that "you can run a campaign and it can be clean and honest."
The mayor-elect told a crowd of hundreds of supporters that the centerpiece of his platform, the "One Memphis" theme, came to fruition, thanks to the voters.
"Let me thank the voters," he said, "who have helped me bring this dream for one Memphis. One Memphis! It was a dream for me. But what was once a dream is now a reality."
Wharton also thanked his campaign managers and staff for their hard work.
"We're teaching the younger generation," he said, "there's a good and decent side to the political world. The public service side of it, the side that says 'what can I give and not what can I get.' And that's the side we're introducing them to."
Wharton supporters tell myEyewitnessNews.com they're already gearing up for the next campaign for Memphis Mayor in the 2011 election. Even though Wharton won by a landslide victory this time, voter turnout was low, around 25-percent. His supporters say between now and 2011, they want to reach the other 75-percent.
A C Wharton will serve 26 months as Memphis Mayor, which is the remainder of former Mayor Willie Herenton's term. Herenton left office in the middle of his fifth term to enter the race for the 9th Congressional District.
