The votes for an interim Shelby County mayor haven’t been along party or racial lines, but there’s still time. Shelby County Commissioners will try again today to appoint someone to the county’s top job.

In 24 rounds of voting last week, further evidence emerged that the nature of local politics, which has always involved either race or party and often both, is changing. Even if seven commissioners find a candidate they agree on today, the political evolution will continue.

Critical mass, please

Next on the horizon is likely to be a re-examination of the partisan primaries that have preceeded all non-judicial county races since 1992.

Democrats have an 8-5 majority on the commission when it’s at full strength. With commission chairwoman Joyce Avery holding the mayor’s office, Republicans are down to four votes. But the two commissioners vying for the appointment, Democrats J.W. Gibson and Joe Ford, are barred from voting as long as they are nominees, giving Democrats a majority of six votes.

It was a faction of the local Democratic Party that first tried to introduce partisan primaries in local elections in the mid-1980s. For a brief time, a pro primary splinter group tried to function separately from the main body of the party’s executive committee.

In the early 1990s, it was the local GOP steering committee that took the leap to having primaries in advance of county elections.

The Republicans experienced the same tumultuous debate Democrats had five to six years earlier. It eased somewhat when judicial offices were excluded from the primaries, but many veteran elected officials used to running as independents had to declare their party allegiance.

‘Blackball effect’

The partisan labels worked in favor of Republicans initially. But Democrats are heavily favored to take virtually every countywide office in the 2010 county elections.

Local GOP Chairman Lang Wiseman recently talked openly of abolishing the primaries, a decision that rests with the steering committee or executive committee of each local party.

“I haven’t reached any definite conclusions on it,” Wiseman told The Daily News. “My stance is that we need to start the conversation. … I think we’ve seen in recent years that it’s done more harm than good.”

County Commissioner Matt Kuhn, a former chairman of the local Democratic Party, joined the call during last week’s commission deadlock.

“I do not think that there is a Republican or Democrat way to be in local office,” he said.

Kuhn said that his ideal choice for the mayoral appointment would be Commissioner and fellow Democrat Deidre Malone. But he said it’s not “politically expedient” because Malone is running for mayor in 2010.

Kuhn said his second choice would have been Commissioner Mike Carpenter, but that too would be judged politically impractical because Carpenter is a Republican. The irony is that Carpenter has taken some heat from those of his own party for voting with Democrats on the commission.

“As Democrats, I tell you that that’s probably a good idea,” Kuhn said of the concept to abolish the local primaries. “For years, we’ve felt we had to do it. … They’ve been divisive. They’ve been excessively divisive. I believe that we have an opportunity this year to maybe change that.”

Wiseman said he intends to put together a discussion group before his party goes one way or the other.

“I think that you wind up deterring a lot of good people from service who might otherwise want to serve. And I think that unfortunately instead of the affiliation being a positive thing for people, it ends up almost being like a blackball effect,” Wiseman said. “I think that’s borne itself out particularly in the issue of interim mayor.”

Bare-knuckle brawling

Meanwhile, former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Sr. lobbied several commissioners via cell phone from Florida on behalf of his brother during breaks in the voting last week.

That and a more aggressive tone from Joe Ford after Malone nominated county Chief Administrative Officer Jim Huntzicker as a possible mayoral compromise only seemed to make it less likely anyone would change his or her vote.

Among those handed the phone by Joe Ford was Malone, who later complained that she didn’t care for the Florida Ford’s tone or what she said was a threat to work against her in the 2010 race for county mayor.

Ford has denied making any threats. But in 20 years as the city’s congressman, he built a reputation for aggressively pursuing political goals and putting the resources of his organization to work for those he favored and against those who opposed him, even within the Democratic Party.

That was the case in 1978 when another Ford – convicted felon John Ford – wanted to be Shelby County mayor. The Fords argued then that there were too many contenders in what was then a nonpartisan race to succeed the first Shelby County mayor, Roy Nixon. They talked most of the other Democrats out of the race.

And then Ford himself withdrew after culling the field.

In 1994, Harold Ford Sr. and John Ford again agreed that there were too many people in the race for Shelby County mayor. But Harold Ford thought John should get out and John Ford believed Harold should back his brother instead of Jack Sammons.

John Ford said it was a matter of blood. Harold Ford said it was about “business.”

Last week’s cell phone conversation is not the first run-in Malone has had with the Fords. The family tried to talk Malone out of running for the commission in 2002 after she tried and failed to win the appointment to the seat that went to Bridget Chisholm.

Malone was told the Fords would support her in later campaigns, but Malone refused to call off a political quest she had already announced. Chisholm later withdrew from the race and Malone was elected to the commission.