Our video storytelling: Rob Cody Rides Again!

President Obama is 'Fired Up...Ready to Go' for Our Candidate

How we got President Obama to endorse a first-time Memphis City Council candidate...

with a little attention-getting, editing magic! 

When your candidate debates an empty chair...

John Marek is left to debate an empty chair after incumbent Worth Morgan no-showed again --Photo by Liza Bump

When attorney and criminal justice reformer John Marek belatedly jumped in the Memphis City Council race, he was up against a well-funded incumbent in Worth Morgan. Morgan had spent more than $300 thousand getting elected in 2015 and was spending large on commercials this time around. Morgan's "worth" we can easily imagine was inherited from his father, Allen Morgan, who founded successful regional brokerage Morgan-Keegan.

But a question for voters: Who is worth more representing the people of Memphis and District 5? Someone who has been involved for years in community efforts, such as advocating body-worn cameras for police, serving on the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB), supporting reasonable cannibus laws? Fighting against blight and a gerrymandered City Council structure?

Who is worth less? A candidate who supports out-of-state developers in the face of neighborhood opposition in his own district? Who is appointed CLERB liaison from City Council but who skips the last year and a half of meetings when he didn't get his way on a vote? Who funds extreme-right out-of-state Congressmen such as House Republican whip Steve Scalise?

The choice could not be more clear in 2019. But, with getting a late start and little other than self-funding -- "I ran up my credit card" -- Marek needed to do something to make up ground.

We don't know how the election will turn out, but Marek got busy and, on the subject of not showing up, Marek attended the NAACP-sponsored forum for District 5.  However, Morgan snubbed the NAACP, telling them he had something else to do that night -- maybe re-balance his stock portfolio.  It was logical to put out a commercial spot demonstrating Morgan's "no-show" habit when faced with actual, regular people and working families from the community. Was he afraid he might catch something from  us? Below are the "no-show" spot and two other 30-second spots we produced for John Marek.


A No-Show Again: Morgan not Worth It

Our candidate John Marek called this "the best commercial I have ever seen in local politics." 

Marek for Memphis: Build Bridges not Walls

Marek for Memphis: Our Neighbors are Worth More!