Harvey Johnson Joins Crowded Mayor's Race

Today's Clarion-Ledger online has a piece about former Jackson mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. qualifying for this year's mayor's race:

"Former Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. qualified Thursday to make his fourth bid for the city's top leadership spot in 12 years."

It will also be Harvey's fifth mayoral bid in 16 years. In his first campaign for mayor, he finished third in the 1993 Democratic primary, behind incumbent Kane Ditto and former mayor (1977-1989) Dale Danks Jr. (Interestingly, Congressman Bennie Thompson endorsed former state senator Henry Kirksey in that race.)

On page 3B of today's hard-copy edition of The Clarion-Ledger, there's an article titled, "Ex-mayor, activist qualify to run," which features a misleading statement:

"David Archie is running as an independent. He will face at least one other person."

This is a reference to Rick Whitlow, the 2005 Republican nominee for mayor, who has qualified this year as an independent. All independents are included on the general election ballot, for which they qualify by getting signatures on petitions. Thus, Archie, Whitlow, and any other independents will face each other on June 2, along with the winners of the May Democratic and Republican primaries.

Once again I ask: Why do we need party primaries in municipal elections? They are little more than vestiges of the old one-party system, in which elections were decided in the Democratic primary.