Bill Gibbons for TN Governor?

UPDATE: Bill Frist releases formal statement disavowing run for Tennessee Governor in 2010; "Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons To Run For Tennessee Governor."

I was glad to read the reports from Jackson Baker and Richard Locker that Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons will run for Governor of Tennesee in 2010 if Bill Frist doesn't.

Bill Gibbons is actually the District Attorney General for the 30th Judicial District, which makes him one of 30 District Attorneys in Tennessee. Shelby County is so populous that the 30th Judicial District is made up of Shelby alone. We have 30 Judicial Districts in Tennessee and hence 30 DA's. For prominence comparison, Tennessee has 33 State Senate Districts.

Furthermore, yet admittedly without looking it up, I believe the amount of crime prosecuted in the 30th District is much greater than in any other District. Bill Gibbons has to administer a correspondingly large staff; and, in my in-the-trenches opinion, he has done an excellent job of it.

(Disclaimer: Yes, I'm a criminal defense attorney, although I do not also play one on TV. I did produce a long-running cable TV local access show twenty-five years ago with heavy legal content. In fact, I'm pretty sure it is the longest-running cable channel show in Memphis history, with Steve Cohen still at the helm. In fact, that show is where I met Julia Gibbons, Bill's highly competent wife, when she was a Tennessee Circuit Court Judge and I was putting together an episode called "Women in the Judiciary" (another bit of proof of my alleged mysogyny, dontcha know, along with being crucial to getting more women elected to the Tennessee General Assembly in recent years than about anyone, man or woman, in the state). And yes, Julia has ruled against my clients when she was a Federal District Court Judge, before she was elevated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. And yes, Bill Gibbons' Assistant DA's have made some decisions that were favorable to some of my clients and have made some decisions that were not favorable.)

If I had had gripes about Bill Gibbons' job performance or the way he has run the DA's office, I would have aired them here under my somewhat protective pseudonym, even though several of the staff, Assistant DA's, and Judges know I write this blog; and I wouldn't fear any sort of retribution from Bill or anyone working for Bill, because that wouldn't be professional. Bill's mind just doesn't work that way.

If Bill Gibbons were Governor, I know I wouldn't have to explain to him that the State of Tennessee has not responded as it should have in the last twenty years by building more prison space to answer federal court overcrowding orders, instead of reducing sentences the way it did in 1989.

I don't think I'd get much argument from Bill Gibbons over the Libertarians' proposition that the primary function of any state government is to protect its citizens from crime.

I bet Governor Bill Gibbons would agree that the City of Memphis needs more funding from the State for crime control, instead of letting the rest of the State leave us to twist in the wind.

On the other hand, I remember nothing good about Bill Frist's incumbency. He got lucky to be elevated to leadership in the U.S. Senate, and he often acted like a deer frozen in the headlights.

UPDATE: Gibbons Elected VP Of National DA Assoc.