Mayor Melton Files To Run For Second Term

Despite ongoing legal battles, Frank Melotn is focusing on his bid for a seccond term as Jackson mayor. Wednesday Melton filed papers with the City Clerk's office to run for reelection.

By: Ross Adams |
Published: March 05, 2009

Four years after Frank Melton took charge at City Hall, is the Capital City better off or worse off?
Jeremy Graham says “I wouldn't say its worse off because of him.”
While Frank Thompson thinks “people got discouraged on how he handled some things.”
“If they let him do what he wanted to do it would probably be better off. It still needs a lot of work,” says Mary Johnson, a lifelong Jacksonian.
She voted for Melton and supports his unique crime fighting tactics, which lead to his federal indictment for allegedly ordering the destruction of what he called a "crack house" on Ridgeway Street.
But not everyone supports the mayor's bid for a second term.
Thompson says, “with all he's been through I really would step aside myself”
“He's not really the role model people are looking for at this time I don't think he's gonna do well if he ran,” Graham says.
Some of the mayor's critics say since he has so little to show in the way of accomplishments for the past four years, many voters may be unlikely to give him a second term. Still those critics admit even when the chips are down, you never bet against Frank Melton.