Could Denise Lee challenge Corrine Brown in 2016?

I spent two hours Monday night at a candidate forum involving hopefuls from the Northside Districts 2, 7, and 8, in which most of the candidates didn’t say much that was particularly novel, interesting, or quotable most of the time. That was fine, since I sat with the most outspoken person on City Council, the inimitable Denise Lee. She  always has her BS detector on and has a way of cutting through pretense to tell the real truth about the politicians running and the political process itself.

When Lee sat down next to me, I realized quickly it would be hard to take notes the same way I have at other forums. Every time a candidate said something scripted or vague, about “out-of-the-box thinking” or some other used-up cliché, Lee was there to call it  what it was.

Lee watched most of the forum with me. The only exception was when an Action News Jax reporter took her aside for a quick interview about Kim Daniels’s involvement in a fracas at a Northside polling place (It was said to be with other candidates or their volunteers regarding whose sign would go in front of whose).

If you didn’t know better, you would have thought the candidates were auditioning for Lee’s approval. One candidate running to replace her in District 8 kept talking through a smile about “continuing the work Denise Lee” has started. The admiration didn’t seem completely mutual. At one point, Lee said flat out that the candidate was lying, and suggested that if she was up there, she would call the candidate out.

Unfortunately, no one with a fraction of Lee’s candor or presence was on the dais. The other candidates running for District 8 spoke in platitudes. When Lee said something to me, they would speak faster and louder trying to command attention, cognizant that it wasn’t happening.

Perhaps the councilwoman is a tough sell: having served her district with  distinction, it’s hard to see someone come in and replace her.

That’s especially since it looks as if that replacement has been picked — or at least influenced — by someone who, as Lee put it, “never showed up at a Council meeting unless it directly affected her.” As the first of two panels wrapped up, (one a hybrid of Districts 2 and 8, with four candidates; the other, a six-candidate District 7 sampler) Lee rose, ascended to the stage, and took the mike.

It was, as the kids used to say, on.

“I don’t have much to say,” Lee started. “I’m here because I serve this district. I am pleased that these candidates took time to come up here. I was asked to say something. People want to know who I support in this election.”

“I know several candidates running (to replace me). I wanted to be fair,” she said, adding that she was “concerned about other people who say who they want” to replace her.

“If I’m not endorsing, I don’t see why anyone should,” she said in a clear acknowledgement of “Corrine’s Quick Picks,” which selected Katrina Brown (who was not at the forum) to replace her.

Lee referred to the “10 vacant seats” on the Council and the candidates who had to “work hard and earn seats,” a process circumvented by the Quick Picks — the “slip of paper” she had referred to when she hosted the St. Paul AME forum  this past week.

“If this is what’s going on, I might have to come out and endorse,” she said. “If Denise Lee is not endorsing, I don’t see why anyone else is.”

She didn’t refer to Brown by name from the stage. She didn’t have to. Being a literal person, I asked her to confirm.

“No question about it,” she said.

Compared with the very real power struggle between Lee and Brown, the comments at the forum were anticlimactic. But it was easy to tell who was prepared to lead and who wasn’t.

The most polished candidate, by far, was Lisa King, the forum’s sole representative from the District 2 race. Lee noted that she was the only one with a prepared statement, and King demonstrated a command of issues and their complexity that suggests that she is ready to play an important role on Council from day 1.

Other candidates were not without their merits. Donald Foy, part of a crowded field in District 7, clearly has walked the walk and talked the talk over the years. James Eddy, another District 7 hopeful, spoke with conviction about the issues.

Still other candidates, such as the scandal-plagued Reggie Gaffney, seemed unable to complete a sentence without either a malapropism or a stretch of the truth. It got so bad when he talked that there were a couple of moments when he was on the mike and another candidate had to stifle laughter. Given the yeoman’s work he did for Congresswoman Brown over the years, it speaks volumes that her endorsement went elsewhere in the race.

The real battle in Jacksonville’s African-American political world is between Brown and Lee, and it’s been brewing for some time now. Corrine is widely seen as unbeatable in terms of her congressional seat. While that may be the case, if Lee wanted to challenge her in a Democratic primary, you can bet the debates would be must-see TV. Lee told me, in the midst of a conversation where the best stuff will remain off record, that she wasn’t scared of Corrine. This could be a clash of the titans in 2016, if Denise feels like starting it up.