How was Willie Herenton re-elected?

How in the world did Memphis re-elect Willie Herenton?

The man was divisive and made comments to separate Memphians seemingly having no interest in serving all citizens. He was regularly offensive in the media making comments that were unbecoming of an elected executive. His supporters that were unflinchingly loyal did not seem to actually receive benefits for supporting him because there came a point where he was only helping out the elites to whom he was beholden. There was a universal suspicion that he was corrupt and abusing his power for personal benefit. Many thought he was under criminal investigation. His history of horrible treatment of women was embarrassing.

Even if there was a belief that he got credit for his pass successes, he was never as eloquent as he had been in his younger days, and his messaging just became short, abrasive sound bites that were usually non-sensical. There was no vision for what he was going to work on, only an apparent desire to just keep power.

Why was a plurality a voters convinced that Willie Herenton should be returned as mayor when anyone could see he had no ability to move the community forward? Was it as simple as voters making a decision that they did not care about the future and just wanted to see the world burn?