Word: fords
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...couple of mainstream polls have begun to show that Democrat Harold Ford Jr. is topping Republican Bob Corker in Tennessee's pivotal U.S. Senate race, but Ford may have a little problem on his hands in home-base Memphis: his younger brother Jake - who's running for big brother's old 9th Congressional district seat. Jake is running as an independent against the Democratic nominee with the blessing of the family patriarch and onetime local party boss, Harold Ford...
...State Senator Steve Cohen won last month's winner-take-all Democratic primary to fill Ford's seat, with 31% overall, in a field that included a dozen black candidates. A respected, sometimes pugnacious legislator, Cohen is probably the Tennessee General Assembly's best-known liberal. The Midtown Memphis district he has represented for a quarter century contains a generous number of blacks. Indeed, Cohen carried several predominantly black precincts and two local black mayors, Willie Herenton of Memphis and A. C. Wharton of Shelby County, enthusiastically endorsed him two weeks ago in an elaborate downtown ceremony...
...Ford himself has said he'll stay neutral regarding Cohen and his brother Jake. But the rest of the family is splitting over the race. Joe Ford Jr., an entertainment lawyer who finished third in the congressional primary - and is first cousin to both Jake Ford and Harold Ford Jr. - has endorsed Cohen. But Harold Sr., a former congressman, has gone all-out for son Jake, especially since longtime rival Herenton put down young Ford as unqualified (he dropped out of high school) and accused the Fords of seeking "a monopoly on all elected positions in this state and this...
...Then there's Mark White, a young white businessman and the Republican candidate, who would ordinarily stand to get no more than 30% in a heavily black district. But the split among Democrats may give him a better-than-usual shot - unless Republican moderates get worried about a reawakened Ford dynasty and go for Cohen...
...Rhetoric has been heated. Thaddeus Matthews, a politically independent African American whose widely read local blog is part scandal sheet, part political tip sheet, early in the campaign dismissed "Joke Ford" as an uncredentialed political novice and high school dropout who lacked his congressman brother's finesse and did odd jobs for his father. That has also been the perspective of an influential corps of liberal white bloggers who pooled their efforts on Cohen's behalf during the primary...