Overtime duty in District 9 { Ford family tries to un-play the race card in Memphis }

Memphis Commercial Appeal ^ | 4/8/8 | Editor

[SmithL]

Ford family members elevated the dialogue in Steve Cohen's re-election run, discouraging use of the race card -

The ability to lead and the willingness to serve are necessary attributes for a member of Congress. When a congressman continues to lead and serve after leaving office, it's a bonus for constituents.

Harold Ford Sr. and Harold Ford Jr., who represented Memphis' 9th Congressional District from 1975 to 2007, gave the 9th District a bonus Saturday when they made it clear that U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen's race and religion should not be factors in his re-election bid.

Cohen, who is white, faces several African-American candidates in the Democratic primary in August. The winner will take on Harold Jr.'s brother, Jake Ford, who is making another bid for the office as an independent, and two other independents in the general election.

Jake Ford and his brother, Isaac, have argued that the 9th is a "black district" whose purpose is to guarantee the election of an African-American congressman. But Jake and Isaac Ford, who also attacked Cohen because of his Jewish heritage, have got it all wrong, Harold Ford Sr. and Ford Jr. said in telephone calls to The Commercial Appeal.

To Ford Jr., Jake Ford's remarks amounted to an insult. Both he and his father suggested that an apology was in order.

The candidate would be well served by better grounding in history, as well. Indeed, the 9th District is predominantly black -- a majority-minority district in the parlance of political science. It was not, however, among the majority-minority districts created following the 1990 Census to increase minority representation in Congress.

It is a compact, contiguous zone that covers most of the area within the Memphis city limits -- a product of demographics and geography, not gerrymandering.

The creation of majority-minority districts in states such as Texas, North Carolina and Mississippi, often to satisfy court orders arising from voting rights lawsuits, has been credited with a dramatic increase in the number of minority members of Congress since 1992. In that sense, the process has been a success.

In June 1996, however, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional four congressional districts that had been created for minorities. And critics have argued credibly that majority-minority districts have actually damaged the cause of African-Americans in Congress by further diluting black voting strength in districts where African-Americans and Latinos are in the minority.

Like all majority-minority districts, citizens of the 9th District are empowered to elect whoever they believe will best represent them in Congress -- black, white or other. That has been and should continue to be the goal of progressive politicians on both sides of the color line.

To suggest that district voters are obligated to reject a candidate because of his race fails to recognize that African-Americans don't think or vote alike, even though there are divisive figures on the scene who pretend that they do.

The notion is patronizing, politically regressive and an insult to the Ford family's legacy in District 9.

[SmithL]

Ford Ping

[skinkinthegrass]

thanks, for the ping. :)
...this is a common tactic(s),

"OH NO!....This isn't about **RACE**"....while broadcasting this so-called,"Heartfelt Denial" throughout the district in question.....its' just free advertising....

[fieldmarshaldj]

Nothing but good-cop, bad-cop. Harold, Sr. was the single most notorious race-baiter in his family. He duped Whites into voting for him the first time to dump a GOP incumbent, and once in power, railed against Whites, by which time it was too late to dump him as Whites fled his district en masse.