Posted on 07/25/2006 9:54:46 AM PDT by SmithL
With Bob Corker the frontrunner in both polls and funding, his major opponents in the Republican U.S. Senate primary have opened new lines of attack with the election just 10 days away.
Van Hilleary on Monday launched a new television ad that says Corker is "running a cowardly smear campaign" in contrast to the "honorable campaign" by Hilleary, who "served our country with honor in combat."
Ed Bryant, meanwhile, is trying to turn the tables on Corker's claim that his opponents, both former congressmen, "cashed in" on their service in elective office by becoming lobbyists. Corker-owned property in Chattanooga, Bryant said, rose in value by at least $18 million "as a direct result of Corker's steering nearly 55 million taxpayer dollars toward the development of downtown properties" while mayor of the city.
Corker's campaign manager said the tactics of Bryant and Hilleary are signs of desperation, citing polls that show them trailing Corker by double-digit margins. But Hilleary and Bryant both found things to highlight in some recent polling, too.
Democrat Harold Ford Jr.'s senior strategist, meanwhile, indicated in a memo that the campaign expects Corker to win the Republican nomination while vowing a more effective job than Republicans in confronting him with "inconvenient facts" in the general election.
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The Hilleary campaign characterized its new TV ad as an attempt to "set the record straight" after a Corker ad portrayed Bryant and Hilleary as "ineffective career politicians." The Corker ad was depicted by Hilleary as "a head-first dive into the gutter."
Opening with a photograph of Hilleary during his Air Force service, the ad narrator says, "Bob Corker is running a cowardly smear campaign, falsely attacking Van Hilleary. It's wrong.
"Corker never served our country in uniform, never defended freedom in combat.
"How can Corker question Van's character?
"The choice: Corker's dirty politics or Van Hilleary send a soldier to the Senate."
The Hilleary ad cites one aspect of the Corker ad as wrong: A Corker contention that Hilleary and Bryant voted to raise their own pay.
The vote used by Corker in making the claim came at the end of the 2000 session of Congress on an "omnibus" appropriations bill that ran more than 1,000 pages and combined three previous pieces of legislation into one, records show.
The bill contains no mention of pay raises. But Congress has set things up so members get automatic cost-of-living raises unless a specific provision is included to spurn the salary increase.
In early maneuvering on the "postal-treasury" appropriations bill - one of three included in the final omnibus - Hilleary voted against the measure, his campaign said, because it did not contain a no-pay-raise provision. He voted for the omnibus bill in its final version, which included tax cuts and funding for several Tennessee projects. The Corker campaign contends that final yes vote amounts to voting for a pay raise.
Ben Mitchell, Corker campaign manager, said Monday that the ad continues to run throughout much of the state - along with a new Corker positive ad - and defended the Corker interpretation as a Hilleary vote for a pay raise.
"By Van Hilleary's own admission, he voted against the pay raise before he voted for it," said Mitchell. "It's the kind of explanation that would make John Kerry proud."
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The Bryant campaign reviewed property tax records for 16 properties owned by Corker in Chattanooga from 1999, before Corker's election as mayor, through 2005. The properties were among those sold by Corker for an undisclosed sum in January 2006.
During the period, Bryant spokesman Andrew Shulman said, the assessed value of the 16 properties rose by 41.6 percent, or nearly $18 million. As mayor, Corker led a $55 million downtown redevelopment effort.
"The way in which Bob Corker used the investment of taxpayers' dollars to enrich himself may not be illegal, but it's wrong, and Bob Corker knows it's wrong or he wouldn't be refusing to release the details of his income tax returns in an effort to try and hide what he has done," said Shulman.
Corker has given reporters access to basic federal income tax forms showing the basic amount of his income and taxes paid, but he has refused to provide forms and schedules showing the sources of income, charitable contributions and deductions.
Mitchell said Corker's actions as mayor were entirely appropriate.
"It is clear that, in their desperation, they're no longer content to criticize Bob Corker and are now criticizing the Chattanooga community and what everyone here accomplished together," said Mitchell.
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Corker's new positive campaign ad strings together an array of phrases praising him that appeared in a Chattanooga newspaper along with pictures. Among the phrases: "Self-made businessman," "large dreams," "magnificent results," "quiet and unselfish public service" and "grand-slam mayor."
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The new poll of the day in the Senate race came Monday from Zogby International, sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. It has no head-to-head matchup in the Republican primary but instead pits each of the three Republicans against Ford to see how they would fare in November.
Bryant fared best in the results, getting 47.6 percent to Ford's 45.6 percent.
Corker fared worse - 42.5 percent versus Ford's 43.6 percent.
Hilleary had 47.1 percent to Ford's 46.3 percent.
Recent head-to-head polls have uniformly shown Corker leading significantly in the primary, though the actual numbers have varied somewhat.
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Michael Powell, senior consultant to Ford, says in a memo sent to media that Corker's lead is predictable because of "spending $6 million on false and misleading television ads that went unchallenged by his opponents."
If Corker wins the primary, Powell says, the dynamics will change when he faces a "well-funded, well-organized" Ford. He lists a long array of supposed problems during Corker's tenure as mayor - most already cited by Hilleary and Bryant - and proclaims, "He will not be able to run away, hide from or ignore them" in a general election campaign.
Mitchell said he was not concerned with the allegations because "we've had a lot of practice running against congressmen who are absolutely negative."
Bryant fared best in the results, getting 47.6 percent to Ford's 45.6 percent.
Corker fared worse - 42.5 percent versus Ford's 43.6 percent.
Hilleary had 47.1 percent to Ford's 46.3 percent.
OMG, I can't stand the thought of yet another tight defense on a GOP Senate seat in a deep red GOP state. This should be a no-brainer election.
The vitriol from the race has gotten so intense that I fear the winner of the GOP primary may be damaged going into the general election.
I'd hate to see Harold Ford Jr win this seat because of GOP in-fighting.
The Dims are cheering for Corker for other reasons. Even if he wins against Ford, it is almost as good as a Ford victory for them.
Multiple polls show Corker on top, even those sent to me by Bryant and Hilleary. One of those two, preferrably Hilleary, should have dropped out and endorsed the other conservative in this race.
I am quite certain that Corker will win the primary by a large margin, but I don't think Ford is within even 10 percent of him in the general election.
From yesterday's Tennessean, here is part of an article with some poll results coducted for the Chattanooga Times Free Press. (According to this poll, Corker would whitewash Ford).
Thirty-nine percent of likely Republican primary voters surveyed said they would vote for Corker, compared with 23 percent for Ed Bryant and 22 percent for Van Hilleary, according to the poll conducted last week for the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
The survey said Corker fares better than his opponents in head-to-head match-ups with U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., the likely Democratic nominee in the race for the seat held by Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who is not seeking re-election.
Corker has a 49 percent to 36 percent advantage over Ford, with 15 percent of respondents undecided, according to the poll.
Hilleary and Bryant are splitting the opposition to Corker. At this point, the only thing they can do by attacking Corker is to help Harold Ford in the fall. They self-destructed and allowed Corker to slip in the back door. Too little, too late. Attacking Corker at this point doesn't help them, but Ford.
heh heh heh - too late
Touche!
I agree. An attorney I know in Cookeville said that JR.'s flasy bus rode into the town's square and only about 20 people ever entered the bus.Not too much support I would say.
thanks
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