Posted on 10/20/2006 10:23:20 AM PDT by SmithL
Jake Ford was the X factor.
His independent candidacy in the 9th Congressional District race sparked speculation from opponents and political pundits on whether his run was motivated by a desire to serve or a desire to keep the seat, held for 32 years by first his father and then his brother, in the family.
In April, on the last day to qualify, Jake Ford, 34, filed as an independent. He remained relatively unknown and quiet until this fall.
When he did speak, it was in quotable sound bites, speaking out against what he sees as ineffective policies in fighting the nation's war on drugs and in favor of rolling back Bush administration-sponsored tax cuts which also benefit some of the nation's wealthiest citizens.
He supports same-sex unions, opposes legalizing marijuana and has traveled to a host of churches, senior citizen centers and other sites to discuss his political platform.
"We need to send someone who's in the community and understands the people," Ford said during a candidate forum on Monday.
Ford is a high school dropout with an arrest record that includes dropped simple assault, marijuana possession and driving while intoxicated charges. From that troubled past, he went on to earn a GED, work for former president Bill Clinton, former vice president Al Gore and Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaigns.
He learned the ins and outs of the legislative process while delivering mail to the various congressional offices and the business of campaigning while watching his brother, Rep. Harold Ford Jr., and their father, Harold Ford Sr., in action. The middle Ford son was eventually named a vice president of the Harold Ford Group, his father's lobbying firm, which largely represent health-care concerns.
As such, Jake Ford has garnered a loyal base of supporters who see him as a political trifecta for the district: a young, African-American candidate with the right family pedigree. His detractors say that as a strident critic of opponent Democratic nominee Steve Cohen, Ford has exploited racial tensions and family name in his bid to win the seat.
A 'genuine child'
Newton Jacob Ford was born in 1972, the middle son of Harold Ford Sr. and his wife, Dorothy. He spent his early years and summers in Memphis learning Spanish, attending vacation Bible school and playing tennis in Martin Luther King Jr./Riverside Park.
He was a physical child; he would tear around his Whitehaven neighborhood on a moped. One summer he received more than 100 stitches from falls, bicycle accidents and other minor boyhood calamities.
He was also a practical jokester who threw water balloons out of the windows at the mailman and once smeared fake blood on himself and pretended to fall over the banister so that his father would think he was dead when he got home.
"Harold (Sr.) screamed and Jake laughed his little head off," his mother said giggling. "Jake was good, but he always knew he was Harold's little brother."
Ford was wide receiver on his junior varsity football team, loved history, math and hanging out with his friends who included Yusef Jackson, son of Rev. Jesse Jackson. "Family and friends would look at photos and say, 'This one will be your politician. Look at Jake, he has that charisma,'" his mother said.
But Ford said his privileged and carefree childhood came to a screeching halt the afternoon he learned his father had been indicted on bank fraud charges. Ford, then 14, said he walked home from St. Albans School, a private college preparatory academy in Washington, and was met by news cameras and cars parked on his family's front lawn.
"I came home and there were CNN cameras in front of the house," Jake Ford said. "And that's how we found out. ... It changed our lives because we lived in Washington."
Ford struggled to reconcile his family's public ordeal with attempts at crafting a normal life. He went back and forth between Washington and Memphis to attend his father's trial and worked part-time jobs bagging groceries and delivering mail to congressional offices.
Schoolwork at the rigorous prep schools and friendships soon fell by the wayside.
"It wasn't what they (students and teachers) said (of the whispers and sideway glances), it was what they didn't say," Ford said. "It really affected my education."
For Jake Ford, whose mother described him as her "most genuine child" who "tells the truth about everything," the problems sent him on a downward spiral, he said. He got into arguments and fought. He smoked marijuana "a couple of times" when he was 19 or 20.
The elder Ford said his son's simple assault charge occurred when Sr. called the police to clear the house of teenage guests who became too rowdy during a party. Everyone, including Jake Ford, was arrested as a result, Ford Sr. said.
District of Columbia Superior Court records obtained by The Commercial Appeal show that in May 1991, when Jake Ford was 18, he was arrested and charged with assaulting and threatening "in a menacing manner" his father.
Jake Ford maintains the marijuana and driving while intoxicated charges were cases of mistaken arrests and police harassment. The Breathalyzer "never tested over the legal limit," he said. "It wasn't my marijuana, it was someone's who was riding in the car with me," Ford said. "That's why they dropped the charges."
According to court records, the 1991, 1993 and 1994 arrests were never prosecuted and the charges were all dropped.
Ford also said he misspoke last week when he told reporters he was arrested four times in Washington; he said he was actually arrested three times. He said during the chaos of last week's press conference, reporters misunderstood him when he answered a question about whether he was arrested for simple assault on a former girlfriend.
"Never in my life have I put my hands on a woman," Ford said a day after the press conference.
Before his congressional run, Ford enjoyed a relatively low-key existence, reveling in daily 3-mile jogs, entering local 5K races and watching football with his family.
Ford often helps members of the South Memphis community who call for help on paying power bills, retaining custody of their children and he helps out at his family's annual Christmas basket giveaway -- work he's shy about taking credit for.
"I like to help without everybody knowing what I've done," Ford said. "I was a middle child. I didn't care who got the credit for it as long as it got done."
-- Halimah Abdullah: 529-5806
Jake Ford
Occupation: Harold Ford Group, vice president
Date of birth: Oct. 1, 1972
Hometown: Memphis
Education: GED, two years at Christian Brothers University and Clark Atlanta University
Personal: Single.
Civic involvement: Helping the South Memphis community; attended every Democratic Convention since 1972 (when his mother was pregnant with him)
Just gotsta have a Ford in office, at any cost.
Halimah Abdullah must have replaced Bubba Bohack at the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
I still haven't given up hope that Ford and Cohen will split 66% of the vote right down the middle and that White will be able to sneak into office with 34%. Sure, he'll be a one-termer (especially since Harold, Jr. will likely seek his seat back after losing to One-Term Bob Corker), but it may be enough to convince TN Democrats to implement primary run-offs if no one gets 50%+1 (or maybe 40%+1 like in NC).
I think Cohen wins with something in the 40% range. Whether Junior comes back to his old House seat, I'm thinking he might not want to. There's been talk of drafting him to run for Memphis Mayor against the controversial incumbent, "King Willie" Herenton. Nikki Tinker may be the Black Dem to challenge Cohen (or White) if either win. She only barely lost the nod to Cohen as it was. Of course, if Joke Ford wins, all bets are off.
Smith! Ya forgot the big Barf alert!
What about him never having had his hands on a woman? Perhaps they're trying to appeal to yet another special interest group.
Him and his brother are both single you know.
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