Posted on 02/16/2005 9:57:44 AM PST by dead
Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.) is expected to announce next week that he will run for the Senate, seeking to replace Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) when he retires in 2006.
Ford’s office declined to comment on his senatorial plans, but three sources close to Ford said that he has decided to run and that an announcement will be made soon. One informed source said, “He will absolutely, 100 percent, run for the Senate. He wants that seat.”
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Ford will be traveling in the Middle East later this week, according to those sources, and is scheduled to be back in Tennessee, with some major appearances planned, on Feb. 25.
President Bush won Tennessee 57 to 43 percent, and Ford would face an uphill battle to win statewide. The fifth-term congressman, whose father held the same seat for 22 years, has recently seen his statewide prospects hindered by his family name. His uncle, state Sen. John Ford, is embroiled in a child payment scandal and recently testified in juvenile court that he keeps two homes and lives with two different women whose children he fathered. The scandal has received considerable attention in Tennessee and has dominated political conversation among Democrats speculating about Ford’s plans.
The source said business leaders in Memphis are lining up behind Ford and noted that the congressman is conservative on fiscal matters. Ford last year indicated support for Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) Social Security reform bill.
While the odds are against Ford’s winning the seat, the source said Ford will raise a lot of money: “He will raise money from California to New York to Florida and everywhere in between.”
State Sen. Rosalind Kurita is the only other Democrat who has entered the race. Three Republicans have launched their campaigns, including former Rep. Ed Bryant, state Rep. Beth Harwell and Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker. Former Rep. Van Hilleary (R) is also considering jumping into the race.
This is Bryant's race to lose. I don't know what could prevent him from running (though I do hope Van stays out of it).
I stand corrected. I thought his mother was white, but I must have him confused with someone else.
Everything you said, with the exception of 'Didn't run against Gore in '86' was you blaming Lamar for things beyond his control, and saying someone isn't a good party man because he doesn't want to run for a office you want him to is stupid.
The fieldmarshal won that honor in a photo finish over me.
On a theme more relevant to this thread, what on earth makes you think that LAMAR!!!! is a great senator, much less a great REPUBLICAN senator? Doesn't Tennessee owe an awful lot more to America than a squishball Howdy Doody lookalike with piano lessons dressed like a lumberjack wannabe?
Richardson too connected to the Clintons and scandal.
I disagree the Dems have the Black vote sewn up. There has been a major shift amonf Hispanics who vote on values and issues, and a small shift among Blacks.
Condi is a social and cultural Conservative. Where did you ever get the idea that she is not pro-life?
Ford could be a strong candidate. TN was the home of "TN Ernie Ford" though he spent most of his time in CA. Gerald Ford defeated Ronald Reagan in the 1976 TN GOP primary but lost in the fall to the popular Jimmy Carter, who pledged to TN a "government as good, kind, and caring as the American people." They went all out for Al Gore in 1984, 1990, 1992 and 1996 but not 2000. Well, TN has bought some whoppers over the years.
A Governor is ultimately to blame or credit with a party's fortunes or misfortunes during their tenure. Lamar! did next to nothing to improve our party's fortunes while in office and while a "supposedly" popular figure while out of office. He proceeded to do similarly mediocre jobs as head of UT-Knoxville and as Bush, Sr's Education Secretary and then to have the audacity to run for President on his same mediocre record. For you to say it is not his fault regarding TN's fortunes is plainly ignorant. It is a real testament to an individual politician to put their needs secondary to the party's, indeed, that is what separates politicians from statesmen. In 1984, a lot of people went begging the man to succeed our Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker, Jr. Preferring to remain a lame duck and instead allowing the nomination of a 3rd tier RINO State Senator, and hence the coronation of then-Congressman Albert Gore, Jr. in one of only two seats we lost in the Reagan landslide (the other being anti-semitic liberal RINO Sen. Chuck Percy of IL), was an abomination of the highest order. That's why Lamar! will only be a politician and will NEVER be a statesman.
Yes, the incumbent party is usually the last one held, but that is by custom, not any requirement.
I won't speak for the fieldmarshal but I know I NEVER wanted to see either LAMAR!!!! or the Tennessee quisling Donald Sunsquish (whom I confess knowing from his Young Republican days of hostility to principle) run for ANY office in Tennessee. I guess I won't have to worry about Sunsquish any more. Will Victor Ashe try to take up the fallen sceptre of pseudo-Republicanism in Tennessee?
Bryant was too hesitant in his primary race against Alexander: he was thinking prematurely of "moderates" in the fall and could not therefore win the nomination. Remember Nixon's old adage (sometimes false it was too): run to the right in the primary and to the center in the general election.
Whatever. You're an unappeasable who would rather yell for perfection then take 2/3rds of what you want and try for more later.
I would think the Republicans' strongest candidate would be the incumbent, Sen. Frist. Is Frist in political trouble back home?
why doesn't he just move to utah?
Oops, never mind. Just read that Frist is retiring in 2006. What can I say, it's been a long week at work.
Both parents black or both alleged parents black?
"Is Frist in political trouble back home?"
Thank heavens they kept Scumquist hidden from view in '00 and didn't try to get him into the Senate race 2 years later. Scumquist at least makes Lamar! look respectable, kind of in the way Babs Boxer makes Dianne Feinstein look remotely sane.
"Will Victor Ashe try to take up the fallen sceptre of pseudo-Republicanism in Tennessee?"
Dubya sent ole Vic to Poland as our august Ambassador. Alas, after a few years of him, they might support the 'Rats in '08. I myself would've sent Vic to Mongolia, maybe our friend Z could serve as his charge d'affaires in beautiful downtown Ulan Bataar ? ;-)
Bryant did as well as he could've in the primary. He was massively outspent and didn't have all the positive press coverage.
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