Curious race for Steve Cohen in TN....two opponents...one Harold Ford's brother

[madfloridian]

The other is Nikki Tinker. Harold's brother, Jake, filed a petition to run as a Democrat against Cohen and Tinker. But wait, then he went back and got another petition...and is running against both as an independent.

They appear to really want Cohen out, don't they? I thought he was pretty progressive and doing a good job. :shrug:



Cohen, Tinker, and Ford

So it's a Three-Way (Sort Of) in the 9th: Cohen, Tinker, and ... Jake Ford!

The race for Memphis' 9th District congressional seat, now held by first-term Democrat Steve Cohen, was always destined to be closely watched, inasmuch as it pitted Cohen against Nikki Tinker, the runner-up in the 2006 Democratic primary.

There are obvious contrasts between Cohen and Tinker in gender, race (he's white, she's black), religion (he's Jewish, she's Christian), and, not least, political ideology, an area where Cohen's legislative record and several decades' worth of outspokenness are counterpointed by what is, relatively speaking, Tinker's blank slate. Moreover, both those campaign efforts are expected to be well funded, and Cohen has attracted an unusual degree of national attention during his first term -- much but not all of it for his close attention to matters affecting his predominantly African-American constituency.

But then comes Jake complicating things.

But hold everything! As of Monday, this established pas de deux took on a third member, whose volatile presence, personal history, and family name seem likely to turn what had been a tidy ballet into a free-for-all.

Jake Ford, second son of one former District 9 congressman, Harold Ford Sr., and brother of another, Harold Ford Jr., picked up a petition at the Election Commission Monday to run as a Democrat for the 9th District seat against Cohen, Tinker, and several other less ballyhooed figures in the party's August 7th primary.

But hold on again! Having evidently rethought the matter, Ford returned to the Election Commission on Tuesday, picked up a new petition to run as an independent, and returned shortly thereafter to file it. That means that Cohen (or Tinker), having struggled through what will basically be a mano-a-mano prmary, will have to do it all over again in the fall against Jake Ford.

Very confusing.