Month: February 2005

MORE FORD

Last week we began what will be a continuing examination of the forthcoming U.S. Senate race of 9th District congressman Harold Ford.

In Ford’s case, as in that of his Democratic primary opponent, state Rep. Rosalind Kurita of Clarksville, and in those of the several Republican hopefuls now in the field, we intend to look beyond and beneath the P.R. statements, position papers, and stump platitudes for a nitty-gritty look at the candidate’s persona and politics.

Promise: In all instances, you will get the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. No spin, no kowtowing, and no shying away from either positives or negatives.

First, the good news for Ford: Despite the widely held belief of some, mainly local, observers that Ford’s race will be handicapped by (1) his race; and (2) bad publicity about his uncle, state Senator John Ford, my interviews and observations statewide over the years have not borne out that concern.

In 15 years of reporting state and local politics, I have yet to hear the first disparaging comment about Ford that is race-based — even from the kind of thinly reconstructed types one might expect that from. And as Ed Cromer, the respected editor of the Nashville-based Tennessee Journal says, “I think that, even with the kind of bad publicity that John Ford is in for now, people will be able to distinguish between the nephew and the uncle.” As if to make doubly sure, the congressman has repeatedly made remarks distancing himself from his uncle (something, John Ford’s intimates say, that the currently beleaguered state senator isn’t crazy about.)

More good news: It is no secret that the congressman has proved a fascinating figure for much of the national and statewide media, and in his race he can expect the kind of lavish attention that was given the Senate races of candidates like Hillary Clinton in New York and Barack Obama in Illinois.

There’s bad news that comes with this good news, however: As we have noted, and as others are likely to discover, the congressman’s reactions to news coverage are sometimes impulsive and even, when he doesn’t like the facts reported, characterized by Kill-the-Messenger tendencies.

Two years ago, when another writer for this newspaper pointed out, accurately, that Ford’s local supporters were supporting state Rep. Kathryn Bowers, the eventual winner, for local Democratic chairman in a contested race, the congressman, looking ahead to his statewide race and no doubt galvanized by fear of party division, reacted swiftly and angrily. He repudiated the effort of his minions and made a point of endorsing then chairman Gal Jones Carson.

Complicating the issue was the fact that Carson doubled as press secretary for Mayor Willie Herenton, who has never been close to the Ford political clan.

Though Ford’s local supporters sucked it up and kept their peace publicly, several of them simmered privately and insisted that the congressman himself had initially signed off on their pro-Bowers efforts. One or two of them had serious words with Ford over the matter.

Ford’s composure under fire is sure to be tested in a Senate race. Rep. Kurita herself has a reputation for tenacious, even bare-knuckled campaigning, and, assuming Ford gets by her, he can surely expect some heavy weather from the eventual Republican nominee. As Cromer says, “No doubt about it. He’s never had to endure the kind of stressful opposition he can expect in a Senate race, and that could be a problem for him.”

Even Ford’s well-established celebrity glow could turn into a hindrance. Two recent items in Roll Call, the widely read Capitol Hill newsletter, began to highlight Ford’s private life. One called attention to his conspicuous presence at a lavish party thrown by Playboy Magazine during Super Bowl week. Another made fun of his penchant for regular pedicures.

Though he was briefly engaged some years ago, Ford does not have the kind of visible ties to a Significant Other that Tennesseans will see in the case of his various opponents. This fact might even help him with some younger voters, however.

One other potential obstacle for Ford: A number of state Democrats were unsettled by Ford’s protracted dawdling over a potential 2000 campaign for the Senate seat of Bill Frist — the same one that Frist will vacate and Ford intends to seek next year.

Still other Democrats were miffed by what they saw as the inattention of Ford, a national co-chair of John Kerry’s campaign, to the Democratic nominee’s race in Tennessee. One major-county liaison official communicated misgivings about Ford to the Kerry campaign at the highest level.

For all that, no one doubts that Rep. Ford, an undeniably dynamic figure, is likely to energize the Tennessee Democratic base in ways beyond the ability of the party’s Senate nominees for well more than a decade. And this, too, will be spoken to here. Stay tuned.

Alternating between irony and promises of sustained direct action, state Rep. Kathryn Bowers, chairman of the legislative TennCare Oversight Committee, vowed Sunday to continue resisting Governor Phil Bredesen’s recently announced TennCare cuts and to try to maintain the state-run insurance system as close to its current level of enrollees as possible.

Bowers appeared, along with Nell Levin of the Tennessee Alliance for Progress, and Bevery Owens of Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, at the monthly meeting of the Public Issues Forum at the Central Library.

Maintaining that Bredesen’s reforms amounted to “telling people to jump before they’ve got a safety net set up,” Bowers concurred with attendees who said the proposed Bredesen cuts threatened their very lives. Paying homage to Judge William J. Haynes Jr., the Middle Tennessee federal jurist who last month issued an order delaying the cuts, Bowers said, “Thank God for Judge Haynes. We’re not going to sit on our hands and let them take 323,000 people off the rolls.”

Attributing to the governor and his aides variations on the mockingly enunciated refrain, “We don’t know yet,” Bowers said Bredesen had acted before possessing reliable estimates of the economic and health costs to Tennesseans. She said she would organize groups of citizens to come to the General Assembly and lobby legislators against the Bredesen reforms.

Judge Haynes has meanwhile set a March 28th hearing to determine whether the governor’s plan is in compliance with federal consent decrees. And the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled an April 26th hearing to review the matter. Some news reports indicate that key legislators are considering seeking a month-long recess, pending the outcome the two hearings.

Levin said she thought public reaction to the governor’s proposals would be bad politically for Bredesen, who has recently been mentioned by national magazines as a potential 2008 presidential contender. Owens said she thought the TennCare issue might once again revive prospects for a state income tax, but Bowers, who intends to run for the state Senate seat vacated recently by Roscoe Dixon, now a Shelby County governmental aide, said she thought the income tax was a dead issue.

She touted instead a measure introduced jointly by herself and state Senator Steve Cohen that would raise cigarette taxes enough to pay for maintaining the current level of TennCare enrollment.

Bowers v. Hooks, v. Chism, v. Herenton?: The feisty Bowers has got more than Bredesen on her plate. As she prepares to run against current Shelby County Commission chairman Michael Hooks for Dixon’s old state Senate seat, she faces the imminent likelihood of a seat-warmer for Hooks in the Senate, as former Teamster leader Sidney Chism, a longtime confidante of Mayor Willie Herenton and a de facto Hooks ally, seems to have the votes to be appointed by the commission Monday as an interim senator.

“I’m not comfortable with Sidney in there,” Bowers had confided Saturday after presiding over a special meeting of the Shelby County Democratic Committee in her role as local Democratic chairman.

Saturday’s special meeting had dealt with another thorny issue — the question of whether Shelby County Democrats would hold their biennial nominating convention in July this year, or in April, along with the rest of the state’s Democratic county committees.

Bowers had requested the change, and,the state Democratic committee had voted last month to permit it, so long as the local committee approved the request by formal vote.

There had been a stormy confrontation in Nashville between Bowers associate David Upton and other Bowers supporters, on one hand, and Chism, Gale Jones Carson, and Mal Hooker, all members of a party faction close to Mayor Herenton, on the other.

The Herenton faction contended last month that Bowers and Upton, who formally sought the July date in Nashville, had short-cut the local committee, and that argument continued Saturday, with Hooker charging that Upton had been guilty of “lying” about the matter to both the state and local committees.

Whatever the merits of the two positions, chairman Bowers’ group had the votes Saturday. By voice vote, the local committee approved the July date — sought by Bowers, according to herself and Upton, so that Shelby’s legislative delegation, who will be in session through the spring, might participate in the local convention process more actively.

Hooker and others who had vocally protested the change left the meeting shortly after the vote was taken.