9th District congressman Steve Cohen, whose three terms to date have generated impressive national attention, is apparently not going to avoid challenge in the Democratic primary from local Urban League head and School Board member Tomeka Hart.
Hart, whose announced campaign had long been dormant, is finally on the move. She was the beneficiary of a Monday night fundraiser at the Joysmith Gallery on Huling, and she has plans to open her campaign headquarters near the Hollywood/Chelsea intersection on Thursday.
Hart was, along with Board colleague Martavius Jones, one of the prime movers behind the Memphis City Schools board’s decision to surrender its charter last December — a circumstance that launched the ongoing merger between MCS and Shelby County Schools.
Since his first election to Congress in 2006, former state Senator Cohen has comfortably turned back successive Democratic Party challengers. He defeated Nikki Tinker in the 2008 primary and former Mayor Willie Herenton in 2010 — both by margins of 4 to 1.
Both contestants will have to wait to see the exact confines of the 9th District, the lines of whch will be re-drawn by the General Assembly in January.
