LaSimba Gray – Memphis Flyer

According to
Roll Call, a Washington, D.C. publication for political insiders, the
Rev. LaSimba Gray is asking members of the Congressional Black Caucus to “stay
out” of the 2008 Democratic primary race pitting incumbent 9th
District congressman Steve Cohen against repeat challenger Nikki Tinker.

Noting an appearance in Memphis last weekend on Cohen’s behalf by U.S. Rep.
Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, who is black, Gray said, according to the
newspaper, “”Steve
Cohen has been quoting many of them heavily and bringing them into the district
and we are simply asking them to stay out of this race.”

Gray strove unsuccessfully during the 2006 congressional race to winnow down a
large field of African-American candidates to a consensus black
candidate to oppose Cohen, who, as the minister noted, is both white and Jewish.

Roll Call quoted Gray as contending that the second-place finish in last
year’s primary of Tinker, a corporate attorney, meant that “she has won … the
primary of African-American candidates.” Gray said further, “The road has been
cleared for Nikki and we are busy meeting with candidates who ran last time to
show them the reality — the fact that with all of them in the race they can’t
win.”

Gray’s concept of a black-versus-white showdown was frowned on by Cleaver
spokesman Danny Rotert, who remarked that Cohen seemed to stand high in the
estimate of his constituents and observed, “If somebody here [Kansas City] said
Congressman Cleaver can’t represent his district because it’s a [majority] white
district, that would not go very far. So it’s too bad that that’s the rhetoric
that’s being used in Memphis.”

As of the last Federal Election Commission filing, Roll Call noted,
Tinker had $172,000 in cash on hand compared to Cohen’s $374,000. As the
periodical also observed, the feminist organization Emily’s List, which supported Tinker
strongly in 2006, has so far been non-committal about 2008.

A number of Tinker’s former Memphis supporters have also indicated they will not
be backing her in next year’s race. One such, lawyer Laura Hine, said she had
committed to Tinker in 2006 before Cohen made his candidacy known. Affirming her
support for Cohen in next year’s race, Hine said recently, “The fact is, he’s
been a very effective congressman, speaking to all the issues I care about.”

One such issue, according to Hine, was pending federal Hate Crimes legislation,
which Cohen has backed and Tinker has been silent about. Rev. Gray recently made
an effort to organize opposition to Cohen’s stand among black ministers, on the
ground that the bill would muzzle their opposition to homosexuality.

Other
local African-American ministers, like the Rev. Ralph White and the Rev. O.C.
Collins Jr., have refuted that allegation, citing specific sections of the bill,
and made a point of supporting Cohen. The Memphis chapter of the NAACP also
recently affirmed its support of the bill and Cohen’s activities on its behalf.

In stark contrast to his reception at an angry ministerial
meeting hosted by Rev. LaSimba Gray in August, 9th District
congressman Steve Cohen heard himself lauded and endorsed Sunday by members and
leaders of the local NAACP for his support of federal Hate Crimes legislation.

Gray, who had opposed Cohen’s election in 2006 and had
tried unsuccessfully to organize support for a consensus black candidate in last
year’s large congressional field, has insisted that the bill inhibits black
preachers from inveighing against homosexuality and has spurred opposition to it
among black clerics. Denying the allegations, Cohen has responded by calling
Gray’s use of the Hate Crimes issues merely a device to support Nikki Tinker, a
declared opponent of Cohen’s reelection in 2008.

Sunday’s meeting was as supportive for the congressman as
Gray’s ambush meeting in August had been negative. Cohen and the NAACP members
enjoyed something of a love-fest, in fact, with longtime NAACP eminence Maxine
Smith, who directed the local organization for years, making a point of praising
“my congressman” and current NAACP executive director Johnnie Turner and chapter
president Dr. Warner Dickerson adding their kudos.

Of the Hate Cries bill and Cohen’s sponsorship, Dickerson
offered this: “I want to say up front that the national NAACP not only endorses
this bill but supports it as a source of strength.”

Noting that the bill was also supported by such
organizations as the ACLU, NEA, Congressional Black Caucus, and the PUSH/Rainbow
Coalition, Dickerson said of Cohen, “We thank him for his support of the bill
and all that he has supported there and prior to going there, when he was in the
state legislature and also locally. He supports the issues and the things we
believe in as the NAACP. “

In her introduction, Johnnie Turner said rhetorically, “Is
there anybody here that doesn’t know Steve Cohen?”

Gray ‘…hurt Memphis and hurt race relations.’

In his own remarks, Cohen followed up on that theme,
telling the group, “When I was on the county commission I had a lot more in
common with Vasco Smith and Jesse Turner and Minerva Johnican and Walter Bailey
and worked with them and voted with them….Those were the people I worked with.
They were my allies and my friends” He added similar remarks about current state
Representative Larry Turner and state representative and state senator Kathryn
Bowers, both of whom were on hand.

“Y’all are the reason I got in trouble, wanting to join
that club,” he joked, recalling a mini-controversy over his professed desire,
after being elected, to join the Congressional Black Caucus. Cohen then noted
that he had addressed the Caucus during the previous week on subjects like his
apology-for-slavery legislation, which he said now had good prospects for
passage.

Cohen noted recent coverage of the local Hate Crimes
controversy on National Public Radio and said Gray, who was heard from on the
broadcast opposing the bill and expressing reservations about white
representation of the 9th District, “sounded pretty bad” and hard
“hurt Memphis and hurt race relations.”

The congressman said the Hate Crimes bill was “as American
as apple pie, motherhood, and the NAACP” and contended that, besides adding
protection for gays and people with disabilities to existing legislation, the
bill also strengthened federal jurisdiction and funding for crimes against
blacks. “Some 54 percent of hate crimes are committed against African Americans,
and only 16 percent against gays,” he said.

‘Strange Bedfellows’

As before when he has discussed the issue, Cohen insisted
that conservative clergymen were permitted both by the bill itself and by the
First Amendment to say whatever they chose about homosexuality. “No preacher’s
ever been arrested for preaching anything ever.” He said opinions to the
contrary were being urged by right-wing clerics who are “trying to get American
preachers to leave the Democratic Party on social issues.”

He then quipped, “Politics can make strange bedfellow, but
you shouldn’t wake up and have to go to the Health Department.”

At the close of Cohen’s remarks, he got more kudos from
Jesse Turner Jr., who recalled lobbying the then congressional candidate in
early 2006 for some 30 issues favored by the national NAACP. “He was for 28 of
them, and by the time we finished talking, he was for 29,” said Turner. “I want
this audience to know that he was on board even before he got elected.”

Last week, Cohen earned a similar fillip from an evaluation
from the Congressional Black Caucus Monitor, a national group that gives
performance grades to congressional members in predominantly black districts.
After giving Cohen’s 9th District predecessor, former Rep. Harold
Ford Jr., a “dishonorable mention,” the Monitor’s report said, “it’s worth
noting that his white successor, Rep. Steve Cohen, represents Ford’s former
constituents more ethically, ably, and accurately than Ford ever did, and
consequently scores higher on the CBC Report Card.”