Tenn. Democrat beats lawyer who linked him to KKK
Aug 7 10:25 PM US/Eastern
By WOODY BAIRD
Associated Press Writer
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - A racially charged Democratic primary campaign ended Thursday with an incumbent congressman trouncing the opponent who ran an ad linking him to the Ku Klux Klan.
Early, unofficial results showed Democrat Steve Cohen with nearly 80 percent of the vote to nearly 19 percent for Nikki Tinker, a corporate lawyer who was his chief opponent in the district that covers Memphis.
Cohen is the first white congressman from Memphis in more than three decades and one of only two white congressmen representing a majority black district.
In the state's other major congressional primary, in the solidly Republican 1st District in northeastern Tennessee, Johnson City Mayor Phil Roe had a small lead over Republican Rep. David Davis. The campaign heated up toward the end, moving from joint stump appearances to negative ads. With 80 percent of precincts reporting, Roe had 51 percent to Davis' 48 percent.
In the 9th District, in Memphis, the campaign turned ugly in its final days, when Tinker ran a television ad juxtaposing photos of Cohen, who is Jewish, and a hooded Ku Klux Klan member. Tinker's supporters argued the 9th District, which is 60 percent black and 35 percent white, should be represented by a black candidate.
The primary will likely decide the next congressman in the heavily Democratic district, which has returned incumbents to the House since 1974. Cohen won his first term after a 2006 primary in which a dozen black candidates, including Tinker, split the vote.
Tinker said her ad linking Cohen to the KKK for opposing a 2005 effort to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest from a downtown park "merely states the facts. I think the nation needs to know Steve Cohen's complete record."
The ad drew condemnation Thursday from Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. It juxtaposed pictures of a statue of Forrest, the founder of the KKK, and a hooded Klansman in front of a burning cross while asking, "Who is the real Steve Cohen?"
"These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics, and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee," Obama said in a statement.
Cohen, a former state senator with a long record as a civil rights supporter, led an effort last month to get the U.S. House to issue an unprecedented apology to black Americans for wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws.
The ad was also incongruous because of Cohen's religion—Jews are another group targeted by the KKK.
John Geer, a Vanderbilt University political science professor, said the ad indicated Tinker knew her campaign was in trouble.
"Steve Cohen has been very conscious that he's representing a black majority district, and he's not a member of the KKK," Geer said. "Voters are not fools, and they can sort this out."
Another issue was Cohen's opposition to a House resolution labeling the killing of Armenians in World War I as genocide. The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the nonbinding resolution last year despite arguments it would anger Turkey, which allows U.S. military shipments headed for Iraq to cross its borders.
During a news conference at Cohen's home Wednesday to call Tinker's ad an act of desperation, a cameraman who identified himself as working for an Armenian-American citizens' group interrupted. Cohen pushed the man, Peter Musurlian of Glendale, Calif., out of his house and called police.
Musurlian said his group supported Tinker because of Cohen's opposition to the genocide resolution. The district does not have a large Armenian population.
In other primary races Thursday, former state Democratic Party Chairman Bob Tuke and former Knox County Clerk Mike Padgett were the most active candidates for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander.
The 1st District hasn't sent a Democrat to Washington since 1881, meaning the winner is a likely lock in November.
Roe, a retired obstetrician/gynecologist, ran a TV ad accusing Davis of selling out to "big oil" by accepting money from industry PACs and backing legislation supporting offshore drilling.
Davis, a health care business owner, countered with ads denying he pocketed oil money, accused Roe of deceptive campaign practices and said "the voters of East Tennessee deserve better."
Tennessee's other four congressional incumbents faced no primary opposition—Republican John Duncan of the 2nd District, and Democrats Jim Cooper of the 5th, Bart Gordon of the 6th and John Tanner of the 8th.
Republican Marsha Blackburn faced challenger Tom Leatherwood in the 7th District, while Republican Zach Wamp in the 3rd District and Democrat Lincoln Davis in the 4th District defeated token opposition.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
