Tennessee DUers: what happened in the Senate race?

[hedgehog]

Did Ford lose because he is black or because his positions were too close to Corker's or because it was a Republican year in Tennessee?

[Selatius]

1. The bimbo ad stimulated a proto-racist or racist reaction?

That's my best guess.

[Jacobin]

9. "call me", wink wink

That went straight to the anglo limbic brain stem.

Dirty dirty dirty politics and it worked.

[hedgehog]

13. In my house, the catch phrase is "Ford is black? Who knew?"

Calling him black is an illustration of the one drop rule for sure. Raising the issue of miscegenation in racists' minds in this case is really surreal.

[leftofthedial]

2. I don't live in Tennessee full-time, but

IMHO it was a combination of effective appeals to racism by the repukes

and Ford running as a repuke light, not offering a clear, definitive choice

[hedgehog]

5. What was the turnout?

Was there any excitement?

[TornadoTN]

7. Turnout was very good - for both candidates

Ford turned out a lot of grassroots folks on our side, Corker did the same.

This race was decided by the independants and they voted based on the assumption that the two candidates just weren't that much different.

[hedgehog]

10. It looks like a little under half the people in the state voted.

I'm wondering about the total percentage of registered voters who showed up. You can see where I'm going with this. People will claim that the racists went with Corker, and no doubt that is part of the equation. I'm still wondering if the problem was that Ford was too bland (or too close to the DLC) to get other people interested in voting.

[anniebelle]

3. Just shows the KKK is alive and well in Tennessee.

We're in Chattanooga and were so disappointed to see Ford go down. That racist ad worked with these knuckle-draggin', bible-wavin', cock-fightin', ignorant inbreds that live here. At least we have a Democrat in the governor's mansion.

[Vorta]

12. Inbreds?

I am going to feign a bit of offense here because I have been accused of being insensitive. My parents are fifth cousins and as you can see I am noticably offended by your remark :)

If you think it's disgusting that my parents are cousins, this makes my mother ill: Bush is my ninth or tenth cousin.

[SouthernBelle82]

31. I'm in Chattanooga too

On the website chattanoogan.com they had a poll on the two candidates and I thought Ford had won that. Of course that's just online. I hadn't seen any other type of polls for the area for the race. It's very interesting though that we have Bredesen (who isn't DLC and is pretty moderate, Ford is DLC and is pretty conservative but got called a moderate by people like Newsweek) in the governor house and a republican seantor. It doesn't make any sense to me. And we also have that stupid amendment one nonsense when Bredesen has said he personally is against it but he'd sign it only because it passed and it's the wishes of the voters. *Sigh* I wish we had Ford there.

[Lars39]

4. Here's the results, county by county:

http://www.state.tn.us/sos/election/results/2006-11/en4uss.pdf

[TornadoTN]

6. From what we saw in Eastern Tennessee

It was because most indies didn't see much of a difference between the two candidates to take that leap to vote Democratic. I can tell you a lot of people - an astounding number - in our area had this mindset. This was most certainly not a Republican year in Tennessee - things are changing and we are trending blue, so much so that we are bleeding purple.

The race issue played a bit into the race, I'm sure. But in the end, its effect was negligible. Harold has a lot of time ahead to get his Senate seat - he just needs to moderate his positions on Iraq and the erosion of our essential liberties. I think he will learn from this and come back strong in 08' when Alexanders seat comes up.

[SouthernBelle82]

32. I think so too

I think he will learn from this too and run again. I do have that strong feeling we won't be seeing the end of him. Who knows maybe he'll end up a Ted Kennedy in the Senate for the people of TN and next time around he won't be afraid to be a real moderate and not a Newsweek proclaims he's moderate democrat.

[emdee]

8. The state is full of voters who simply vote for the 'R'....

My county is blue, the town I live in is red, the state is normally red. Except for Bredesen who is not always a Democrat at heart.

Even though TN went Rep, taking the House was more important. And, hopefully, the Senate too. That should take some of the wind out of Marsha Blackburn's sails even though she kept her seat - and this year she was shown that she does have competition, which is something she was unaware of until this election season.

I saw on TV that Corker will be the only new guy in the Senate - maybe that along with his Freshman status will give him no say-so once he gets there. I think, maybe, he'll be ignored and rightly so.

emdee

[asjr]

18. My aunt thought I was crazy voting for

Democrats. "But, the family has always voted Republican." was her remark. In East TN I think that is the norm.

[hedgehog]

20. Has the family really always voted Republican or just since

Nixon introduced his Southern strategy?

[asjr]

25. The family is originally from E. TN. She may

be right that the family was always Republican. She is 94 years old and no matter how much I talked to her about the situation, she still voted Republican. I think it all goes back to 1947. When the GIs came back to the town there was a "Democratic" machine that absolutely ruled! The vets didn't like what they saw and proceeded to change it. Obviously they missed my aunt. I left the town after college and only went back for visits. I am the black sheep of the family.

[hedgehog]

26. Learn something new everyday.

I always thought the South was solid for the Democrats until Nixon came along.

[emdee]

28. My grandmother passed away two years ago...

but at 99 years of age, she was still a Democrat; a die-hard Democrat.
emdee

[SouthernBelle82]

33. Oh sure

I'm the only die hard liberal democratic voter only in my family that I know of. My mother isn't anything but she was once a republican and admitted to voting for that stupid amendment one which I was disappointed for and my dad is a republican but he didn't get to vote yesterday because he rode his bike to work and got a flat so didn't get the chance to go and didn't think to call here to get a ride over to the polling place.

[Clark2008]

11. He lost because, outside of Memphis, we have no alternative

media to allow the people to hear the Democratic message and because there simply are people here who will vote Republican, not matter what.

Race was a small, small part.

Seriously, lack of good media and lack of open-minds in East Tennessee, in particular, did Ford in.

[mconvente]

14. Well what about Nashville broadcasting into eastern TN??

Or is Nashville more purple than blue, or does east tennessee just not care about what nashville says.

Seeing how red eastern tennessee on the CNN page is pretty crazy...

[Clark2008]

15. The citizens of Nashville are mostly blue, but, see, all our media

is owned by big conservative corporations.

There are some minor alternatives all across the state, but not enough to make a difference.

When you consider that Joe and Joan Rural must drive several miles from their home in the sticks to their jobs in the city and all they have to listen to is Rush and InSannity and Savage, then, eventually - as is the case here - they begin to think in the most right-wing of terms.

The only show we had that was anywhere close to liberal in the Knoxville market. was The Lionel Show and they cancelled that a couple of months before the election and put that self-help lady on. And, to top it off, The Lionel Show was on well after prime-time drive-time.

Only Memphis has AAR. Nashville doesn't even have it - except via satellite.

[SouthernBelle82]

35. You forgot another place

don't forget churches. One of my churches preachers did a sermon on what God thinks of marriage. :eyes: I thought it was so disgusting.

[SouthernBelle82]

34. Here in Chattanooga on one of

the local affiliates they did really good coverage. They talked a lot about Corker and the shady Walmart deal and things like that. I was very surprised. Our local Times Free Press even endorsed Ford over Corker.

[indepat]

16. Tennesseans turned Albert Gore Sr. out of office for supporting civil rights

legislation and that racism is still alive and well would seem indisputable. Add that to countless throngs of evangelicals, apalling ignorance or apathy, and Ford's support of much of the 'pukes most damaging agenda to our Republic, from tax cuts, the so-called Patriot Act, pre-emptive torture, suspension of habeas corpus, near-dictatorial powers, excuse from war crimes and martial law at W's whim, Ford had too many obstacles to overcome. Had he listened to and followed my personal pleas made years ago, think he could have won in a cakewalk, but nobody listens to me. :eyes:

[Clark2008]

17. But there's racism everywhere.

I mean, I don't see any black senators from the coasts... do you?

If Ford had won, that would have meant that the two black senators would have been from the South and the mid-West: two areas that the coasters keep claiming are uber-racist, when those coasts don't have any black senatorial candidates, either.

So, no, it wasn't THAT much about race.

[hedgehog]

19. I'm thinking that numbers aren't everything.

I'm wondering if it will make a difference on important votes whether it's Ford or Corker.

[fasttense]

21. When Porker/Corker is indicted, you know he loves kickbacks,

then Ford can win in a special election.

[JCMach1]

22. that damn confrontation... combined with call me

the confrontation went against the Southern gentility thing... ie. you must be gracious and syrupy even as you slip your knife in their back.

the call me ad then re-inforced negative stereotypes about Ford.

Despite that, he came DAMN close. No confrontation, he would have won.

[Wcross]

23. Its hard to say.

Remember, this state is referred to as "the buckle of the bible belt". There was also a vote for an amendment to ban gay marriage in the state. I am sure this brought out all the bible thumpers. The bible thumpers around here tend to vote for republicans. I believe the reason is their views on abortion and religion.
In defense of our State, our racists are no unique feature to Tennessee. There are people that are racist in every state in the union. Is New York racist because they don't even try to run a black senatorial candidate?

[hedgehog]

24. We need Democrats more willing to speak up on social justice issues.

Some Bible thumpers actually do take the teachings of Jesus seriously. Make it clear to people how Republicans hurt the poor, the sick and disaster victims and you may seem some shift in the way this group votes.

[SouthernBelle82]

37. Just a correction

from my reading of amendment one I don't think it was to ban gay marriage. It said nothing about banning in the amendment. It just doesn't recognize it so it could be very well changed in the future just like I'm sure women and blacks couldn't vote here back in the day and that was changed. I think having a black guy be a candidate and only lose by three percent is a huge deal. I didn't agree obviously with everything he was positioned on but that's who he was and he did really well and should be proud of running a classy race while Corker was nothing but smears on his family. That's all Corker had to run on. That and he was white. Corker towards the end had this stupid ad where he was saying he wasn't as intellectual and smooth talking as Ford but he knew Tennesseeans or something like that. You could tell this rich white guy was trying to pull a Bush: play like he was one of you and the other person was an elite who could never get you. I think that played too. Corker kept trying to say how "out of touch" with Tennessee Ford is because he's been in DC all these years as a Congressman and Corker hasn't. Don't forget sometime this past summer Corker brought on one of the key guys of the SBVT liars group. On edit I also noticed in that ad I mentioned of Corker's that when he talked in it too he talked real slow and drawn out and made his accent stick out even more. He was really playing this "I'm one of you" card.

[Pithlet]

27. Racism was an issue.

The Repubs know this, and that is why they used the white call girl ad. It worked as they knew it would. I think too many here want to underplay the racism, and that's unfortunate, because we can't fight an enemy we're pretending doesn't exist, and grossly underestimating it doesn't help either. If Ford were white, he would have won easily. Having said that, I think it's a good sign that it was so close. It's a sign progress is being made here. I don't think it's hopeless. I just don't think racism was the minor/non-issue some are claiming it is.

[Geek_Girl]

29. Racism mostly

But I think we need to have a candidate with a populous message in order to win here. Ford is a very conservative democrat on social and economic issues. He voted for the Bankruptcy bill as well. TN has one of the highest rates of bankruptcy in the nation.

[SouthernBelle82]

30. I have no idea

I was very surprised. Weren't there some Diebold voting hard drive things that went "missing" in one county? Did they ever "find" them? Or were those votes never counted? Ford only lost by 3%.

[Hippo_Tron]

36. My opinion, Ford lost because he's black and single

Ford ran the best campaign possible and people really liked him. I think perhaps the only blunder was that they didn't go dirty after the blonde bimbo ad but I think the ad's effect was over-played

Ford got 48%, which is great for a minority candidate in a state like Tennessee. I think that he would've easily beaten Corker if he were white and married with two children.

[SouthernBelle82]

38. Perhaps

And one of them be a young female adult kissing another girl eh? Heh heh. But hey I'd be happy to fill that role. Heh heh.

[Hippo_Tron]

40. I was against using Julia Corker as a campaign issue...

But I don't want to get into that now. I'm pretty sure that most voters never saw the Julia Corker pictures. Also, you know as well as I do that the GOP gets a free pass on hypocrisy.

[Libby2]

39. He lost because we rank about 49th in education.