LAT: Tennessee Senate race may reach beyond election
The Senate race might determine party power and could have political and racial implications beyond the election.
By Richard Fausset, Times Staff Writer
November 5, 2006
....The Democratic congressman is locked in a tight, nasty race against Republican Bob Corker, a popular former mayor of Chattanooga who is white....The outcome could determine which party controls the upper house of Congress. It also could have implications for race and American politics that extend beyond Tuesday's election. Bruce Oppenheimer, a political scientist at Vanderbilt University, said voters and political shot-callers might look to the election for clues about whether Southerners — and Americans in general — were comfortable electing black politicians to higher office.
Democrats, Oppenheimer said, will wonder about the chances of another high-profile black politician, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, if he decides to run for president in 2008.
"If Ford loses, people will say, 'Here was this very attractive, moderate black candidate in a good year for Democratic candidates, and running against a Republican candidate who, although he had some money, was not something special,' " Oppenheimer said. "It might say something about whether there's still a glass ceiling for African American politicians."
Ford, a decade-long member of the House, is running on a center-right platform and has mostly tried to skirt the issue of race....
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It has been difficult, however, for Ford to avoid the issue since Oct. 20, when Republicans introduced one of the season's most talked-about attack ads. In the 30-second TV spot, a bare-shouldered white woman coos "call me" to Ford — a reference to the Democrat's attendance at a Playboy-sponsored party. The ad has been pulled, but Republicans were accused of stirring up old Southern fears of miscegenation....
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-ford5nov05,0,7547016.story?track=mostviewed-homepage