MICHELE NORRIS, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.
The race to replace outgoing Senator Bill Frist in Tennessee is shaping up as one of the tightest contests in the country. Polls show that Democrat Harold Ford, Jr., and Republican Bob Corker are running in a statistic dead heat. Corker is a successful businessman and former mayor of Chattanooga. Congressman Harold Ford of Memphis comes from a long line of politicians. His seat was once held by his father, Harold Ford, Sr.
Both parties are pumping volunteers and money into the state, helping to fund a recent onslaught of aggressive attack ads. And the candidates have become increasingly pugilistic themselves, with both men launching personal attacks on their opponent. Here's a quick sample from a debate last night.
Representative HAROLD FORD, JR. (Democrat, Tennessee): I've never hired an illegal alien. He has. Four of them.
Mr. BOB CORKER (Senate candidate, Tennessee): Why was it that within 60 days, your dad became the registered lobbyist for Fannie Mae to lobby you in Washington on that committee?
Representative FORD: I didn't wanna bring that up, but you continue to distort.
NORRIS: Tennessee presents specific challenges for Senate candidates. It's a state historically known for having three distinct political personalities. To get a sense of the Senate race and voter attitudes, we're going to speak with three Tennessee journalists.
From the eastern part of the state, we're joined by Tom Griscom. He's executive editor of The Chattanooga Times Free Press. From Murfreesboro in the state's midsection, Jimmy Hart is the editor of The Daily News Journal. And to the west, Halimah Abdullah is a political reporter with The Memphis Commercial Appeal.
Hello to all three of you.
Mr. TOM GRISCOM (The Chattanooga Times Free Press): Hello.
Mr. JIMMY HART (The Daily News Journal): Hello.
Ms. HALIMAH ABDULLAH (The Memphis Commonwealth Appeal): Hello.
NORRIS: Harold Ford is someone that our listeners may be more familiar with. He's served in Congress for a long time. He at one point was voted one of People magazine's most beautiful people.
Tom, tell us a little bit about Bob Corker.
Mr. GRISCOM: Here's your thumbnail on Bob Corker. Built his own company from scratch after he graduated from college. Got into the construction, development type business. Very successful. Served in state government as a commissioner of finance administration, then decided to run for mayor of Chattanooga. And as mayor, he did a lot here, but his approach is much more, I'd say, analytical, but also there's a vision piece there. And I think that he brings that to the mix, but is a real contrast to the description that you laid out for Congressman Ford.
NORRIS: I would like to run through the state and try to figure out what the big issues are in each of these three distinct regions. Halimah Abdullah, I want to begin with you in Memphis. What are the big issues there?
Ms. ABDULLAH: Definitely the Iraq war is something that people here and I think it would be fair to say people in the state are very concerned about, as well as economic issues. Also, here in Memphis, and I experience this a little bit in middle Tennessee, questions of where the candidates stand in terms of abortion have come up repeatedly.
NORRIS: To the center of the state, Jimmy, Jimmy Hart.
Mr. HART: Yes. Illegal immigration, it's a federal issue. People understand that. They want something done about that. Also, the spending in Washington and the deficit that the country's facing - some fiscal restraint. Folks here are concerned about pocketbook matters and they know that the spending in Washington, if it's out of control, eventually it trickles down and they're looking for someone to come up with some answers for that.
NORRIS: Tom Griscom.
Mr. GRISCOM: I think you'd have to start here, as well, with the war in Iraq. In Tennessee, which has been a red state in the presidential election, President Bush's numbers are more negative than positive and the support for the war in Iraq is more negative than positive. So that issue is out there and Congressman Ford last night, he attempted to sort of posture, is it a stay the course argument or do we - is it time to do something different?
Abortion's also an issue here. Some people in this part of the state, I think, were a little surprised that Mr. Corker made it such a dominant issue himself in the primary.
NORRIS: The Mark Foley scandal. Has that had any impact on the race?
Mr. GRISCOM: Not to speak of. I think there was an attempt to try to see if it got any traction by some people in the Ford campaign, the state Democratic Party to say Mr. Corker hadn't said anything, Mr. Corker hadn't said anything. But I really - I didn't hear anybody that was clamoring for Mr. Corker to take a position on that. I think it's - I don't see it in this race at all.
Mr. HART: Jimmy here. I'd like to - I'd say the Foley scandal does have an impact in that I think the Republicans in Washington are in a bit of chaos right now. As Tom was saying about the war in Iraq, that is a big issue. The Foley scandal on top of that, again, raises concern about the overall leadership of the GOP in Washington. This race has been painted as deciding control of the Senate in DC and you have to look at the bigger picture, I think, and I think that plays in Ford's favor.
NORRIS: Both parties see Tennessee as key, as one of the key races in the midterm elections and they're both pumping a lot of money and volunteers and a big get out the vote effort in the state. Is that moving the numbers, or is there potentially some sort of backlash if voters are turned off by all of these negative ads and all these outside forces buying all these ads?
Ms. ABDULLAH: It's interesting that you've raised that point because I've been on the trail for a couple days now out toward the eastern part of the state, and that's the refrain that I heard repeatedly from voters, that they frankly were tired of negative advertising. And those who had their minds made up about who they were going to vote for were bound and determined to make it to the polls in November, but those who were, you know, a little bit more ambivalent about it just felt as if, with all the negative advertising, they weren't sure whether or not they were motivated to vote in November. So it will be interesting to see how that plays out.
Mr. GRISCOM: Well, this is tough. Let me sort of add a couple points there real quick. If you go back and look at the numbers, the recent numbers on favorable and unfavorable with Corker and Ford, what Congressman Ford was able to do during that two month period that he pushed, is he basically collapsed Mr. Corker's positive and negatives almost on top of each other while he had close to a 12 to 13 point differential between positive and negative.
Most people wouldn't have expected that. What that says is, is that Congressman Ford is able to define Mr. Corker fairly succinctly and I think you're going to see some push back.
And we all know, we've been around politics. We've covered politics. Some of us have even been involved in politics in the past, and everybody deplores negative ads, but at the end of the day, you find any candidate who says I'm going to run a positive campaign, at some point, they give it up and say I've got to respond. Because voters do respond to it.
NORRIS: Harold Ford is an African American, and it's interesting that race has not been a central issue in this campaign. Is it, though, a factor nonetheless? Is it something that's an underlying factor that voters perhaps don't talk about but will consider before they go into the voting booth?
Mr. GRISCOM: I'll take the first run. This is Tom again.
I think you can't overlook that fact. Let's put it that way. I think that Congressman Ford has done a good job in trying to make sure people look at him as they should and measure him by who he is, what he's done, and the approach that he's trying to take.
There was an issue brought up right before the Memphis debate and what he talked about was a flyer that had been put out by the state party and he basically alleged that somebody had sort of darkened the image of him on this flyer.
Now the state party people denied that, that nothing like that happened. So far, that's how it's been introduced in the Senate race here, you know, today.
NORRIS: Jimmy?
Mr. HART: Yes. I think race is an underlying issue, but I think the people of Tennessee understand the national platform that this Senate race holds and the importance of the race. They seem to understand that a Senate race of this importance, introducing an element of racial, any sort of racial element would cast a very bad light on this state.
Ms. ABDULLAH: I would agree that this idea that this race is bigger than that has definitely kind of sunk in. I think that voters, at least from what I can tell, have moved beyond that.
NORRIS: Any predictions here?
Mr. GRISCOM: Close race and it's gonna be tied probably down to the wire.
NORRIS: Jimmy?
Mr. HART: Close race. It's a toss up. Walk further out on the limb or close race?
Ms. ABDULLAH: Close race, I would say, unless any sort of October surprise, which of course is always the case with such things.
NORRIS: It's been good to talk to all three of you. Thank you very much.
Mr. GRISCOM: Thank you.
Mr. HART: Thank you.
Ms. ABDULLAH: Thank you.
NORRIS: That was Halimah Abdullah of The Memphis Commercial Appeal, Tom Griscom of The Chattanooga Times Free Press, and from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Jimmy Hart of The Daily News Journal.
Copyright © 2006 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.