October 31, 2005

Ford, Jr. to drop out? Cooper for Senate? Purcell for Congress?

I've created a new blog category today called "The Grapevine." This category will include any political rumours that come from the "grapevine." The sources of the information are credible, but the information can not be independently verified. [/disclaimer]
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According to a state political source, it seems a certain "back room" deal has been struck within the Tennessee Democrat leadership which may involve the following scenario...

As you know, Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell announced that he will not be running for a third term. He has also ruled out any run for a Senate seat or for the Governor's office. Of course, what's interesting is that he didn't mention any potential run for Congress (such as the 5th District seat currently being held by Congressman Jim Cooper).

I have heard it mentioned by several people (and from my source) that Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. has a contract on the table for a job to work with MSNBC. The most recent Zogby polls taken over the last couple of weeks show him being beaten by any Republican candidate that would run against him in the race for Frist's Senate seat. This is all despite the fact that he's already spent around a million dollars on early campaign ads. Apparently, If Ford, Jr. can't get his poll numbers to rise by early next year, he may drop out and take the MSNBC job (probably a wise decision anyway).

At this point (when/if Ford drops out), Representative Jim Cooper will be drafted by the Democrat party to run for the Senate seat (again), which would immediately open up a spot for Mayor Bill Purcell to run for the 5th Congressional seat.

In fact, Purcell has already started his "run" by turning into a "reformer" by pushing reforms - reforms he hasn't supported before - within Nashville's government...all of which creates lots of positive press (i.e...reduction of council size, creating an independent audit department from the mayor's office and city council, hoping to reverse his tax increase legacy, etc). That good press will come in handy for a Congressional bid.

As for my own conjecturing, who would end up running for mayor? I say watch for former Congressman Bob Clement to throw his hat in the ring. For the Republicans, wouldn't it be cool to see Adam Dread run?

If Ford's poll numbers don't move, start looking for all of this to start happening in the next few months.

Comments:

Please Note! Failure to abide by the following may result in your comments being edited or deleted: Remain on topic. Foul language and/or personal attacks are not permitted. Excessive links (more than three per thread) must be approved first. If you do include a link in your comment, make sure it is a short link (go to tinyurl.com if it is too long). Try to keep comments to 125 words or less. Thank you.

Congressman Ford has gained nearly 10 points in the Zogby tracking poll from August to September.

Plus he just came out number one out of everyone in the last quarter of fundraising!

It would help if you guys got your stories straight.

-(link removed per site policy)-

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.

Posted by: Chris D. Jackson at October 31, 2005 09:16 AM

Chris,

I've told you time and time again...shorten your links when you comment here. Next time I'll delete your entire comment.

You can repost your link only if you shorten it.

Posted by: B at October 31, 2005 09:19 AM

The polls show that Kurita does better than Ford against most of the GOP candidates. If I were her, I'd be offended that the state Democratic Party may be scheming to get Cooper into the race.

Posted by: Bill Hobbs at October 31, 2005 10:31 AM

I agree with Bill. Cooper's an also-ran. His only positive would seem to be that he's not a Ford. Kurita is a rising star in the Democratic party and the Zogby poll shows that she outperforms Ford against both Hilleary and Corker. While Bryant maintains a strong lead against both Ford and Kurita.

It's interesting how the TNDP is making no bones about trying to squelch Kurita's upstart campaign. Is she too conservative? Last week, the TNDP sent out a fundraising e-mail to the Governor's Leadership dinner, featuring Harold Ford, and most recently the TNDP's spokesman Will Pinkston was quoted in the Commercial Appeal downing Kurita's campaign (see Kurita's unofficial blog).

Posted by: JB at October 31, 2005 10:50 AM

I just read the Zogby Executive Summary and it calls Ford the "Democrats best hope." Kurita's logic flys in the face of the very poll.

She's a non-starter. Plus, she's running as a radical liberal and has really gotten away from her state senate record. She'd get crushed in a general election

As for Ford, he seems to have some solid momentum on his side. No D can raise the money that he can and his opponents are obviously a little scared of the guy if they are willing to start rumors like this? Besides Torrcelli, when is the last time a guy with 2 mill in the bank this early dropped out. Plus, Jim Cooper has already endorsed Ford. So he wont run!

While Ford's opponents may want him out of the race, I think the voters of Tennessee need him in.

Posted by: Smithers at October 31, 2005 11:14 AM

It might be appropriate to point out that well over half of the money Ford has raised for his U.S. Senate campaign came from out-of-state or from PACs. When you take away that money, Ford hasn't raised that much more than Kurita.

Despite what the Zogby poll's executive summary says, if you look at the numbers, Kurita does in fact outperform Ford when matched against Hilleary and Corker (she's within the margin of error against Corker).

Posted by: JB at October 31, 2005 11:19 AM

This is just another example of how the right wing tries to divert attention away from themselves.

They know their party is in serious trouble with all the legal problems and the failures that they have been in charge of. This coupled with the realization that they have no ideas or vision to run on is the reason the right wing puts out stuff like this.

They are willing to make up anythign to divert attention away from themselves and attack the Congressman.

They know that to be the case too.

Posted by: Chris D. Jackson at October 31, 2005 02:24 PM

For all you Esteemed Conservatives and Junior Mints. I think the subject of this post is more about Purcell's pursuit of Congress. Now that we have ejaculated our thoughts about Ford, which is so easy to do, let us banter about Purcell.

Posted by: Creative Liberty at November 1, 2005 08:52 AM

OK: In speaking of TN political machinations, has anyone else heard the rumor that there is a potential spoiler in the Governor's race - an African American from Memphis running as an independent??? That would make a Harwell candidacy viable. Bredesen's people are counting on Junior's fan base in Memphis to pull him out in a Republican-dominated state where he's angered a lot of his base. Because of the TennCare situation, I'd bet such a candidate from Memphis would pull a WHOLE lot more votes than Ed Sanders did....

Posted by: Curious at November 14, 2005 09:49 AM