The Daily Background

President Bush had lunch in Tennessee today. He attended a luncheon fundraiser for Republican Senate candidate Bob Corker, who is fighting with Democrat Harold Ford Jr for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s seat (Frist is retiring from the Senate this year, probably to run for President in 2008). The President raised more than a million dollars while he ate.

This is bad for Ford (1.1 mil is a hefty amount), but it could have been worse since Ford was actually pretty competitive with almost as much as Corker had in mid-July (the previous FEC reporting period), beating him slightly with cash-on-hand. Corker had raised more than 7 million dollars by then (now probably closer to 9), which is something to raise eyes at, considering that Tennessee is a “red” state, and Corker is having to fight so hard to win (Ford has been gaining on him in the polls recently, running aggressive advertisements on subjects like national security and faith).

This should have been an easy seat to “keep” red this year, but Ford is a strong candidate who has shown an ability to be aggressive and Corker has run into problems of his own. The DSCC wants to pick this seat up badly, and it looks like they just may and Tennessee might go blue this year. It would also be great to have another African American Dem in the Senate (from a state like Tennessee, no less).

Filed under: oh six midterm Elections, Z-TDB Blog