Congressman Ford spends Easter break stumping outside district
NASHVILLE — U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. has spent nearly a week of his Easter recess talking to Tennessee residents far from his home district of Memphis.
But the second-term Democratic congressman is not hiding the reason for his trip across the state.
“I’m going to run for Senate,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Since Tuesday, Ford has appeared on Knoxville talk radio, toured Oak Ridge National Laboratory, participated in a Middle Tennessee State University political science class and met with union workers at the Peterbilt Plant near Nashville.
While he has talked for more than a year of a run for the seat Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is expected to give up, Ford has not yet filed official paperwork to enter the race. He said the timing of his decision to formally enter will be “driven largely by the visits with people across the state.”
“One of the best things a politician can do is listen,” Ford said.
Ford said that one reason for his visit to Middle and East Tennessee is to make sure voters know who he is. His uncle state Sen. John Ford continues to make headlines over a consulting contract he held with a contractor for TennCare.
Some have said John Ford’s negative publicity could hurt Harold Ford’s campaign, but the congressman said he has not received any questions from voters this week about his uncle — or questions about being a Democrat or being from West Tennessee, for that matter.
Ford told members of the Smyrna civic club that he feels the key issues that the U.S. Senate needs to deal with over the next few years include lowering the country’s reliance on imported energy sources, reforming public education and changing the federal budget process.
Wayne Blair, president of the Smyrna Rotary Club, said those issues are important to conservatives like himself.
“(Ford) has always presented himself as a centrist and middle of the road,” said Blair. “If he truly believes the issues he brought forth … I think he could be a very viable candidate.”
State Sen. Rosalind Kurita, the only Democrat formally in the Senate race, is preparing for “every possible option,” said Kimberly Wood, her campaign finance director.
Wood said she thought it was irresponsible of Ford, who had more $1 million in campaign funds at the end of 2004, to delay a formal announcement.
“It’s going to be a very big race,” she said. “We cannot afford for a Democratic candidate to wait so long to get in.”
To win the 2006 U.S. Senate race, which already has three Republican candidates, the Democratic nominee will need to draw support from largely conservative Middle Tennessee and East Tennessee.
In Knoxville, Ford attended a welcome home celebration given honoring former U.S. Sen. and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker. Ford said the event, also attended by U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander and other Republicans, was a chance to “reconnect with some old friends.”
In Middle Tennessee, he’ll wrap up his week Saturday with an appearance at Columbia’s annual Mule Day, a favorite stop for politicians looking to build support among rural voters.
“I wanted to ride a mule, but they won’t let me,” he said.