COHEN OUT TO STRONG LEAD IN EARLY VOTING

Memphis Commercial Appeal
ug/07/cohen-takes-early-lead-over-tinker-towns-jr/
Aug 7 2008
TN

By Trevor Aaronson (Contact) and Zack McMillin (Contact) and
Bartholomew Sullivan (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal

In a contentious primary that garnered national attention this week,
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen took a substantial early lead over his Democratic
rivals.

Based on early votes and absentee ballots results, Cohen leads with
80.56 percent of the votes. His main challengers, attorney Nikki
Tinker and state Rep. Joe Towns Jr., trail with 17.22 percent and
1.44 percent, respectively.

The escalating political clash between Cohen and Tinker, who first
faced each other in the crowded 2006 Democratic Congressional primary,
reached the national level today. Presumptive Democratic presidential
nominee Sen. Barack Obama and former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. denounced
Tinker’s recent TV ads.

One featured a Ku Klux Klan rally. Another criticized Cohen, who is
Jewish, for attending "our churches" and voting in 1997 against a
measure that Tinker’s campaign contends would have permitted prayer
in public schools.

"These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics,
and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee. It’s time
to turn the page on a politics driven by negativity and division so
that we can come together to lift up our communities and our country,"
Obama said in a statement.

Ford, who held the Congressional seat for 10 years before Cohen won
it in 2006, was similarly critical of Tinker, his protege and former
campaign manager.

"Whenever race, religion or gender is invoked in a political contest,
it generally means the candidate has run out of legitimate arguments
for why he/she should be elected," Ford said in a prepared statement
e-mailed to The Commercial Appeal.

Ford, now chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, did not
endorse a candidate for the Ninth Congressional District. However,
his wife, Emily Threlkeld Ford, contributed $3,300, the legal maximum,
to Tinker’s campaign.

Cohen said today he believed Memphis voters would see the ads as
nothing more than acts of political desperation.

"The Memphis voter is much more sophisticated than the Tinker camp
thought," he said. "They’re going to vote on issues and character
and achievement, and not on race."

In recent days, Cohen has been forced to mount a two-front defense
as he vies for a second term in Washington, D.C.

In addition to Tinker’s assaults, Cohen told news media he’d been
harassed by an American-American activist angered by the congressman’s
opposition to a resolution that would have condemned Turkey for
genocide against Armenians after World War I.

On Wednesday, during a press conference at his Overton Park home,
Cohen refused to allow the activist, documentarian Peter Musurlian,
to participate in the event. The congressman’s staff said only invited
local media were allowed the home.

Cohen eventually intervened by saying he would grant an interview
outside. When Musurlian retreated to the door, Cohen grabbed his
forearms with both hands and shoved him out. "Outta here," the
politician said.

Musurlian, from Glendale, Calif., said he is in town producing a
documentary on the race. Armenian-Americans from around the country
have donated as much as $30,000 to Tinker.

Cohen said his opposition to the resolution was related to a request
from Gen. David Petraus, who told the congressman passing the
resolution would result in Turkey cutting off aid to American forces
in Iraq. That stance is in agreement with all U.S. presidents going
back to Jimmy Carter and many former secretaries of state.