Who knew, Democratic voters don't want to send a bigoted, union-busting lawyer to Congress. Nikki Tinker was trounced today in the Democratic primary in TN-09. With 89% of precincts reporting, incumbent Steve Cohen leads Tinker 79% to 19%.

It's a humiliation not just for the vile Tinker but also for those who endorsed her, especially EMILY's List and the DLC's Harold Ford, Jr. Her scurrilous, racist, anti-semitic attacks on the widely admired Cohen were so repulsive that in the last days before the primary EMILY's List felt obliged to renounce them. And so did her former employer, Harold Ford, though only a few hours before the polls closed. The humiliation for Tinker and her backers was not just the repudiation of her and her tactics that Tennessee voters delivered today. The deeper humiliation was the kind of campaign she ran, and the willingness of her backers to look the other way for so long. They've all lost face from this campaign.

Steve Cohen, on the other hand, deserves plaudits for rising above the muck and triumphing.

Well the good people of Memphis, both black and white, said NO to race-baiting and anti-semitism politics and gave Steve Cohen a HUGE victory over Nikki Tinker.

Cohen won the Democratic primary by 79% to 19%.

Wow!

http://www.politico.com/...

Someone captured this off the air and posted it, after the Tinker Campaign scrubbed their site:

<div>
Nikki Tinker race baits Steve Cohen. @ Yahoo! Video</div>

Seems as though WMC-TV Memphis has called it for Cohen:

US House of Representatives Dist 9 Tennessee State and Federal Primary
31% OF PRECINCTS REPORTING
Steve Cohen* (D / Inc.) 26,313 80%
Nikki Tinker (D) 6,024 18%
Joe Towns, Jr. (D) 482 1%
Isaac Richmond (D) 111 0%
James Gregory (D) 106 0%

This is the matchup between Steve Cohen, progressive good-guy, and Nikki Tinker, Trojan Horse union-buster, who ran one commercial linking Cohen with the KKK, and then another that was just blatant jew-baiting.  

Barack and Harold <ugh> Ford denounced her (maybe a bit late), but it'll be interesting to see if this kind of sleaze could work.  I'm betting not.  Cohen in a walk. <crosses fingers>

Results Are Coming In Now, Here

(I'm counting the results link as like a whole paragraph, hence three paragraphs).

Apologies for the short diary, but this seemed worthwhile, though I don't have much to say about it.  The Nashville Post and Memphis Flyer both report that former Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. has finally issued a statement concerning Nikki Tinker's ludicrous attack ads against her primary opponent, Steve Cohen.

"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. Communities and nations are always made weaker when political figures try to divide us for political advantage. It is my strong hope that lessons will be learned."

Up to today, Ford was officially neutral in the primary race, though his wife has given money to Tinker, which some viewed as a tacit endorsement by Ford.  Big praise to Ford this time for doing what's right here.  (Also, the Nashville Post article gives a nice outline of the Tinker-Ford-Cohen mess.)

TN-09: The ridiculous Nikki Tinker's primary challenge against bona fide progressive Rep. Steve Cohen has gotten ugly. Skeptical Brotha lays down a righteous rant against Tinker:

I didn’t think it was possible to be more repellent than [Harold] Ford, but Aunt Nikki is the willing overseer on Pinnacle Airlines corporate plantation as Vice President for Labor Relations and General Counsel. Aunt Nikki is representative of the lowest form of human life and is the worst kind of counterfeit Negress imaginable. As an employment lawyer, she specializes in destroying employee rights to collectively bargain and be free from workplace racial discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.

Her campaign report is full of two kinds of people, acquaintances from her home state of Alabama and her motley collection of crooked contacts in the business world. The CEO of Pinnacle Airlines, Phil Trenary, her boss and corporate puppet master, is represented, as are Republican corporate employment lawyers from her former law firm, John and Ruth Alley. Finally, there is a member of Pinnacle’s Board of Directors, GOP rainmaker and real estate magnate James McGehee and his kith and kin [...]

My colleagues at Black Agenda Report, in their former incarnation as the writers behind Black Commentator, came up with the nifty moniker of Trojan Horse to describe Black Democrats backed surreptitiously by Republican money and the corporate and right-wing foundation elite. They highlighted BET’s Bob Johnson and politicians Cory Booker and Harold Whore, Jr. Speaking of the Whore, he has used his new wife, Emily Threlkeld Ford, to funnel more than $3300 to his protégé. The Trojan Horse moniker definitely fits Nikki Tinker to a T because as her campaign finance report shows, she is a a member in good standing of this right-wing club.

As the moniker from Greek mythology implies, Aunt Nikki is a stealth weapon of the right-wing that optimally would be used to destroy progressive black representation and the social, political, and economic viability of Black Memphis. Unfortunately for our corporate enemies on the right, Aunt Nikki’s campaign exploded today like an IED in a war zone when it released an ad which strikes a note of false religiosity and implies that Steve Cohen is an Jewish interloper unwelcome in black churches and alludes to a bill to protect “religious freedom” and the unfettered right of religious organizations to discriminate against gay and lesbian people. This is the culmination of her clumsy attempts to make inroads with the black ministerial community by pandering to the homophobia of a select group of black pastors.

It looks like the wounds are fatal. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of cynical operators and puppet masters—especially Harold Ford. As of this afternoon, Emily’s List was forced to denounce the ad with egg on their faces. Finally, with the entrance of Black state representative of Joe Towns in this race and the loss of prominent civil rights leaders like Maxine Smith, Aunt Nikki’s fantasy of being the power structure’s corporate mammy in Washington is just 24 hours from a lethal rejection by the voters from which there will be no appeal.

EMILY's List has backed Tinker, and has lost a HUGE amount of credibility in doing so. It really may be one of the most political tone-deaf decisions the organization has made this decade. I hope Skeptical Brotha is right, and that the district's predominantly African American voters stick with Cohen.

For the district's voters, Cohen has, in the past two years, already been quite the upgrade from their previous congressman: Harold Ford, Jr.

While first-term U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen was on the floor of the House on Tuesday, guiding passage of a historic resolution apologizing to African-American citizens for slavery and Jim Crow laws, his most prominent and well-funded Democratic primary opponent was out in the Memphis heat trying to win voters [...]

Cohen likes to argue that voters got a change in 2006, when Harold Ford Jr. took his moderate voting record into a statewide campaign for U.S. Senate and Cohen was sent to Washington with a consistently liberal voting record nearly three decades long. And he relishes pointing to a July 13 debate in which Tinker could not name a vote with which she disagreed.

"In the state Senate, I voted against Confederate license plates when African-American senators voted for them," Cohen said. "I stood up and argued almost singularly against payday loans which wreak havoc against black people. I voted for a felon-rights bill in 1986."

Cohen makes a long list of other instances, as well as macro issues such as health care and tax reform, that he believes would help African-American Memphians.

"These are things I have a gut feeling for," Cohen said. "All these issues may affect African-Americans more than others, but it affects everyone."

To Rhodes College political science professor Marcus Pohlmann, a longtime observer of politics in the Mid-South, Cohen's aggressive advocacy on African-American issues reflects "the peculiar" dynamic of Memphis's 9th District.

"You wouldn't have seen Harold Ford Jr. out front on (the apology resolution)," said Pohlmann, and it is true that Cohen's predecessor did not sign on as co-sponsor to similar slavery apology resolutions in 2000 or in 1997.

"I don't think (Ford Jr.) would have felt the necessity to prove himself to the African-American community in the same way."

Ironies obviously abound, but the district's voters have a true champion in Cohen, and a vile right-wing trojan horse in Tinker. Tonight, the district's voters will have their final say.

Okay, we'll make this short and sweet. I'm recommending you leave kos for just a few minutes, to read someone else's diary. He puts it better than me, anyhow.
Skeptical Brotha on Nikki Tinker

Just a sample:

As [Trojan Horse] implies, Aunt Nikki is a stealth weapon of the right-wing that optimally would be used to destroy progressive black representation and the social, political, and economic viability of Black Memphis.  Unfortunately for our corporate enemies on the right, Aunt Nikki’s campaign exploded today like an IED in a war zone when it released an ad which strikes a note of false religiosity and implies that Steve Cohen is an Jewish interloper unwelcome in black churches and alludes to a bill to protect "religious freedom" and the unfettered right of religious organizations to discriminate against gay and lesbian people. This is the culmination of her clumsy attempts to make inroads with the black ministerial community by pandering to the homophobia of a select group of black pastors.

A more Faith based perspective from a commenter.

I know there was already one diary about this issue tonight. But I've got a little bit of a different slant on this. I think we've got to see what happens tomorrow before anything is done.

Should we hold Emily's list accountable at this point? Should they force Tinker to refund money? That really doesn't sound practical at this point. Some might argue that if we did it would hurt such hopefulls like Darcy Burner and Kay Hagan at a detrimental point in the cycle.

But something has to be done. Forinstance, If you think this might hurt Darcy, donate to her tonight at my Act Blue page Two for Tuesdays

Tonight, on the eve of her primary challenge to Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen, Nikki Tinker was named Countdown's Worst Person in the World for her anti-Semitic and inflammatory references to Congressman Cohen in "our churches clapping his hands and tapping his feet" and calling Congressman Cohen "the only Senator who thought our kids shouldn't be allowed to pray in school."

Keith mentioned her previous ads' attempt to link the incumbent to a leader of the Ku Klux Klan.  He called her advertisement "shameful."

I wonder if Harold Ford, Jr, is proud of his protege' tonight?

Steve Cohen is a Blue America candidate.

{YouTube h/t to hidusr}

UPDATE: Keith Olbermann just made Nikki Tinker today's "Worst Person in the Woooooooooooorld." Good for you Keith. We shouldn't let this go unnoticed.

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo brings our attention to the following ad run by Democrat Nikki Tinker who is challenging Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen (TN 9th Dist.) in the Democratic primary:

It's an over-the-top ad, seemingly narrated by Tinker herself in a tone of sarcastic disbelief.

Current Representative Steve Cohen is trying to keep his Democratic seat, but this isn't in November, it is now. For those of you that don't know, but the TN-09 district (Memphis) is a VERY SAFE DEMOCRATIC seat. So who ever wins the Democratic Primary is going to Washington D.C. The Republicans are not even running a candidate in November.

Now the seat was formerly held by Harold Ford Jr. (prior to that by his daddy Senior). When Junior decided to run for the Senate in 2006, his seat become open and Steve Cohen came out the winner.

It is sad to say that many people felt that Steve Cohen, who is white, could not represent the majority black district. In a diary, I wrote nearly a year ago, the race card was in full play. One black "pastor" stated the following:

"He's not black and he can't represent me, that's just the bottom line," said Rev. Robert Poindexter of Mt. Moriah Baptist Church. "I don't care how people try to dress is up, it always comes down to race and he can't know what it's like to be black."

As I stated in that diary, I state again - "Are we not in the 21st century yet?"

Freshman Reps. Betty Sue Sutton (OH-13), Mazie Hirono (HI-02), Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01), John Yarmuth (KY-03), and Steve Cohen (TN-09) have joined 16 other Congressional Democrats in introducing legislation that, according to the Army Times, "is at least a symbolic sign of support for giving extra cash to people whose military service is involuntarily extended by stop-loss orders."

The Army Times story continues:

The bill, HR 6205, is an exact duplicate of the Stop Loss Compensation Act of 2008 that was introduced May 22 in the Senate.

The bills hold the promise of $1,500 for each month of extended service for anyone whose retirement or separation was delayed by stop-loss orders since Oct. 1, 2001.

More information follows below.

See the update in the diary please

::

On the rec list sits a diary pointing out that Fred Hobbs, a member of the Tennessee Democratic Party's Executive Committee suggested that Barack Obama was "terrorist connected." The diary makes the correct point that this is an unacceptable thing for anyone to say, and that if possible, the DNC ought to intervene if no one from Tennessee will.

That's all good, but what does the diary's opening paragraph have to do with it?

Okay, I know that Tennessee is not an oasis of progressivism.  It's a state not even native son Al Gore could carry, and in the Dem primaries, it went strongly for Hillary Clinton.  It's also the home of freshman Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis), who is facing a primary challenge from people back home who resent that a white, Jewish man is representing a district that's 90 percent African American.

I am particularly curious about that last sentence, which has two glaring problems.

Promoted from the diaries (with much more below the fold). I judge EMILY's List by the company they keep. This is despicable. - smintheus

EMILY's List, known for funding female candidates for public office, has two main qualifications for getting their endorsement. You have to be female and you have to be pro-choice. The organization recently endorsed Nikki Tinker in her run for Congress from Tennessee.

Tinker is running against sitting Representative Steve Cohen, a fellow Democrat.  Cohen is one of the most liberal members of Congress with a history of supporting pro-choice and LGBT issues.  Why would EMILY's List work to defeat an incumbent Congressman with a history of working in favor of their chosen issue?  The answer has to be sexism; he's a man. No other explanation can possibly make sense.

After all, Tinker's campaign has been engaging in one of the most vitriolic anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic campaigns in Tennessee history. Black Baptist ministers have publicly called for Cohen's defeat because of his race, a flier declaring "Steve Cohen and the Jews Hate Jesus" has been circulated throughout Memphis, and Tinker's campaign has refused to denounce or repudiate these tactics.  EMILY's List has invested resources in this campaign - and they did in 2006 too.

"In 2006, EMILY's List endorsed Tinker and spent $500,000 on her behalf in the form of negative direct mail pieces with scores of lies about Cohen's record," Cohen campaign director Jerry Austin told me. Austin suggested that more of the same could be expected before the August 7th primary.  One flier condemned Cohen for missing a few votes as a state legislator, but neglected to mention that the Congressman was in the hospital recovering from an illness.

NM-Sen: As mcjoan wrote earlier, Democrat Tom Udall is kicking all kinds of ass in the Senate race. He has a monster lead, 25+ points, over both his Republican opponents, Heather "Nipplegate" Wilson and Steve Pearce.

Udall started the race with a wide lead, and as the race has carried on, it has only expanded. Pearce, and especially Wilson, were considered formidable opponents before the race began, but it is currently looking like a potential blowout reminiscent of Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar's crushing victory over Mark Kennedy in 2006.

Best of all, Pearce leads Wilson in the GOP primary. Pearce is the further-right candidate, so he cedes "moderate" ground to Udall. It's a bad break for Wilson, but look on the bright side; she'll have plenty of time to devote to keeping the airwaves safe from loose nipples.

ME-Sen: More splendid news; Democratic Rep. Tom Allen is slowly, but surely closing the gap in his Senate race against Susan Collins. The latest Rasmussen numbers:

Rasmussen. April numbers in parentheses.

Collins is one of the most popular Senators in the country, due to her "moderate" image. She represents the only hope for GOP candidates in the fall; to win by distancing themselves as much as possible from the national party. And even so, Allen is steadily gaining on her, and is within 10 points with plenty of race to go.

Say it with me; everything's coming up Democrat!

KS-Sen: And now for the most shocking poll of all, another Rasmussen poll: Incumbent Senator Pat Roberts leads Democratic challenger Jim Slattery by only 12 points. This is in a state where no Democrat has been elected to the Senate since (wait for it) 1932, and against a challenger who hasn't run for office since 1994.

Rasmussen. 5/13. MoE +/- 4%

There's a long way to go before November, and Slattery's already competitive. Having entered the race late, Slattery has yet to begin campaigning in earnest, though his fundraising is going very well. Roberts enjoys 60% approval according to the Rasmussen poll, and yet manages just 52% against Slattery.

These Rasmussen polls are just shocking.

WA-Gov: Rasmussen has one last piece of beautiful news: Washington's Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire, who won a narrow (and hotly contested) victory over Republican Dino Rossi in 2004, has opened up a double-digit lead in their rematch:

Rasmussen.5/12. MoE +/- 4%. 3/27 numbers in parentheses.

That lead has gone from one point to 11 points in less than two months. Obama also enjoys a double-digit lead over McCain in the state.

NJ-Sen: Rep. Rob Andrews stands alone among New Jersey's Democratic establishment in thinking he'd make a better senator than incumbent Frank R. Lautenberg.

Andrews' colleague Frank Pallone has some particularly harsh words for him:

Seven members of Congress and the mayor of Trenton spoke at the press conference at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) headquarters, reaffirming their support for Lautenberg and repeating charges that Andrews touts the GOP line and therefore, is wrong for New Jersey.

"On too many occasions he (Andrews) sided with Bush and the Republicans," Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. of the 6th District said, later adding that he "often wondered" that if New Jersey didn’t lean Democratic, whether Andrews would change his party affiliation.

Meanwhile, Lautenberg's colleague Robert Menendez has the highest praise for him:

Menendez said Lautenberg has "taken on" special interests, opposed the war in Iraq, and voted in support of his own beliefs even when they weren’t politically popular.

"New Jersey needs a proven, effective progressive Democrat who consistently stands up to the Bush Republicans," Menendez said. "That Senator is Frank Lautenberg."

Here's a note to Andrews; it is pure folly to try and wage a primary challenge from the right, in a blue state, during a year which marks a Democratic ascendancy as this one does.

House Races

TN-09: Things look very bright for progressive Democratic incumbent Steve Cohen, as he has a 52-point lead over primary challenger Nikki Tinker.

Seems like there's something to be said for going to Washington and doing right by your district. Who knew?

KS-02: More primary polling here, as Republican Jim Ryun, legendary track star and former right-wing Representative, faces off against the moderate GOP candidate, former Kansas Treasurer Leeroy Lynn Jenkins.

Ryun not only has a huge 44-point lead, but his lead has actually expanded in the last year, despite Jenkins being fairly well-known in the district. I guess Jenkins is trying to keep her powder dry, but it may be time for her to start trying to take down Ryun.

Because incumbent Democratic Rep. Nancy Boyda defeated Ryun once already, and because Ryun, as the far-right candidate, presents the starkest contrast between himself and Boyda, I think it's probably best for us that Ryun win this primary. This is a tough district and Boyda will have a fight on her hands either way, but I certainly won't cry if Ryun emerges as the candidate.

KS-04: Alex Parker of the MTV Street Team has put together a nifty video featuring 30-year-old State Senator Donald Betts, now running for the U.S. House against incumbent Todd Tiahrt. Check it out.

As a state senator, Betts already has a considerable base of political support in Wichita. It's a decidedly uphill race for Betts against Tiahrt in a strongly Republican district, but the race is not hopeless; both Governor Kathleen Sebelius and former Democratic Attorney General Paul Morrison won the district in 2006.

IN-02: Businessman Luke Puckett, though backed by the NRCC, had quite a bit of trouble winning his primary...against a man who spoke at a neo-Nazi meeting earlier this year.

'04/'06 candidate Tony Zirkle (R) said he's "willing to talk to any group that invites him," and that's why he spoke to a weekend gathering in Chicago of the Amer. National Socialist Workers Party. The "occasion was a celebration" of the 119th anniversary of the birth of Adolf Hitler. Zirkle stood at a podium "in front of a larger-than-life portrait" of Hitler, "flanked" by an American flag and a Nazi flag.

During a 4/21 presser, Zirkle said he accepted the invitation to "spread his anti-pornography message." He said he's "misunderstood," and that his "real mission" is to "rid the country of pornography." To "punctuate his message," Zirkle "shredded an original copy" of a '69 Penthouse magazine.

But an "account of the gathering" says "Zirkle spoke on his history" as a state's atty in IN, "prosecuting Jewish and Zionist criminal gangs involved in trafficking prostitutes and pornography" from Russia.

Puckett lost to this Zirkle fellow in 5 of the district's 12 counties. Anyone want to take bets on how he performs against Democratic incumbent Joe Donnelly?

The 9th Congressional District of Tennessee is a bit of an "anomaly". It's a majority black district with a white jewish Representative, Steve Cohen. Given this, Cohen is now facing a difficult primary challenge from black female candidate Nikki Tinker.

Now an African-American minister from Murfreesboro, TN, has launched a despicable flyer stating:

Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen and the JEWS HATE Jesus
see to it that one and ONLY one black Christian faces this opponent of Christ and Christianity in the 2008 election

A little over a month ago there was a flurry of interest in the 9th Congressional District of Tennessee, where progressive Democratic state legislator Steve Cohen won the 2006 primary and subsequent general election to succeed Congressman Harold Ford, who resigned the seat to run for the US Senate. Several diarists alerted the kossack community to the fact that one of the sore losers among the candidates who lost the 2006 primary was mounting a primary challenge to Cohen. Serious questions were raised about the motive for refusing to accept the verdict of the voters in the 2006 election in diaries such as this one:

http://www.dailykos.com/...