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Monday, July 25, 2005

TN-Sen: DFA Rises up Against Harold Ford

Posted by Tim Tagaris

Let me just start out by saying upfront that I really don't know all that much about the details of the U.S. Senate race in Tennessee. I do, however, know enough that this story piqued my interest about a potential grassroots uprising against the presumed nomination of Harold Ford in his primary challenge against lesser-known Rosalind Kurita. It looks like a band of disaffected Kerry volunteers and DFA members ralled to overthrow the Shelby County Democratic Chairman; a chairman that supported Harold Ford for Senate, and had the support of Congressman Ford in the election for Chair.

The former group, the self-described “Coalition,” was one in fact as well as name. It was made up basically of two organizations – Mid-South Democrats in Action, a group of volunteers who’d been active for party nominee John Kerry in the 2004 presidential campaign and had felt short-shrifted by the established party leadership; and Democracy for Memphis, a local tributary of the reformist movement set in motion by erstwhile presidential hopeful Howard Dean, now national Democratic chairman. [...]

* Dissatisfaction with Ford’s increasingly conservative voting record and rightward-tilting campaign strategy. The two groups making up the Coalition are, in the long-accepted vernacular, “yellow-dog” Democrats, convinced that the chief cause of the party’s electoral reverses in recent years has been the accommodationist politics of over-cautious Democrats.

We are winning battles each and every day across the country. Like I said, I know next to nothing about Shelby County Tennessee, but when it comes down to it, I trust DFA members. This is what it's all about.

Posted at 02:46 PM in Tennessee | Technorati

Comments

Yellow-dog Democrats would vote for a Yellow Dog if it were on the Democratic line, not activist aggressive Demcorats.

You'd think a political reporter whould know that.

Posted by: njdem at July 25, 2005 03:43 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Ford's a good guy, and you can't blame him for moving to the right. He's trying to win in Tennessee. Although it will be an uphill battle, he has a much better chance at beating those right wing idiots than Rosalind Kurita.

Posted by: jkfp2004 at July 25, 2005 05:57 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment