Race Takes Central Role in a Memphis Primary
By ADAM NOSSITER
In the culmination of a racially fraught Congressional campaign in Memphis, a black candidate is linking her liberal-leaning white primary opponent in Thursday?s contest, Representative Steve Cohen, to the Ku Klux Klan in a television advertisement.
Mr. Cohen?s campaign said it was an unusually direct effort to inject race into the contest.
The advertisement for the challenger, Nikki Tinker, juxtaposes Mr. Cohen?s picture with that of a hooded Klansman, and criticizes Mr. Cohen for voting against renaming a park in Memphis currently named for the Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Ku Klux Klan founder.
?This makes you wonder,? a black former county commissioner, Walter Bailey, says in the advertisement. ?Who is the real Steve Cohen??
The brief television spot has provoked an uproar in the already heated primary campaign, with supporters of Mr. Cohen ? known for his support of civil rights measures in a long career in the Tennessee legislature ? saying it crossed the line.
Though the city?s newspaper, The Memphis Commercial Appeal, denounced the advertisement as a ?smear,? the campaign of Ms. Tinker, a corporate lawyer, defended it as legitimate. On Saturday, several prominent black leaders in Memphis, including ministers, officials and activists, held a news conference to speak out against the advertisement.
The commercial comes against a backdrop of lingering resentment by some black ministers in Memphis at Mr. Cohen?s election in 2006. Several have been outspoken in the view that a district that is 60 percent black should not be represented by a white man; Mr. Cohen, who is Jewish, was the object of boos and jeers at a meeting of the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association last summer.
Anti-Semitic fliers ? ?Why do Steve Cohen and the Jews Hate Jesus?? one asked ? written by an African-American minister from outside the district have also been circulating in Memphis.
Mr. Cohen, 59, won election in 2006 with just over 30 percent of the vote when the top four black candidates, including Ms. Tinker, split the black vote. Since then, he has earned a reputation as a loquacious, media-friendly liberal, outspoken in his opposition to the Iraq war, aggressive in questioning Bush administration officials on the House Judiciary Committee and assiduous in efforts to cultivate his majority-black constituency, including initiatives to rename federal buildings in Memphis after African-Americans.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California has called him the ?conscience of the freshman class.? Recently, the House of Representatives passed a resolution sponsored by Mr. Cohen apologizing for slavery.
In an interview, Mr. Cohen acknowledged his role in the controversy over the park in 2005 when he was on a downtown development board, which included proposals to remove a statue of Forrest and his remains, which are buried in the park. Mr. Cohen opposed the renaming, and the proposals to rename that park and others fizzled, having failed to garner support even from some high-level black officials.
?I am a fan of the community not getting unraveled over the removal of a pair of bodies,? Mr. Cohen explained this week.
He called the advertisement linking him to the Klan ?about as improper as one could ever fathom.? He added. ?It?s not like Nathan Bedford Forrest was inviting Jews over to celebrate Seder.?
Referring to Ms. Tinker, Mr. Cohen said: ?She?s trying to drive black votes to her side and to make this a rallying point for African-Americans. I think it?s totally backfired.?
Ms. Tinker did not respond to phone messages. A campaign aide, Glenn Rushing, said in a brief interview: ?The ad does not link him to the Ku Klux Klan. It makes it clear he voted against removal of the statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest.?
Myron Lowery, vice chairman of the Memphis City Council and one of Mr. Cohen?s black supporters, called the advertisement irresponsible.
?Mr. Cohen does not have those values,? Mr. Lowery said. ?His values have been rooted in this community, for diversity and respect for individual rights. This man?s record is impeccable. He has been a strong supporter of African-Americans.?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/us/07memphis.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1218157512-bFACO66lg5sr2eqK2tb3IA&pagewanted=print
