Bob Corker Takes Ford Jr. to Task Over Brother Jake’s Campaign

According to Nashville’s NewsChannel 5:

“A spokesman for the Bob Corker senatorial campaign says Ford Junior hasn’t endorsed the Democratic candidate over his brother and that proves his “first loyalty is to the Ford political machine.”

Those who have been following Tennessee politics know that Ford Jr. has not endorsed Steve Cohen, the Democrat nominee for his old congressional seat. Ford’s brother, Jake Ford, is running for the seat as independent, and has been getting a lot of help from father Harold Ford, Sr., who held the congressional seat until 1997.

Meanwhile, RNC has come under attack in recent days for running an ad in support of Corker that critics say has strong racial overtones. (A young, scantily clad white woman, supposedly representing the females at a Playboy party Ford once attended, ends the commercial by saying, “Harold, call me.”)

Ford, for his part, has been heavily trading on his Christian faith throughout the campaign. As we reported earlier this fall, he filmed a commercial from the inside of a church, with a cross looming large in the background.

Salon has a great piece today about Ford’s religious campaigning – and suggests that his own brand of identity politics is working, whatever the Republicans may say about his family or imply about his race.

According to Salon, one statewide poll conducted at the end of September showed that just 47 percent of white evangelicals supported Bob Corker, while 28 percent supported Ford and 25 percent were undecided.