Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) is not seeking re-election to Congress in 2006 due to a term-limit promise, although there is great speculation that he may throw his hat into the ring for the 2008 Presidential race. The frontrunners for the Republican nomination to replace Frist are former congressmen Ed Bryant and Van Hilleary, who are both competing for votes from the same conservative base. Bryant has been endorsed by several state representatives, as well as Tennessee Right To Life. Hilleary is receiving pressure from conservatives in some quarters to drop out of the race and challenge incumbent Democrat Governor Phil Bredsden instead, which would set up a rematch of the 2002 gubernatorial meeting, in which Bredsden won a close victory. The third Republican candidate is Bob Corker.
The anointed Democrat candidate to replace Frist is Representative Harold Ford, Jr., who hopes to be the first Democrat to win a senate seat from Tennessee since Al Gore, who later failed to carry his home state in the 2000 Presidential election--after Ford gave the keynote address at that year's Democrat Convention. After Dick Gephardt (D-MO) left the House to run for President in 2004, Ford challenged Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for the open position of House Minority Leader, but dropped out of the race before the official vote.
Ford faces two major difficulties in his quest for election to the Senate. First, Tennessee is a Republican state, and Ford is a liberal Democrat; second, his family (beginning with uncle and Tennessee state Senator John Ford) has been coming under increasing scrutiny for various improprieties, including acceptance of bribes and involvement in massive voting irregularities in recent elections. Even if Representative Ford does manage to distance himself from his family's legal and ethical issues, he may not be able to overcome his Republican opponent, as he is currently trailing both Bryant and Hilleary.
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/DustinHawkins/2006/01/27/183906.html
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