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/...
I've said all along that the Memphis-centered district ended up with a better Congressman than the one that stepped down and, perhaps inadvertently, voted in the most outstanding contender out of a large crowd in the 2006 primary: Steve Cohen.
http://cohen.house.gov/
Cohen has a great record on social issues; he's voted against the war, against Big Oil. He's pro-choice, isn't alarmed by gay people; he would, in fact, probably be a good Congressman for Massachusetts or Delaware, let alone Tennessee.
Emily's List doesn't like him. They backed a centrist candidate in the 2006 primary, Nikki Tinker, a lawyer with close ties to Memphis business interests, against the more progressive candidate with legislative experience.
They have not endorsed Tinker's 2008 challenge against a progressive male Democratic incumbent. Not yet, at least. Not openly. But a curious thing happened today. I received e-mail from Nikki Tinker's campaign.
I didn't give a dime to Nikki Tinker in 2006. I never received mail from her campaign during the 2006 cycle. The only possible connection I can construct between Nikki Tinker and my e-mail address is that Emily's List has it, and they like Nikki Tinker.
Have they given her their mailing list to use against a sitting Democratic progressive Congressman who is pro-choice... just because he's a guy?
I've received no answer to my query to them. But if the answer is yes, this is breaking new ground. There have been cases before where they backed a Centrist woman against a progressive male, in a primary to determine a challenger for a Republican-held seat, or an open seat. They have their organizational agenda, electing pro-choice women to office, and I'm all for it. I've been a member for years, and have frequently contributed money to candidates based at least partly on their endorsement.
But if they did provide Tinker with a campaign tool against Cohen, it's the first time I know of that they have attacked a progressive pro-choice Democratic incumbent. I have no interest at all in trading in a progressive for a centrist just because their gonads are shaped differently. Cohen's my candidate in TN-09. And he's on my 2008 ActBlue slate,
http://www.actblue.com/...
because I don't want to give that seat back to the Memphis machine. If they wanted Tinker, they should have coalesced around her in 2006.