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It's Showtime!A vice presidential visit, forums, and new faces highlight a busy political week.by JACKSON BAKER The presidential campaign is finally coming home to roost, as an increasingly beleaguered Al Gore brings his campaign into Memphis next Monday night for a $500-a-head fund-raising event at the East Memphis Hilton. The vice president will have been in Nashville on Saturday, where he is scheduled to be the keynote speaker for the state Democrats' annual Jackson Day dinner at the Wild Horse Saloon. This is probably a good time for Gore to be touching down in Tennessee, where polls, although showing him with a modest but steady lead, indicate that his Republican rival, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, is competitive. And a protest on Monday by militant environmentalists, who chained themselves to each other at Gore's headquarters in Knoxville and chanted unfriendly slogans, indicates that the veep may have certain vulnerabilities, even on presumably friendly turf. This problem of leakage on the left is exacerbated by the fact that the Green Party, whose nominee this year is consumer advocate Ralph Nader, is active in Tennessee as elsewhere. * As a preface of sorts to the big Gore events of the coming week, state Democratic officials did a mini fly-around Thursday night. Party chairman Doug Horne, vice-chairman Greg Wanderman, and Gore organizer Janice Lucas of Memphis, accompanied by an assortment of Democratic National Committee cadres, touched base at Dyersburg for a fund-raiser honoring 8th District congressman John Tanner, then went on to Memphis, where Shelby County Dem chairman David Cocke had the rafters filled at the East Memphis Marriott for a homey Kennedy Day address by Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove. The degree of unity aroused for the occasion in local Democrats was perhaps best indicated by an act on the part of Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton. During the pre-dinner reception, Herenton looked around and spotted his longtime political nemesis, former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Sr. "Maybe I've had too much wine," said the mayor (who, in fact, had only had one or two modest glasses), "but I'm going to go over there and hug Harold Ford!" Which he proceeded to do, and the two then talked animatedly for several minutes, seeming for all the world like bosom buddies, rather than the antagonists whose rivalry is the longest-running blood feud in local politics. The concord was dimmed only once, when someone observed that Ford had been a factor (by helping in the acquisition of federal grants) in the early stages of the downtown revival which both men were discussing. The mayor's smile vanished momentarily, even as he nodded a grudging assent. * Although she has so far failed to gain the prominence of her well-known sister Dolly, Jackson-area singer Stella Parton made an appearance at the Democrats' dinner which was meant to be a debut of sorts in the political world. Parton, who warbled "I'm Just So Glad to Be With You" as she moved about the roomful of assembled Democrats, says she intends to be a Democratic candidate for the 7th District congressional seat now held by Republican Ed Bryant, who has indicated an intention to run either for the Senate or for the governorship in 2002. * Also present at the affair were two Democratic Senate candidates, Jeff Clark of Murfreesboro and Shannon Wood of Nashville, both vying for the seat now held by Republican Bill Frist. Wood, a theater-owner who has been forthright on such controversial issues as gay rights and gun control, has made several visits to the Memphis area by now and is making inroads with organization Democrats. She still has much to worry about, though, not only in Clark, the Middle Tennessee State professor and political consultant who bears an imprimatur of sorts from the state Democratic establishment, but in John Jay Hooker, the veteran gadfly who, as he says, probably won't leave "downtown Nashville" in this campaign year (at least not very often) but whose name recognition is still formidable for relative newcomers Clark and Wood. As he did in 1998, when he suffered a one-sided loss to Republican Governor Don Sundquist (after upsetting Mike Whitaker, the Democratic elite's favorite, in the primary), Hooker will discuss only the issue of campaign-finance reform. Clark has an unusual way of warming up for the challenge. A former minister, he took to the pulpit while in Memphis, preaching last Wednesday night on Proverbs 14:12 at New Hickory Hill Baptist Church. His sermon title? "Hope Makers and Heart Breakers." * Shelby County Republicans opened up their campaign headquarters Saturday at Eastgate Shopping Center. The turnout there was brisk and almost competitive with lower than usual political turnout at the annual St. Peter's picnic on Poplar. * Thursday night of this week will find part of the local Democratic population attempting to be two places at once. There is a "Women's March for Al Gore," which will begin at Riverside and Union at 6 p.m. and will culminate in Vance Park, south of Landry's, for a rally. And there will be Part Two of the League of Women Voters' forums at the Jewish Community Center. On Thursday night at the JCC, judicial candidates will appear. On Wednesday night, candidates for assessor and General Sessins Court clerk will have appeared. * On a sadder note, political figures were prominent in the crowd of 500 or so which attended the funeral/wake at Memorial Park Saturday of Blake Tanner, son of Memphis businessman Bill Tanner. |
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