Now there are seven

Tennessee — Open: Republican Sen. Bill Frist (retiring)
The Tennessee race to succeed retiring Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has frustrated Republicans and surprised Democrats. At the start of the cycle, both parties thought that the open-seat contest would favor Republicans.

The GOP nominee is former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker, who won a three-way primary in early August with seeming ease. As it turns out, his opponents inflicted some damage by casting him as a moderate. Corker, a developer, was also hit with some bad press over a real estate deal that put an access road to a Wal-Mart Super Center on environmentally sensitive land.

Meanwhile, Rep. Harold Ford Jr., the Democratic nominee, did not face primary opposition and hit the ground running once Republicans chose their nominee. With the help of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Ford has hammered Corker on his tenure as mayor, accusing him of ignoring problems with the city's 911 emergency call system and of using his position to enrich himself.

The Corker campaign seemed to founder, acting as if it had counted on the primary being the hardest part of the race. The campaign did not quickly settle on a general election strategy or a line of attack against the young and charismatic Ford. Corker tried to paint Ford as a liberal, but Ford had spent the better part of a year inoculating himself against such charges. Ford's voting record is more moderate than those of many of his Democratic colleagues and considerably more moderate than those of most other members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Ford has also defied being cast as a standard-issue Democrat, at least for the time being. On the stump, he talks about faith and values, and he has aired television ads on both subjects, including one spot that was filmed inside a church.

Republicans appear to have decided on a message that questions Ford's character. They have attacked him for referring to himself as a lawyer even though he has not passed the bar exam. They have contrasted his prep school, Ivy League, Beltway upbringing with Corker's Tennessee roots and up-by-the-bootstraps success in business.

More recently, it was revealed that shortly after Ford secured a seat on the House Financial Services Committee, his father was hired as a lobbyist for Fannie Mae. Ford succeeded his father in the House, and Republicans accuse him of using his committee post to help Fannie Mae. This charge has the potential to damage Ford's candidacy because it highlights one of his biggest vulnerabilities, his family's legal troubles. The Ford family has a long and highly visible political presence in Memphis and has become controversial over the years. As a member of the House, Harold Ford Sr. was the subject of a lengthy federal investigation and was twice tried on charges of bank and mail fraud before eventually being acquitted. The younger Ford's uncle John was forced to resign from the state Senate after being indicted on corruption charges that resulted from a sting. His trial is scheduled for early next year. Although Ford has tried to put the "family issue" to rest, the recent case involving his uncle has the potential to undo all of that work, because it reinforces the idea that he is part of a corrupt family.

This race has been very close since the primary, and recent polls show a statistical dead heat. Corker has made some changes in his campaign, such as hiring a new manager and consultants, and Republican operatives are feeling a bit better about Corker's chances. The real question is whether they made the changes in time to overtake Ford.

Expect the final days of this contest to be very nasty and hard-fought.

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