Our First-Ever Non-Endorsements

We’ve decided not to formally endorse political candidates or issues this year. Which, as next Tuesday’s midterm election approaches, turns out to be a pretty handy device. Because unlike many other newspapers in our state that have reflexively offered the nod to Democratic Congressman Harold Ford Jr., who’s running to fill outgoing U.S. Sen. Bill Frist’s seat, we would not have been able, in good conscience, to do likewise. It’s not because Ford makes Al Gore look positively homegrown and has no work experience beyond 10 years in Congress, though that doesn’t help. And it’s not because he voted to mess with the U.S. Constitution just so he could court the social conservative vote, although that doesn’t help either. (We would agree with Slate’s Josh Levin, who wrote, “The charge that Ford has ‘Hollywood values’ is substanceless. It would make a lot more sense to say that his head’s already inside the Beltway, far from the Tennessee Valley.”) It’s also not because the candidate consistently declines to answer tough questions from reporters and news outlets in his own state, in favor of more predictable, favorable treatment on the likes of Imus and CNN—though, again, never a great tactic to sway hearts and minds. Ultimately, Ford hasn’t lived up to his own billing as a “new generation of Democrat.” In fact, he has allowed his infamous father, Harold Ford Sr., to influence this campaign. And he has tacitly supported his unqualified, high-school-dropout brother Jake for his congressional seat over the rightful Democratic nominee. He says he’s his own man, yet he has refused to challenge his thoroughly unsympathetic family. He has accepted at least one junket from one of his father’s lobbying clients, and he has accepted campaign money from other of his father’s clients. That the younger Ford might allow his clan to have a corrupting influence on his Senate career is not at all inconceivable to us. If he hasn’t been willing or able to distance himself from their sway during this campaign, there’s no compelling reason to believe he would in the Senate either. If he loses this race, it will be because he didn’t address that albatross around his neck—and voters prefer their senators to come without web-footed seabirds attached, or at least without crusty, discredited family members in tow. It also would have been difficult to offer an endorsement of Republican Bob Corker—who has, to be sure, run a bland, lifeless campaign and has failed to say anything remotely original. Despite having a father with Alzheimer’s disease, Corker doesn’t support expansion of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, explaining that private, instead of taxpayer, money should be used for such a divisive issue. That position is troubling and out of step with the majority of voters, but what Corker has going for him are real world experience and a lack of that politics-as-career mentality from which Ford suffers. Moreover, Corker is a checkbook-balancing Republican who would represent a fiscal alternative to the overspending, budget-busting GOP leadership in the Senate now. A word on some of the other stuff God Bless the GOP’s Jim Bryson for trying his hand at a gubernatorial bid. He seems like a genuine man with good motives, but a more tragic David we’ve not seen in a while…. Voters, it’s already against the law for two men, two women, three men and a monkey, three chicks and goat or whatever other configuration you might conceive to marry in Tennessee. Constitutional amendment No. 1 would amend a state document that has generally worked well for Tennessee since 1870, and it represents unnecessary hate speech against gays. If you’re into that sort of thing—and we fear many Tennesseans are—then you’ll want to vote yes…. Constitutional amendment No. 2 would subsidize property taxes for the richest demographic in Tennessee (and everywhere): seniors over 65. It limits the benefit to a specific cap on wealth, but doesn’t tell us what that cap is, instead essentially asking voters to trust the legislature to determine that at a later time…. Republican Bob Krumm, who’s running against incumbent conservative Democrat Doug Henry in Senate District 21, is a thoughtful—and worthy—adversary who takes conservative positions without evoking knee-jerk religious rhetoric. He, unlike Henry, favors eliminating or at least reducing sales taxes on food. A West Point graduate, construction project manager, father and blogger, Krumm deserved to receive more attention during this election season (including from this newspaper). After failing to unseat the gentleman Henry, Krumm should look for an office he has a better chance to win…. And, oh, that first Metro charter amendment is important to deep-six. The tax activists who put it on the ballot mean well, but the idea that Metro Government should be dependent on the voters to increase the current property tax rate is frightening on its face. OK, on that one, we’re actually endorsing—against.