Voters reject racist campaign

We can hope this is a preview of November. In a Democratic primary Thursday in Tennessee in a majority African-American district in and around Memphis a white, Jewish, progressive incumbent Congressman, Steve Cohen was running against a black female corporate lawyer, Nikki Tinker. By all accounts during his one term in Congress Steve Cohen has served his district well. He has been an opponent of the Iraq war, and according to many observers he has had a consistently solid record on civil rights.

Tinker, apparently able to think of no reason other than her race and religion why anyone should support her over Cohen, ran television ads trying to link her opponent to the Klu Klux Klan and suggesting he was a hypocrite when he visited black churches.

The vast majority of the voters in the district were obviously not impressed with these tactics. Cohen won with almost 80% of the vote. Read Bob Herbert's article in today's New York Times for a more complete discussion.