Tenn. Democrat beats lawyer who linked him to KKK

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A racially charged Democratic primary campaign ended Thursday with an incumbent congressman trouncing the opponent who ran an ad linking him to the Ku Klux Klan.

Early, unofficial results showed Democrat Steve Cohen with nearly 80 percent of the vote to nearly 19 percent for Nikki Tinker, a corporate lawyer who was his chief opponent in the district that covers Memphis.

Cohen is the first white congressman from Memphis in more than three decades and one of only two white congressmen representing a majority black district.

In the state's other major congressional primary, in the solidly Republican 1st District in northeastern Tennessee, Johnson City Mayor Phil Roe had a small lead over Republican Rep. David Davis. The campaign heated up toward the end, moving from joint stump appearances to negative ads. With 80 percent of precincts reporting, Roe had 51 percent to Davis' 48 percent.

In the 9th District, in Memphis, the campaign turned ugly in its final days, when Tinker ran a television ad juxtaposing photos of Cohen, who is Jewish, and a hooded Ku Klux Klan member. Tinker's supporters argued the 9th District, which is 60 percent black and 35 percent white, should be represented by a black candidate.

The primary will likely decide the next congressman in the heavily Democratic district, which has returned incumbents to the House since 1974. Cohen won his first term after a 2006 primary in which a dozen black candidates, including Tinker, split the vote.

Tinker said her ad linking Cohen to the KKK for opposing a 2005 effort to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest from a downtown park "merely states the facts. I think the nation needs to know Steve Cohen's complete record."

The ad drew condemnation Thursday from Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. It juxtaposed pictures of a statue of Forrest, the founder of the KKK, and a hooded Klansman in front of a burning cross while asking, "Who is the real Steve Cohen?"

"These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics, and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee," Obama said in a statement.........