More Thoughts on TN-09

Here are the newspaper articles published so far on Tomeka Hart's announcement that she is challenging Steve Cohen in the 9th District Democratic Primary:

JB/Flyer
Commercial Appeal
Daily News
Tri-State Defender

In the Defender article, I found this Hart quote fascinating:

Her decision to run is not driven by any actions or inactions of Cohen, Hart said.

Really? 

Certainly, she has the right to run.  However, in order to challenge AND defeat a popular incumbent in a primary, one must usually have two rationales for getting elected.  First, one needs to provide a compelling reason that the incumbent is insufficiently representing the district and HOW the the incumbent is insufficient, i.e, what's he done wrong? Second, you must then show a compelling reason why YOU are the one to replace the incumbent.

To this point, she says she will fully develop her reasons later, and that's kind of understandable, as she has yet to file her petition and the actual election is over a year away.  However, given Cohen's popularity with his district (his last two primaries gave him over 75% of the vote each time), she might not want to wait all that long.

She has smartly stated that race is no reason to even consider changing representatives, and I agree; it's all about the politics and where they stand on the issues.  I don't care about color, I care if they are far enough left to suit me.  Senior was, Junior wasn't and Cohen certainly is.  Ms. Hart, I don't know.

The point is, while I understand that she has ambition and a decent record so far on the MCS Board, she will have many questions to answer about why Cohen should be replaced, and replaced by her.

This is a Democratic electorate that rarely, if ever, unseats an incumbent in the primary in ANY elected office, much less a Congressional seat, so her work is clearly cut out for her.  We'll see if Ms. Hart and her team are ready for prime time!