ShareThisBy HALIMAH ABDULLAH
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Former Chattanooga mayor Bob Corker held on to lead of less than four percentage points over Harold Ford Jr. Tuesday with almost 90 percent of the statewide votes tallied.
With 2,012 of 2,330 precincts reporting, Corker held a lead of 821,553 _ 51 percent _ to Harold Ford Jr.'s 763,300 or 48 percent. Five independent candidates also were running.
In Shelby County, Ford held a two-to-one lead throughout most of the evening.
With conflicting polls showing Ford either down between eight to 12 percentage points or statistically tied with Corker, both men stuck close to their respective bases on Tuesday.
"I know the polls show us in a great position, but the only poll that matters is the one the voters cast" on election day, Corker told GOP partisans in the Pancake Pantry restaurant near Vanderbilt University.
Rainy weather hardly dampened voter turnout in Ford's West Tennessee and Corker's East Tennessee bases, but long lines at a few high-traffic polling sites across the state and malfunctioning voting machines at a few others caused delays and confusion as election officials scrambled to fix problems throughout the day, according to the Tennessee Election Commission.
Ford said attorneys were looking into alleged problems at a precinct in Jackson.
"They told all the polling workers to go home and the election officials to go home without giving any real guidance to voters. We've already leveled one (challenge) on behalf of voters who have been told they'd have to wait until later today to vote," Ford said.
A win for either Ford or Corker will hinge on the turnout of African-Americans, independent-leaning rural and undecided suburban Middle Tennessee voters. During the final 72 hours leading up to election day, both candidates barnstormed across the state to get out the vote.
Corker focused his efforts in the eastern and middle portions of the state with a few West Tennessee stops. On Sunday he held a late-night rally in Nashville with Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., and on Monday was joined by Tennessee Sens. Bill Frist and Lamar Alexander.
Ford crisscrossed the state at an almost manic pace. He was aided last week by former president Bill Clinton's visit to a Memphis church and on Sunday by a Nashville appearance by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.
Corker's effort was aided in part by a multimillion-dollar infusion of funds from both his own coffers, individual donors, political action committees and the Republican National Committee.
Corker raised $13.1 million in individual contributions compared to Ford's $10.9 million, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission filings.
The RNC spent $2.4 million against Ford while the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spent $1.9 million on his behalf, according to FEC records.
Last week, Corker channeled an additional $2 million of his own funds into his campaign _ a move that left Ford just six days to drum up an additional $1.6 million to fund his efforts.
