January 28, 2005

Is he The Best They Have To Offer?

Tennessee politics is an endless source of entertainment. Consider the case of state Sen. John Ford, who is uncle to to U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. Now, I like Harold Ford Jr., even though he's a Democrat. Not enough to vote for him, but he seems like an intelligent, thoughtful and respectable guy.

Not so his uncle, the aforementioned state Sen. John Ford, who is currently embroiled in a child-support case and who recently revealed that he lives in two houses, one he shares with his ex-wife and their children, and the other he shares with his current girlfriend and their children. Oh, and there's a third woman and another child. According to today's Tennessean, neither house is located in his state senate district.

Ford's voter registration lists his address as 12 South Parkway W., said Shelby County election administrator James Johnson. That is the address of the N.J. Ford & Sons Funeral Parlor, the senator's family business that is located within his district, the 29th District.

The state's voter registration form requires that people fill out the "address where you live." Lying on the form is perjury, punishable by a $3,000 fine and up to six years in prison, the form says. It's unclear whether the current form is the one Ford has used to register at his business.

Ford told the Commercial Appeal newspaper that while he spends time at two different houses outside his district, his ''domicile'' is at the South Parkway address. [Tennessee GOP chief Bob] Davis said he thought it a "stretch" for Ford to consider his business as his residence.

Ford's residency became an issue after he testified in a child-support case that he keeps two homes with two different women whose children he fathered.

One home, worth $362,900, is in the East Memphis River Oaks subdivision, located in Senate District 28. Ford's ex-wife Tamara Mitchell-Ford and their three children live there.

The other residence, a $509,000 home in Collierville, is where his longtime girlfriend, Connie Mathews, and their two children live. That home is in Senate District 33. In the court case, Ford was arguing against having to pay high child support to a third woman, the mother of a 10-year-old girl whom he fathered.

At the same time, Ford heads a Senate committee that guides child welfare policies.

For the past year, he has tried to make use of a law he authored that keeps court-ordered support lower when a father is financially responsible for other children.

As important as it is to determine where Sen. John Ford actually lives, I think there is a much more important question that needs to be answered. But it's going to take sending a team of 100s of psychologists to the 23rd state Senate district in Memphis to determine why those numbnuts keep electing someone as immoral and embarrassing as John Ford. Can the Tennessee Democratic Party find no one better in the entire 23rd district?

As for Ford, he is threatening to sue the head of the Tennessee Republican Party for daring to suggest that Ford might not live in his senate district. "Anyone who impugns my name is subject to a lawsuit," Ford told the AP.

In December 2003, Ford apologized to taxpayers and agreed to repay as much as $1,300 in Federal Express charges on his state account for personal packages, including some 30 purchases made by his ex-wife and her relatives at such retailers as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman-Marcus in Atlanta.

In February 1997, Ford was charged with five counts of aggravated assault after he allegedly brandished a loaded shotgun and ordered a Memphis Light Gas & Water crew off his property. The charges placed on diversion and he completed 250 hours of community service.

In 1996 a federal civil trial resulted in a finding that Ford had sexually harassed a female employee when he was General Sessions Court clerk.

Sen. John Ford, you are impugned by your own actions.