Harold Ford Jr., the 36-year-old Democratic congressman and Senate candidate from Tennessee, is part of a veritable political dynasty in the Volunteer State.

Fords have served at almost every level of government, from the city level to U.S. Congress. Ford himself was elected to the House of Representatives, fresh out of law school at age 26 in 1996.

Recently, however, the Fords have spent about as much time in courthouses as in legislatures.

Ford's father, former Rep. Harold Ford Sr., fought federal charges of fraud and conspiracy until he was acquitted in 1993 at the end of a racially charged trial that many feared might have incited riots had the verdict been different.

Just a day after Harold Ford Jr. officially began his Senate campaign, his uncle, former Tennessee state Sen. John N. Ford, was indicted on charges that he extorted a dummy company set up by the FBI and then threatened to "shoot or kill anyone he suspected ... was trying to set him up," according to The New York Times. His trial on these charges, which was supposed to begin a few weeks before the November elections, has been pushed to next year.

In addition, Ford's uncle Emmett was convicted of insurance fraud and his aunt Ophelia was removed from the state Senate due to her connections to a voting fraud scandal for which she was not implicated.

All this legal activity has made Ford's run for the Senate seat vacated by retiring Republican Bill Frist a little more complicated. His family is revered in some parts, reviled in others, but well-known throughout Tennessee.

"I love my family and there's nothing anybody can say to bring any distance between me or any member of my family," Ford told NPR's Debbie Elliott. However, in the same interview, he also said, "If you have the recipe for picking family, send it to me."

Ford hopes that his campaign for Senate will be focused on the major issues of the day rather than his "big crazy family," as he has referred to them. But his stances on major issues are not without controversy either.

As a member of Congress, Ford voted to authorize the Iraq war and supported repealing the estate tax. He has opposed gay marriage and believes the Ten Commandments should be displayed in Tennessee courtrooms.

He is a strong backer of campaign finance reform and corporate corruption legislation. And one of the issues on which he is most vocal is U.S. dependence on foreign oil. One of his campaign ads asks, "Fed Up When You Fill Up?"

Since first being elected in 1996, Ford has cruised to re-election in his heavily Democratic district, easily dispatching Republican Ruben Fort in 2004 by capturing some 82 percent of the vote.

Still, some within the Democratic Party, and especially within the Congressional Black Caucus, feel that Ford is too conservative to be in the same party as Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. Ford says his views show he is an independent thinker beholden to no one. His right-of-center views might even be a political asset in a state that hasn't sent a Democrat to the Senate in 16 years and voted against native son former Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 presidential race.

At this point, it appears the Democratic Party is willing to accept Harold Ford Jr.'s conservative tendencies as they see his race as one of their best chances to pick up enough seats to take control of the Senate in November.

Ford, who ran with nominal opposition for the Democratic nomination, faces a tough Senate race against the wealthy former mayor of Chattanooga, Bob Corker. Corker won a brutal three-way Republican primary in August that became the most expensive in Tennessee history.

-- Compiled by David Schultz for the Online NewsHour