Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/fight-to-finish-in-tennessee-senate-race Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript The Tennessee Senate race between Democrat Harold Ford Jr. and Republican Bob Corker has taken a nasty turn through negative ads and unplanned confrontations between the candidates. Two editors discuss the race. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: And finally tonight, a Choices '06 report on another of those very tight U.S. Senate races that will decide control of the Congress. Tennessee gets the treatment tonight. NewsHour correspondent Kwame Holman begins. KWAME HOLMAN: Five-term Congressman Harold Ford is hoping to become the first black senator elected in a southern state since the 1870s.REP. HAROLD FORD (D), Candidate for U.S. Senate: I don't believe that what's happening in Washington right now is Democrat or Republican; it's just wrong, because they don't solve problems anymore. They don't reach out to people any more. They don't respond to the needs of people anymore. That's what I want to do in the United States Senate. KWAME HOLMAN: But his Republican opponent, wealthy businessman and former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker, is betting his experience running Tennessee's fourth-largest city will lead him to victory on Tuesday.BOB CORKER (R), Candidate for U.S. Senate: I think that what people want today is someone who knows how to solve problems. KWAME HOLMAN: The two candidates, vying for the Senate seat being vacated by Majority Leader Bill Frist, have traded leads in the polls for months.Contrasting figures released yesterday gave both campaigns reason for cheer. A CNN poll showed Corker with an eight-point advantage, while a Wall Street Journal-Zogby poll had Ford within one.Along with Missouri and Virginia, Tennessee is critical in the fight for control of the Senate, and both campaigns are bringing in the big guns. RALLY HOST: Ladies and gentleman, the president of the United States! KWAME HOLMAN: Ford showed off the former president at a packed church in Memphis this afternoon.BILL CLINTON, Former President of the United States: Harold Ford's victory will be your victory. Whoever you are, whatever you look like, whatever your political party, as long as you are committed to thinking, as long as you believe in the more perfect union of our founders' dreams, as long as you believe in a better tomorrow. KWAME HOLMAN: Corker got a boost from the first lady yesterday. Speaking in northeast Tennessee, Mrs. Bush said Corker's accomplishments as mayor prove he's ready for the U.S. Senate.LAURA BUSH, First Lady of the United States: Under Mayor Corker's leadership, Chattanooga's violent crime rate dropped by half. Bob helped the city homeowners by managing the budget so that Chattanooga's property taxes are the lowest since the 1950s.