Steve Cohen (politician)

For other persons with a similar name, see Stephen Cohen.

Steve Cohen
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 9th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 4, 2007
Preceded by	Harold Ford, Jr.
Personal details
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Single
Residence	Memphis, Tennessee
Alma mater	Vanderbilt University, University of Memphis
Profession	Attorney

Stephen Ira "Steve" Cohen (born May 24, 1949) is a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives representing Tennessee's ninth district. Prior to his election to the House in November 2006, Cohen was a Tennessee State Senator from Memphis. He is Tennessee's first Jewish congressman.

In the 2008 Democratic Party primary in August, Cohen defeated his chief opponent, Nikki Tinker by a margin of 79 to 19% after a bitter campaign contest, earning a place on the ballot as the Democratic candidate for the 9th district in the 2008 congressional elections. Cohen is one of only two whites representing majority black districts in Congress.

Early life and education

Cohen was born in Memphis, Tennessee on May 24, 1949 to pediatrician Morris D. Cohen and his wife Genevieve. He is a fourth-generation Memphian, and is the grandson of a Lithuanian immigrant newsstand owner. Cohen contracted polio when he was five, and the disease caused him to shift his attention from sports to politics at an early age. When Cohen was eleven, John F. Kennedy made a campaign stop in Memphis, and Cohen took a picture of Kennedy sitting on a convertible. Cohen describes Kennedy as his political hero; the picture still hangs in his office. In 1961, Cohen’s family moved to Coral Gables, Florida where his father received a fellowship in psychiatry at the University of Miami. From 1964 to 1966, the Cohen family resided in Pasadena, California where Dr. Cohen had a fellowship in child psychiatry at the University of Southern California. Cohen, who attended Polytechnic School, returned to Florida in 1966 to graduate from Coral Gables High School before returning to Memphis where his father established his private psychiatry practice.

Cohen graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1973, he graduated from the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law of Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) with a Juris Doctor.

Politics

Early career

While serving for three years as Legal Advisor for the Memphis Police Department, Cohen rose to political prominence when he was elected to the Tennessee Constitutional Convention of 1977 at the age of 27. The Convention elected him its vice president. Cohen was then elected to serve as a commissioner on the Shelby County Commission, an office he held from 1978 to 1980. During his time at the Commission, Cohen was instrumental in the creation of The Med, a community-funded regional hospital. In 1980, Cohen served as an interim Shelby County General Sessions Court judge. He has also served as a delegate to the 1980, 1992, and 2004 Democratic National Conventions.

Tennessee state legislature

Cohen was elected to the Tennessee General Assembly in 1982 as a Senator representing District 30, which includes parts of Memphis (including the downtown area). He held that position for 24 years.

For 18 years, Cohen strove to repeal the ban on lotteries in the Tennessee State Constitution. His efforts were successful in 2002, and a state lottery program designed to provide college scholarships for Tennessee students was adopted the following year. The lottery program is regarded as the most well-known accomplishment of Cohen's Senate career. Cohen also sponsored legislation relating to expansion of community access to healthcare, the protection of animal rights, the reinstatement of voting rights, graduated driver licenses, and funding for the arts during his career.

In March of 2005, Cohen was one of three Tennessee Senators to vote against the Tennessee Marriage Protection Amendment, which Tennessee voters approved via a referendum in November 2006. During the course of the debate on the amendment, Cohen offered several amendments to the amendment, all of which failed, including the proposed addition of an "adultery clause," which said "Adultery is deemed to be a threat to the institution of marriage and contrary to public policy in Tennessee."

Cohen was widely regarded as one of the Senate's toughest and most articulate debaters, as he has an unusually straightforward and direct style when compared to other Southern politicians. One Tennessee writer described him as "very outspoken, very persistent, and a lot more cerebral than most of his colleagues."

Cohen is the first Jewish person to serve in the Tennessee Senate since 1958.

1996 House campaign

In 1996, Cohen ran for election to the United States House of Representatives seat for the 9th District, which came open when 22-year incumbent and fellow Democrat Harold Ford, Sr. announced his retirement. The then 26-year-old Harold Ford, Jr., the incumbent's son, was his opponent in the Democratic primary. Reflecting on the race, Cohen said, "I'd spent fourteen years in the [state] Senate, had the experience, and didn't like the idea of [the seat] being handed down like an heirloom."

Cohen lost the primary to Ford by 25 points. Noting that Ford, an African-American, did much better than Cohen in majority black precincts despite Ford's inexperience, Cohen said, "It is impossible for a person who is not African American to get a large vote in the African American community . . . against a substantial candidate. The fact is, I am white, and it doesn't seem to matter what you do." Later, Cohen admitted that his statement was "impolitic" but also noted that "race is still an important factor in voting."

Cohen did not have to resign his state senate seat to run in the primary; Tennessee state senators serve staggered four-year terms, and Cohen did not have to run for reelection to the Senate until 1998.

2006 House campaign

In early April 2006, Cohen announced that he was again running for the 9th District seat; Ford, Jr. was not running for reelection. Cohen was the first candidate in the race with significant name recognition outside the Memphis area but had fourteen opponents in the primary. The Commercial Appeal, Memphis' daily newspaper, endorsed Cohen in the race. The crowded nature of the primary was largely due to the district's demographics. The 9th is a heavily Democratic, black-majority district, and it was considered very likely that whoever won the Democratic primary would be the district's next congressman.

Cohen won the August 3 primary by a decisive 4,000-vote margin despite being outspent 2 to 1 by the runner-up in the primary. In fact, six Democrats raised more money than he. He carried many of the district's predominantly black precincts by healthy margins. He faced Republican Mark White and independent Jake Ford (Harold, Jr.'s younger brother) in the general election in November.

Though the Ninth District is heavily Democratic, Jake Ford was seen as a serious contender for the race because of his significant name recognition among Memphis' black voters. Jake Ford had skipped the Democratic primary because he felt it was too crowded, but stated he would caucus with the Democrats if elected. The Ford family has been a significant force in Memphis' black community since the days of E.H. Crump. Indeed, it seemed that the real race was between Cohen and Jake Ford. White was not seen as a serious factor, and by all accounts would have faced nearly impossible odds even in a two-man race against Cohen.

Cohen was endorsed by the mayor of Memphis, W. W. Herenton, and the mayor of Shelby County, A.C. Wharton, both of whom are black and members of the Democratic Party. He was also endorsed by many local Democratic activists who had long felt Harold, Jr. was too moderate.

However, many of the city's politically influential black pastors refused to support Cohen, and the area Black Ministers Association overwhelmingly voted to endorse Jake Ford. The Ford family itself was split. While Harold, Jr. himself remained neutral (despite rumors of collusion between the two brothers' campaigns), entertainment lawyer Joe Ford, Jr., Harold, Jr.'s cousin, strongly endorsed Cohen after finishing third in the primary. However, Harold, Sr. strongly supported his younger son.

On October 8, 2006, Cohen, Ford, and White participated in a televised debate in Memphis. Among other topics, issues discussed included Iraq, medical marijuana, education, and the Tennessee Marriage Protection Amendment. Ford attacked Cohen's record in the State Senate, including his opposition to the Marriage Protection Amendment, support for medical marijuana, and his voting attendance record. Cohen responded by standing by his public record, pointing out Ford's lack of experience in public office, and indicating that Ford had been to jail and had dropped out of high school.

Cohen won the election by a decisive margin, winning 60% of the vote to Ford's 22% and White's 18%. Sixty percent of the votes received by Cohen were from African-American voters.

House of Representatives

Cohen is the first Jewish person to represent Tennessee in Congress, as well as the first white Democrat to represent a significant portion of Memphis since freshman George Grider was defeated by Republican Dan Kuykendall in 1966, and the first Jew to represent a majority black district, as well as one of the few white congressmen that has represented a black-majority district. Before being elected, Cohen told reporters that he would seek to become the first white member of the Congressional Black Caucus, but later decided against attempting to join after members of the CBC (influenced by co-founder Bill Clay) indicated that they would not allow a non-black to join.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi assigned Cohen to serve on the House Judiciary Committee, which was Cohen's first choice for a committee assignment, as well as the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

During his first month in Congress, Cohen voted in favor of each of the components of the Democratic Party's "100-Hour Plan" in the House, including increasing the federal minimum wage, requiring the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower Medicare prescription drug prices, and reducing interest rates for student borrowers. Cohen also cosponsored House Concurrent Resolution 23, which "[expresses] the sense of Congress that the President should not order an escalation in the total number of members of the United States Armed Forces serving in Iraq."

On February 27, 2007, Cohen introduced a resolution in the House that apologizes for African-American slavery and the system of Jim Crow laws that persisted for 100 years after the abolition of slavery. Cohen noted that no president has officially apologized for allowing slavery. The bill had picked up thirty-six cosponsors by the end of the day. The resolution passed on July 29, 2008, marking the first time a branch of the federal government had officially apologized for the institution of slavery and its aftermath.

Cohen made a trip to Iraq from October 4, 2007 to October 7, 2007 as part of a congressional fact-finding delegation. Cohen noted that his impression was that the country was "not in very good shape" and that its economy has been "ravaged." Cohen met with soldiers who complained that long deployments are causing divorces. When Cohen raised this concern with General David Petraeus, Petraeus told Cohen that the claims were being exaggerated. After meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Cohen described him as "overly optimistic," noting his "bizarre" statement that sectarian war in Iraq is over.

Despite Cohen's strong performance in the black community, many of the city's politically active blacks feel chagrin at being represented by him. Besides sentiment that the 9th should be represented by a black Democrat, his socially liberal views (see below) also give them pause. For example, Cohen's support for a hate-crimes bill drew particularly strong opposition from most of the city's black ministers because it included a sexual orientation provision. Cohen contends that every member of the Congressional Black Caucus voted for the bill, and Harold, Jr. voted for it in the previous Congress. Still, many of the city's black ministers tried to rally behind a consensus black candidate to challenge Cohen in the Democratic primary.

2008 Democratic Primary

In the 2008 Democratic Primary in Tennessee's ninth congressional district, Cohen ran for relection. Four Democrats filed to challenge Cohen in the August 7 primary. The city's Black Ministerial Association closed ranks behind Nikki Tinker, a lawyer who finished second to Cohen in the 2006 primary and a former aide to Harold, Jr.

The campaign quickly turned ugly, with Tinker putting together a raft of negative ads. One attacked Cohen for voting to keep a statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the Ku Klux Klan, at the Medical Center park. The ad falsely implied that Cohen had ties to the Klan by juxtaposing Cohen with a white-clad Ku Kux Klansman,. Another ad accused Cohen of "praying in our churches" while voting against school prayer. Another controvesry stemmed from an ad Tinker's campaign posted on Youtube which charged that while Cohen visits "our churches, clapping his hands and tapping his feet ... he's the only senator who thought our kids shouldn't be allowed to pray in school," referring to a 1997 vote Cohen made as a state senator. Tinker's campaign later had the ads removed but they drew criticism from a number of sources, including Barack Obama, who stated that "These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics, and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee."

The primaryhad been marred by Anti-Semitism for months prior to the August vote. In February 2008, Rev. George Brooks, a Tinker supporter, distributed literature in the district which stated that "Cohen and the Jews HATE Jesus" and urged the defeat of an "opponent of Christ and Christianity." Another minister, Rev. Robert Poindexter of Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, stated that "He's not black, and he can't represent me, that's just the bottom line."

Ultimately, Cohen won the primary in a rout, taking 79 percent of the vote to Tinker's 19 percent. In his victory speech, Cohen said his victory proved "Memphis has come a long, long way" from its racially divisive past. It is expected that Cohen's victory in the primary will virtually assures him of a second term in congress since no Republican candidates have even filed to run in the district (a Republican would have faced nearly impossible odds due to the unpopularity of the Republican Party amongAfrican-American voters.). However, Cohen is expected to face three independents--one of whom is Jake Ford--in the November election.

Cohen endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary on February 4, 2008, the day before the Super Tuesday, 2008 primaries.

Issue positions and ideology

Cohen maintains liberal positions on many issues, including staunch support for environmental protection, opposition to the George W. Bush Administration over the War in Iraq, and support for a woman's right to an abortion. To expand funds available for research and development of alternative energy sources, Cohen supports the imposition of an excess profits tax on oil companies. Cohen has said that he believes that adequate health care is a "fundamental right" of all citizens. Cohen supports gender equality, separation of church and state, progressive taxation, medicinal use of marijuana, gun rights and capital punishment.

Trivia

Cohen was a friend of the late musician Warren Zevon, who included him in the "Thanks" listing in the booklet accompanying his final album, The Wind. Cohen presented the eulogy at Zevon's memorial service in Westwood, CA.

A room in Cohen's home contains a collection of more than 3,000 campaign buttons.

Cohen appeared briefly in the film The Firm in a restaurant scene with Tom Cruise and Gene Hackman. He also appeared as an extra in another film adaptation of a John Grisham novel, The Client.

Cohen appeared on the March 1, 2007 episode of The Colbert Report in the show's Better Know a District series.

Although his family has no knowledge of any Turkish heritage, Cohen's mother's birth certificate states his maternal grandfather was born in Turkey when it was part of the Ottoman Empire. He is a member of the Congressional Caucus on US Turkish Relations and Turkish Americans.

References

• Tennessee Blue Book, 2005–2006 edition, p. 22

External links

• Representative Steve Cohen official U.S. House website
• Steve Cohen for Congress official campaign website

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Profile at SourceWatch Congresspedia
• On Their Way: Cohen Rises Above Ford Family Drama in Tenn. 9, by Rachel Kapochunas, CQPolitics.com, November 2, 2006