By Andy Sher
Nashville Bureau
NASHVILLE —; Campaign officials with Republican U.S. Senate candidates Van Hilleary and Ed Bryant demanded Monday that GOP rival Bob Corker cease airing campaign ads about cracking down on illegal immigration.
The officials cited news accounts from 1988 about a federal immigration raid at a building site overseen by a construction firm partially owned by Mr. Corker.
"His company was warned this was going on, and you know months later found out it was still going on," Jennifer Coxe, Mr. Hilleary's campaign manager, said. "If he has an inability to deal with things that are completely within his control, then I don't know how he can be tough on an issue where there's going to be a lot of pressure not to fine employers."
Ben Mitchell, Mr. Corker's campaign manager, said the campaign would not pull the ad.
"All of our ads are 100 percent factual," Mr. Mitchell said. "This particular ad tells the voters Bob Corker's position on the important issue of immigration. While Bob Corker is talking about issues, Van Hilleary and Ed Bryant continue to devote their time to lobbing untrue negative attacks."
Bryant spokesman Andrew Shulman said the immigration ad and issue are part of what he called a "hypocritical and deceitful" pattern in advertising by Mr. Corker, a former Chattanooga mayor. He questioned other ads about Mr. Corker's position on abortion and raising taxes while mayor.
Mr. Mitchell has blamed the attacks on Mr. Corker's surging poll numbers in the wake of a $1.6 million television and radio ad blitz by the campaign.
Independent media pollster SurveyUSA's May 23 poll of 524 likely GOP primary voters showed Mr. Corker with 38 percent support, Mr. Hilleary with 28 percent and Mr. Bryant with 23 percent. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent.
In a January 1988 news report, a Shelby County commissioner raised concerns about Mexican laborers working at a Memphis building site where Bencor, a construction firm partly owned by Mr. Corker, served as general contractor. Two months later, immigration agents raided the site.
Mickey Sadler, a then-Immigration and Naturalization Service special agent, at the time blamed subcontractors for the problem and not Bencor.
Bencor "is bending over backward to get the subs to voluntarily comply," he said.
Mr. Shulman said a transcript from Mr. Corker's April 11, 2006, appearance on the "Hallerin Hill Show," a Knoxville radio program, was justification for his charge regarding Corker campaign "deceit."
A transcript provided by the Bryant campaign cites an unknown caller asking Mr. Corker about what steps he took as a construction executive "to make sure you or your subcontractors never hired an illegal alien."
According to the transcript, Mr. Corker said, "It really wasn't an issue at the time believe it or not. ... Very seldom did you see anybody that even you thought might possibly be that, but we do check."
The transcript states Mr. Corker said that the real estate holdings he sold in January had "tons of subcontractors and vendors, and we actually got letters from them periodically that stated that they absolutely had checked with everyone that worked within their organization and that no one, no one, was working for an enterprise that was illegally there."
E-mail Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com
Nashville Bureau
NASHVILLE —; Campaign officials with Republican U.S. Senate candidates Van Hilleary and Ed Bryant demanded Monday that GOP rival Bob Corker cease airing campaign ads about cracking down on illegal immigration.
The officials cited news accounts from 1988 about a federal immigration raid at a building site overseen by a construction firm partially owned by Mr. Corker.
"His company was warned this was going on, and you know months later found out it was still going on," Jennifer Coxe, Mr. Hilleary's campaign manager, said. "If he has an inability to deal with things that are completely within his control, then I don't know how he can be tough on an issue where there's going to be a lot of pressure not to fine employers."
Ben Mitchell, Mr. Corker's campaign manager, said the campaign would not pull the ad.
"All of our ads are 100 percent factual," Mr. Mitchell said. "This particular ad tells the voters Bob Corker's position on the important issue of immigration. While Bob Corker is talking about issues, Van Hilleary and Ed Bryant continue to devote their time to lobbing untrue negative attacks."
Bryant spokesman Andrew Shulman said the immigration ad and issue are part of what he called a "hypocritical and deceitful" pattern in advertising by Mr. Corker, a former Chattanooga mayor. He questioned other ads about Mr. Corker's position on abortion and raising taxes while mayor.
Mr. Mitchell has blamed the attacks on Mr. Corker's surging poll numbers in the wake of a $1.6 million television and radio ad blitz by the campaign.
Independent media pollster SurveyUSA's May 23 poll of 524 likely GOP primary voters showed Mr. Corker with 38 percent support, Mr. Hilleary with 28 percent and Mr. Bryant with 23 percent. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent.
In a January 1988 news report, a Shelby County commissioner raised concerns about Mexican laborers working at a Memphis building site where Bencor, a construction firm partly owned by Mr. Corker, served as general contractor. Two months later, immigration agents raided the site.
Mickey Sadler, a then-Immigration and Naturalization Service special agent, at the time blamed subcontractors for the problem and not Bencor.
Bencor "is bending over backward to get the subs to voluntarily comply," he said.
Mr. Shulman said a transcript from Mr. Corker's April 11, 2006, appearance on the "Hallerin Hill Show," a Knoxville radio program, was justification for his charge regarding Corker campaign "deceit."
A transcript provided by the Bryant campaign cites an unknown caller asking Mr. Corker about what steps he took as a construction executive "to make sure you or your subcontractors never hired an illegal alien."
According to the transcript, Mr. Corker said, "It really wasn't an issue at the time believe it or not. ... Very seldom did you see anybody that even you thought might possibly be that, but we do check."
The transcript states Mr. Corker said that the real estate holdings he sold in January had "tons of subcontractors and vendors, and we actually got letters from them periodically that stated that they absolutely had checked with everyone that worked within their organization and that no one, no one, was working for an enterprise that was illegally there."
E-mail Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com
