Ball challenge to Alexander: Glock vs. piano

photo Gordon Ball
photo Lamar Alexander

NASHVILLE - Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Gordon Ball on Saturday defended his support of gun rights from an NRA attack and lightheartedly challenged Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander to a "duel" of sorts, since he said Alexander won't agree to a traditional debate.

"I'm from Cocke County, where we actually do own guns. So I'm going to issue a challenge to Mr. Alexander: his piano versus my Glock," Ball jokingly told state Democratic Executive Committee members during their meeting in Nashville. "Democrats are gun owners too."

Alexander is a piano player who occasionally plays at events.

The National Rifle Association, which has endorsed Alexander, announced last week it had given Ball an "F" rating. The group then attacked Ball based on an interview the Democrat gave earlier this year to the blog KnoxViews.

"This past week we've been attacked and attacked and attacked in the media by the Republican Party and then by Lamar Alexander himself," Ball said. "We've issued a challenge to Mr. Alexander to debate, which he refuses to do. In light of the NRA's rating of me, I'm going to issue a challenge to Mr. Alexander to a duel."

Ball said the gun group never sent him a questionnaire. In his response to KnoxViews' questions, Ball said he supported gun rights but favors background checks on gun purchases at gun shows and restrictions on high-capacity ammunition magazines and "military-style weapons."

Alexander is beatable in the Nov. 4 election, Ball said, noting Alexander's support is weak and citing as evidence the three-term incumbent's having lost nearly a third of Tennessee counties in the August GOP primary race to challenger Joe Carr.

Alexander won statewide with slightly less than 50 percent of the vote in what was a seven-person contest.

Ball, a successful class-action lawsuit attorney from Knoxville, cheerfully pointed out Alexander even lost his home county of Blount as well as nearby Sevier and Loudon counties.

"Lamar Alexander won with less votes than were cast against him. The Republicans understand that he can be beaten," Ball told party members. "We need you totally and desperately in the next 50 days."

Ball said voters can see how nervous Alexander and his allies are because they're now attacking him. And he lashed at the senator for refusing to back increases in the federal minimum wage. He also took Alexander to task for his support of school vouchers and the senator's votes on interest rates for college loans.

"Unlike Lamar Alexander, I believe students should get a break on their interest on college loans. If he can vote to bail out Wall Street, why can't we bail out our kids?"

After refusing to debate Carr in the primary, Alexander has also declined to accept Ball's challenge for a series of televised debates across the state.

Just last week, Alexander agreed to one joint appearance with Ball. It's at a forum sponsored by the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation in Cookeville on Oct. 16. The event is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. and won't be televised. The format calls for questions posed by Farm Bureau officials and no room for the candidates to engage each other directly.

Ball said that won't benefit most voters.

"How good is that for the citizens of this state? But we will be there and challenge Lamar Alexander on where he's been for 12 years," he said.

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