Ford takes on Big Oil

Tennessee Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. is betting that voters' discontent with rising prices at the gas pump will translate into a desire for change at the ballot box this fall.Ford, the lone Democrat running for the seat of retiring Sen. Bill Frist (R), plans to launch television and radio ads Monday attacking the oil companies for getting rich off of the average American family.

In the television commercials, Ford is shown pumping gas at an Exxon station while detailing the $100 billion in profits "Big Oil" made in 2005, and the $400 million retirement package for former Exxon Mobil chairman Lee Raymond that "you and I paid for."

Ford goes on to propose an elimination of tax breaks for oil companies and an investment in alternative fuel technology while also making an appeal for change. "If you're fed up every time you fill up, send a new generation to the Senate," he says.

When Ford, a fifth-term congressman, announced his candidacy last May, he was given little chance of winning because in recent years Republicans have dominated open-seat elections in the South and because his family has had high-profile problems. (His uncle, John Ford, was arrested by the FBI on bribery charges the day after Harold entered the Senate race.)