Tennessee's U.S. Senate candidates are trying to get by - and get ahead - with a little help from their friends.
Many of those friends are from out of state and at least one has been involved with a shadowy character known only as "Mr. Big."

Former U.S. Rep. Ed Bryant, who's in the thick of a three-way battle with former U.S. Rep. Van Hilleary and former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker for the Republican nomination, took former House Majority Leader Dick Armey on a swing across the Volunteer State this week.

On the Democratic side, U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. welcomed U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois to Memphis last month.

As polite guests are wont to do, the visitors spoke glowingly about their hosts.

According to the Associated Press, Obama told Ford supporters that Tennesseans could be convinced to elect a black Democrat as long as they believe Ford would set aside partisan politics and work for the common good.

Armey, a Texan who served in the House with Bryant and Hilleary during the 1990s, praised Bryant's work ethic while taking swipes at Hilleary.

"Van, just frankly, didn't show up," Armey said at a stop in Knoxville.

Hilleary's campaign countered that Armey and other GOP House leaders preferred representatives who stayed quiet and put the party's interests above those of their constituents.

"They don't like people who are independent," Hilleary spokeswoman Jennifer Coxe told the AP.

Hilleary has cultivated support from Republican Senate leaders like Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who have attended his fund-raising events.

Corker's camp counts U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp of Chattanooga and U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota as prominent GOP congressional supporters, Corker spokesman Ben Mitchell said.

Corker also has locked up the support of local leaders like Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale, Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam and Oak Ridge Mayor David Bradshaw.

Ford has received what should qualify as the glitziest endorsement yet - actress Sarah Jessica Parker, star of the erstwhile HBO series "Sex and the City."

Parker, whose character Carrie Bradshaw carried on with Mr. Big and other lovers in the steamy TV show set in Manhattan, hosted a $1,000-a-plate dinner Thursday for the Memphis congressman in New York City.

Ford's opponent, state Sen. Rosalind Kurita, D-Clarksville, has stayed closer to home to raise money, though she has garnered the endorsement of the American Nursing Association.

"We get our money from the people we will represent in Tennessee," Kurita spokeswoman Anastasia Apa said.

Kurita recently held a drive to raise $10,000 in 10 days via the Internet. Apa said donors put the drive over the top in two days, so the campaign doubled the goal and hit it, too.

"We raised $21,000 in 10 days online," Apa said.

That's equal to 21 seats at Ford's Manhattan fete.

Ford's New York event drew the ridicule of a National Republican Senatorial Committee's Web site that has attracted national attention to the bitterness of the race.

In the current issue of Newsweek magazine, Jonathan Darman writes that Republicans must be worried about keeping the seat of outgoing Majority Leader Bill Frist to go negative so early in the campaign.

The site, www.fancyford.com, alleges that Ford leads a lavish lifestyle "with a penchant for Armani suits, four-star hotels and day spa pedicures," Darman writes.

When asked about the site, Ford told Darman, "I don't respond to trash."

GOP dark horse candidate Jeff Moder quit the race earlier this month. In a posting on his blog, the political newcomer said he'd received lots of encouragement but little cash.

"I've concluded my chances of building a successful grassroots campaign effort for this election are unlikely," Moder wrote.

A hospital executive from Memphis, Moder said he would support the eventual GOP nominee.