Burning Cash in Mississippi
Another high-profile special election looms next Tuesday in Mississippi's 1st congressional district, on the heels of last Saturday's contest in Louisiana.
The Mississippi matchup, a runoff between Prentiss County Chancery Clerk Travis Childers (D) and Southaven Mayor Greg Davis (R), has by a wide margin already drawn more cash from the two national party campaign committees than any other special election this year. The cash-strapped National Republican Congressional Committee (the NRCC may actually add the words "cash-strapped" to its official title) had, as of Thursday, dumped $1.06 million into the race, while the more flush Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had spent $1.65 million on the contest.
That combined total of $2.7 million easily exceeds the $1.6 million the two parties spent on the Louisiana contest and even beats the $2.3 million they shelled out in the March special election in Illinois' 14th district, which includes the pricey Chicago media market.
As loyal Capitol Briefing readers know, Democrats won both the Louisiana and Illinois races, making the Mississippi contest into the GOP's special election Alamo. Republicans need to win next Tuesday at any cost, so you can expect the party to shovel hundreds of thousands of dollars more into the Magnolia State between now and then.
By Ben Pershing |
May 9, 2008; 12:43 PM ET
2008 Campaign
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Posted by: willandjansdad | May 9, 2008 3:49 PM
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As a native of Mississippi let me assure you that the Republican slant of recent state politics is little more that a thin veneer. The vast majority of Mississippians know that as the state that is 50th in everything, government transfer payments, i.e. welfare, are critical to the states prosperity. The racial divide grows less and less each year for two reasons 1) Mississippi has the highest number, per capita, of black elected officials in the country and 2)more and more white Mississippi families now have black members.
The black sheriff that pulls you over might well have a white daughter-in-law or son-in-law with a mixed race child. Nothing eases old wounds like a mixed-race family reunion. I have attended one in Prentiss County and there were hugs and fried food for all.
It won't take much in the way of blue-collar issues to bring the Magnolia State back into the Democrat fold. As working class, FDR Democrats say..."The Republicans ain't never been for the working man."