Candidates Are Lining Up To Run In General Election
By David Howell
and Billy Davis
WATER VALLEY – A heated Congressional election and at least one contested race to fill a judge’s position are signs that political activity in Yalobusha County could be intense this year.
The announcement that longtime Circuit Court Judge Andrew Baker would retire at the end of this term opened up a seat that has been unchanged since 1978. Baker has served as Circuit Judge in the 17th Circuit Court District, composed of DeSoto, Panola, Tallahatchie and Yalobusha counties for over three decades. He was appointed by then-Mississippi Governor Cliff Finch and has been re-elected without opposition ever since.
With almost two months remaining until the qualifying deadline, multiple attorneys have expressed an interest in running for the seat, technically called Subdistrict 2, Position 1. Voters in four of the five counties in the court district – Tate, Panola, Tallahatchie and Yalobusha – are eligible to vote for this position.
A second judge serving in the 17th Circuit Court District has announced he will seek re-election. Judge Jimmy McClure, who was elected in a special election in 2008 to serve in Subdistrict 2, Position 2, turned in qualifying papers with the Secretary of State’s office Friday.
This position also serves Tate, Panola, Tallahatchie and Yalobusha counties. McClure was appointed in 2007 after Judge Ann Lamar, who was serving as Circuit Judge, was appointed to the Mississippi Supreme Court.
McClure’s appointment placed him on the bench until a special election was held in 2008. In a heated two-way race, McClure polled 57 percent of the vote, defeating Smith Murphey.
Other Circuit
Court Districts
Circuit Judge Robert Chamberlain, who also serves in the 17th Circuit Court District, has qualified to seek re-election in Subdistrict 1, Position One. Only voters in DeSoto County can vote for this position.
A fourth judge’s position in the 17th Circuit Court District, Position 4, could be on the ballot for the first time after the Mississippi Legislature authorized the new position. Hernando attorney Stan Little has qualified for this position in which voters from all five counties in the district are eligible to vote. Funding for Position 4 has not been finalized, and it is possible that opening this new seat could be delayed.
All candidates have until May 7 to qualify to run in these positions.
Chancery Judge
Both incumbent Chancery Judges Mitchell M. Lundy and Vicki B. Cobb have qualified to seek re-election. Lundy serves in Place 3 and Cobb serves in Place 2, both in the Third Judicial Chancery Court District, which includes the counties of Montgomery, Grenada, Yalobusha, Tate and DeSoto. The qualifying deadline in these races is also May 7.
School Board Election
Local elections include a District 4 school board slot in both the Water Valley School District and the Coffeeville School District. Taylor Trusty currently serves in District Four in Water Valley while Elsie Shaw serves in District Four in Coffeeville. The Coffeeville Courier reported that Shaw will not seek another term. She has served two five-year terms.
Trusty told the Herald that he is strongly considering a second term. The qualifying period for these races is August 4 – September 3.
1st Congressional
District Seat
In what will be the hottest race on the November ballot, the bid for Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District is attracting national attention.
Congressman Travis Childers will attempt to hang on to his seat in a district described in the past as a solid Republican seat. Childers does not face any opposition in the primary election, which will be held June 1.
Republican state Sen. Alan Nunnelee will face two challengers in the Republican primary, former Eupora Mayor Henry Ross and political analyst and author Angela McGowan.
Ross served at the Justice Department under former President George W. Bush. Ross has yet to raise or spend any campaign cash according to The Clarion-Ledger.
McGlowan announced February 1, in Oxford, that she is running for the 1st District seat. She is originally from Lafayette County.
In the conservative 1st District, McGlowan could be politically wounded after she suggested in a radio interview that gun owners should list their personal firearms on federal tax returns.
“I think the government has the right to know what guns we have in our homes,” she told show host Paul Gallo last August.
McGlowan has since said she was playing “devil’s advocate” about proposed legislation, the Blair Holt Act, which she said she now opposes.
On the campaign trail, McGlowan has also taken shots at Nunnelee, echoing the Democrats’ talking points that the state senator broke a pledge to vote against tax increases.
If Nunnelee wins the primary, expect a Childers-Nunnelee match-up to be tough and dirty. Both political parties savor a win. Republicans are eyeing a Scott Brown-like win that would embarrass the Democrats. The Democrats, meanwhile, want desperately to keep the seat, since just two years ago they were boasting that a solid Republican seat had been snatched from the GOP.
The 1st District race has been rated a “toss-up” by Congressional Quarterly, the national political newspaper, and by the Cook Political Report. Four independent candidates and three third-party candidates have also qualified to run for the seat in the general election.
Campaign contributions flowed to both incumbent and challenger in 2009, with Childers raising nearly twice as much as his opponent, The Clarion-Ledger has reported.
Childers raised $822,780 by year’s end compared to $421,937 for Nunnelee. The state senator, although trailing in campaign money, had out-raised the incumbent Democrat in the final quarter of the year.
After the March 1 qualifying deadline, voters learned that four independent candidates and three third-party candidates have also qualified to run for the seat in the general election.
Childers the ‘Blue Dog’
Childers, during two campaigns for the 1st District, has touted his credentials as a fiscally and socially conservative, a so-called “Blue Dog” Democrat.
Press releases from the Congressman’s office describe him as a “pro-life, pro-gun Mississippian,” though Republicans continue to try to tie him to a liberal White House and liberal House Speaker.
Childers voted against the controversial bank bailouts, known as TARP I and TARP II, and he supports a return to PAYGO, a formula for spending funds that are available rather than borrowed.
The PAYGO statute expired in 2002 and critics have said its demise set the stage for record-breaking deficit spending.
Most recently Childers voted against a Democratic effort to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, which passed.
Childers voted in favor of the Stimulus bill, telling The Panolian last year that the controversial legislation was among his most difficult votes. He supported the bill because of its potential to provide jobs in the 1st District, he said.
The Stimulus legislation was passed, minus any Republican votes, at a cost to taxpayers of $787 billion.
Childers is from Prentiss County, where he served as chancery clerk before seeking the 1st District seat.
In the most recent congressional race, Childers defeated Southaven Mayor Greg Davis, a Republican in 2008. The incumbent Democrat carried Yalobusha County receiving 61 percent of the votes cast in the county.
Nunnelee the ‘Young Gun’
In the Mississippi legislature, Nunnelee, who is from Tupelo, chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. He has served in the state senate since 1995.
The state senator wears the label of a conservative Republican, but Democrats are already aiming at his “broken” pledge to oppose tax cuts. His votes to raise Mississippi’s tobacco tax 50 cents a pack, and to bring back a tax on hospitals, amount to broken promises, according to Democrats.
Nunnelee is enjoying support from Congressional Republi-cans. He is participating in a three-tiered campaign program, known as the Young Guns, which recruits and grooms candidates to run for Congress.
National Republicans are touting Nunnelee’s most recent fund-raising effort, which is viewed as a prerequisite for running a formidable race.
