Bad sign for repulicans?

[streicher187]

Childers wins; Democrat takes back 1st District seat in Congress
By Yolanda Jones (Contact)
Originally published 08:48 p.m., May 13, 2008
Updated 08:48 p.m., May 13, 2008

Democrat Travis Childers overcame Republican Greg Davis' commanding lead in his home county of DeSoto Tuesday night to capture Mississippi's 1st District House seat.

The win gives Democrats their third takeover this year of a House seat held by Republicans, a seat that in this case had been held by Republicans since Roger Wicker won it in 1994.


Childers, 50, the Prentiss County Chancery Court Clerk, will serve until early January when the winner of the Nov. 4 general election takes over. Childers and Davis will meet again, along with two other candidates, in that election. But Childers now has the advantage of the incumbency.

"We are still excited about the November race, and we think he (Childers) has peaked in DeSoto County and come November he will have to run on his record," Davis, 42, said Tuesday night.

Childers' win in a district that has been a GOP stronghold in recent years could portend bad things for Republicans heading into November general elections. They had spent heavily in an effort to retain the seat, bringing Vice President **** Cheney to Southaven on Monday to stump for Davis.

But with 94 percent of the unofficial districtwide total reporting late Tuesday, Childers, had 55,269, votes, or 53 percent, to Davis' 48.207, or 47 percent.

The numbers reflect returns from 434 of 462 precincts, or 94 percent, across the 24-county North Mississippi district.

In Davis' home county of DeSoto, where he was expected to dominate, the Southaven mayor had 14,976 votes to 5,015 for Childers with 38 of 38 precincts reporting. Turnout was 27.9 percent of registered voters in DeSoto County.

"We are disappointed in tonight's election results," said Tom Cole, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. "Though the NRCC, RNC and Mississippi Republicans made a major effort to retain this seat, we came up short."

Childers, who carried 19 of 24 counties in the district with one county still out late Tuesday, watched returns Tuesday evening from Northeast Mississippi Community College in Booneville, while Davis gathered with family and friends at his headquarters on State Line Road in Southaven.

Childers couldn't be reached Tuesday night as returns came in but had said earlier that Republicans have acted like they own the North Mississippi seat.

"It's not their seat by divine right," Childers said.

Tuesday's balloting, marked by fierce ad campaigns on both sides that drew national interest, is the fourth election in nine weeks for Childers and Davis. In the most recent meeting on April 22, Childers got 49 percent of the vote to Davis's 46 percent to finish as the top two in a six-candidate nonpartisan field to fill the seat until January.

Longtime Mississippi political observer Robert McElvaine, chairman of the history department at Millsaps College in Jackson, said the April 22 election shook up widely held assumptions that Republicans were unbeatable in North Mississippi.

"It was kind of startling that the Democrat was able to come within a few hundred votes of winning," McElvaine said.

Mississippi's 1st District, with about a 75 percent white voting-age population, stretches from the Delta flatlands on its western edge to the Appalachian foothills in the northeast. Populous -- and heavily Republican -- DeSoto County, increasingly a factor in 1st District politics, is situated at the northwest corner.

Prior to the April 22 special election, Davis and Childers had won their respective party primaries in March and then each won a primary runoff on April 1, setting the state for November's general election for the same seat.

The special election became necessary after Wicker, a Republican, was appointed by Republican Gov. Haley Barbour in December to fill the remainder of Sen. Trent Lott's term after Lott retired to become a lobbyist.

A failure by Davis to deliver the seat for the party Tuesday was seen by many observers as a bad sign for Republican chances in November, when they hope to avoid further erosion of their numbers to the Democratic majority. A win in Louisiana recently gave Democrats a 235-198 majority.

Davis and Childers both labeled themselves as conservatives who support gun rights and are pro-life.

But in political television ads, Republicans have linked Childers to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Presidental candidate Sen. Barack Obama.

Chris Wilson, city administrator for Southaven and immediate past chairman of the DeSoto County Republican Party Executive Committee, Tuesday night praised the DeSoto support for Davis.

"We had just tremendous ground support (for the runoff)," Wilson said. "Last weekend, our volunteers knocked on the doors of 25,000 homes (in DeSoto County)."

[haybierman]

Uhhh have you ever met a Mississippi Democrat? Not really your everyday Obama supporter if you catch my drift.