Dem Barely Misses Takeover Win in Mississippi House Special, With Runoff Next

[Wabbajack_]

Source: CQ Politics

Democrat Travis W. Childers led the field and just narrowly missed the majority vote he needed for an outright victory in a special election held Tuesday in Mississippi’s 1st District. Childers now moves on to a May 13 runoff with Republican Greg Davis, the mayor of Southaven, in a district that has a conservative lean and usually votes strongly Republican in contests for federal office.

Childers received 49.4 percent, just short of the 50 percent threshold, according to complete but unofficial returns. Davis received 46.3 percent of the vote and trailed Childers by more than 2,000 votes, staving off elimination only by running up a margin of more than 8,000 votes in his home base of DeSoto County. Four other candidates were on the ballot, on which party affiliations were not listed, and they combined to total the remaining 4.3 percent of the vote.

Childers now faces a three-week runoff campaign with an uncertain outcome. But his first-place finish marks the latest startling surprise for the Democratic Party, and the latest setback for a national Republican Party that has struggled to regain its footing since its losses in the 2006 congressional elections overturned its majorities in both the House and the Senate.

The Democrats have sought to maintain their 2006 momentum by competing aggressively in a series of special elections for seats vacated by Republican incumbents. They scored a major and symbolic victory March 8 when Democrat Bill Foster , a businessman and scientist, won the special election in Illinois’ 14th District from which Republican J. Dennis Hastert — the former House Speaker — had resigned last November. And there is a strong Democratic takeover campaign occurring in Louisiana’s 6th District where a May 3 special election will replace former Republican Rep. Richard H. Baker, who resigned in February to head a financial trade association.

Read more: http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=news-000002708953

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Wow, pukes are in trouble.

[rox63]

1. This is a case of the 50-state strategy in action

Go, Travis Childers! Go, Dr. Dean! :D

[Wabbajack_]

2. Well Childers sounds like a socon DINO

better than an R though.

[rox63]

3. Better than a puke

This is MS, so any Dem coming from there is a good thing.

[provis99]

4. Childers is a Blue Dog; no different than a Republican

frankly in Mississippi, the Republican candidate is occasionally more liberal than the Democratic candidate, if both candidates are white. The only liberal Democratic politicians in Mississippi are black politicians in the Delta region. In the rest of the state, its like picking between tweedledum and tweedledee.