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Republicans Use Obama as Weapon in House Contest in Mississippi
Published: May 13, 2008
SOUTHAVEN, Miss. — Hoping to hang on to a Congressional seat in a tight special election here on Tuesday, Republicans in this mostly white and very conservative district are trying to make the vote more a referendum on Senator Barack Obama than on the candidates themselves.
Mississippi Democrats say the politics of race have come into play against Travis Childers.
In advertisements and speeches, Republicans have repeatedly associated Travis Childers, the white Democrat threatening to take the seat away from the Republican Party, with Mr. Obama. Republicans say Mr. Obama’s liberal values are out of place in the district. But for many Democratic veterans here, the tactic is a throwback to the old and unwelcome politics of race, a standby in Mississippi campaigning.
Former Gov. William Winter, a Democrat, expressed shock at the current campaign.
“I am appalled that this blatant appeal to racial prejudice is still being employed,” said Mr. Winter, who lost the 1967 governor’s race after his segregationist opponent circulated handbills showing blacks listening to one of his speeches. Mr. Winter went on to win the governor’s office 12 years later.
“I had thought we had gotten past that,” Mr. Winter said. “That was a tactic that was used against me in the 1960s.”
The chairman of the University of Mississippi’s department of public policy leadership, Robert J. Haws, said he had also noted the use of race in the contest. “Does this reflect a certain level of desperation?” he asked. Dr. Haws also said he had detected a “real reaction from people I know, Republicans” against the ads.
The Republican candidate, Greg Davis, said in an interview he was not raising racial issues, but was instead pointing out that his conservative values made him a better fit for the district.
“We’ve run ads against him with John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi,” said Mr. Davis, referring to Mr. Childers. “Just because one of them happens to be African-American has no bearing on it.” Mr. Davis, 42, is a former state representative who is now mayor of Southaven, a fast-growing Memphis suburb.
On Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney stumped here for Mr. Davis, making no mention of Mr. Obama.
The race will fill the seat left open when Representative Roger Wicker, a Republican who was first elected in 1994, was appointed to succeed former Senator Trent Lott.
The two parties have poured millions of dollars into the race, a potent indicator — like Mr. Cheney’s presence here — of its symbolism as a Republican bastion the Democrats could overrun. Mr. Childers came within 400 votes of winning the seat last month but was forced into a runoff because he received less than 50 percent, a near-victory that startled Republicans used to expecting an easy triumph in a district President Bush carried with 62 percent in 2004.
Since then the attacks on Mr. Childers have intensified, particularly the would-be association with Mr. Obama. “Records prove Obama endorsed Childers!” said one advertisement for Mr. Davis. The Democrat takes “Obama’s endorsement over our values,” proclaims another. Some feature Mr. Obama’s picture.
Republican test runs using the Obama connection have not been uniformly successful. Last week, after using similar tactics, the party lost a special election in Louisiana to a Democrat with the support of a large black turnout.
But there are signs that here in Mississippi, with its tortured legacy of race-based politics, the tactic may be working, particularly in a district with a comparatively smaller black population than in Louisiana, 26 percent. Mr. Childers’s campaign said his negative rating among voters has risen acutely, internal polls show a sharp narrowing in the contest, and interviews with voters indicated the supposed Childers-Obama link could influence votes.
“It probably would,” said Bill Chism, a refrigeration mechanic. Asked to elaborate, he ducked his head and said, “I’d rather not say,” nodding to a black customer approaching his wife’s flea market stall in Tupelo on Sunday.
James Wiggins, shopping at a nearby gun show, said he saw a connection between the two Democrats.
“I don’t agree with the liberal viewpoint, and he’s as liberal as they get,” said Mr. Wiggins, who services medical imaging equipment, referring to Mr. Obama.
For some voters, the Obama connection muddied Mr. Childers’s claim to be an independent conservative. “If he doesn’t stand for the Democratic Party, why is he trying to distance himself from the Democratic Party?” wondered Larry Blake, a vendor at the gun show.
Mr. Childers, 50, a court official in the district’s rural section, said voters believed that the effort to link him to Mr. Obama was about race.
“When I’ve been out in the district, people tell me, ‘They’re trying to play the race card,’ ” he said.
The Childers campaign is counting on that reaction, as well as an increased black turnout, focusing pre-election efforts on rallying African-American voters scattered through the small towns of the district’s 24 mostly rural counties. Mr. Davis, on the other hand, is counting on Mr. Cheney to help rally his base in DeSoto County, which has about 20 percent of the district’s population, abuts Memphis and is the fastest-growing in Mississippi.
Many voters here are already motivated.
“Folks in Mississippi just don’t want Obama in there,” a Davis supporter, Ken Franklin, said at a barbecue restaurant in Hernando, a Memphis exurb. “He’s too liberal.”
Referring to Mr. Childers and Mr. Obama, he added: “He can’t get rid of him. They’re hooked up together.”
Kitty Bennett contributed reporting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/us/politics/13mississippi.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
CK
Published: May 13, 2008
SOUTHAVEN, Miss. — Hoping to hang on to a Congressional seat in a tight special election here on Tuesday, Republicans in this mostly white and very conservative district are trying to make the vote more a referendum on Senator Barack Obama than on the candidates themselves.
Mississippi Democrats say the politics of race have come into play against Travis Childers.
In advertisements and speeches, Republicans have repeatedly associated Travis Childers, the white Democrat threatening to take the seat away from the Republican Party, with Mr. Obama. Republicans say Mr. Obama’s liberal values are out of place in the district. But for many Democratic veterans here, the tactic is a throwback to the old and unwelcome politics of race, a standby in Mississippi campaigning.
Former Gov. William Winter, a Democrat, expressed shock at the current campaign.
“I am appalled that this blatant appeal to racial prejudice is still being employed,” said Mr. Winter, who lost the 1967 governor’s race after his segregationist opponent circulated handbills showing blacks listening to one of his speeches. Mr. Winter went on to win the governor’s office 12 years later.
“I had thought we had gotten past that,” Mr. Winter said. “That was a tactic that was used against me in the 1960s.”
The chairman of the University of Mississippi’s department of public policy leadership, Robert J. Haws, said he had also noted the use of race in the contest. “Does this reflect a certain level of desperation?” he asked. Dr. Haws also said he had detected a “real reaction from people I know, Republicans” against the ads.
The Republican candidate, Greg Davis, said in an interview he was not raising racial issues, but was instead pointing out that his conservative values made him a better fit for the district.
“We’ve run ads against him with John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi,” said Mr. Davis, referring to Mr. Childers. “Just because one of them happens to be African-American has no bearing on it.” Mr. Davis, 42, is a former state representative who is now mayor of Southaven, a fast-growing Memphis suburb.
On Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney stumped here for Mr. Davis, making no mention of Mr. Obama.
The race will fill the seat left open when Representative Roger Wicker, a Republican who was first elected in 1994, was appointed to succeed former Senator Trent Lott.
The two parties have poured millions of dollars into the race, a potent indicator — like Mr. Cheney’s presence here — of its symbolism as a Republican bastion the Democrats could overrun. Mr. Childers came within 400 votes of winning the seat last month but was forced into a runoff because he received less than 50 percent, a near-victory that startled Republicans used to expecting an easy triumph in a district President Bush carried with 62 percent in 2004.
Since then the attacks on Mr. Childers have intensified, particularly the would-be association with Mr. Obama. “Records prove Obama endorsed Childers!” said one advertisement for Mr. Davis. The Democrat takes “Obama’s endorsement over our values,” proclaims another. Some feature Mr. Obama’s picture.
Republican test runs using the Obama connection have not been uniformly successful. Last week, after using similar tactics, the party lost a special election in Louisiana to a Democrat with the support of a large black turnout.
But there are signs that here in Mississippi, with its tortured legacy of race-based politics, the tactic may be working, particularly in a district with a comparatively smaller black population than in Louisiana, 26 percent. Mr. Childers’s campaign said his negative rating among voters has risen acutely, internal polls show a sharp narrowing in the contest, and interviews with voters indicated the supposed Childers-Obama link could influence votes.
“It probably would,” said Bill Chism, a refrigeration mechanic. Asked to elaborate, he ducked his head and said, “I’d rather not say,” nodding to a black customer approaching his wife’s flea market stall in Tupelo on Sunday.
James Wiggins, shopping at a nearby gun show, said he saw a connection between the two Democrats.
“I don’t agree with the liberal viewpoint, and he’s as liberal as they get,” said Mr. Wiggins, who services medical imaging equipment, referring to Mr. Obama.
For some voters, the Obama connection muddied Mr. Childers’s claim to be an independent conservative. “If he doesn’t stand for the Democratic Party, why is he trying to distance himself from the Democratic Party?” wondered Larry Blake, a vendor at the gun show.
Mr. Childers, 50, a court official in the district’s rural section, said voters believed that the effort to link him to Mr. Obama was about race.
“When I’ve been out in the district, people tell me, ‘They’re trying to play the race card,’ ” he said.
The Childers campaign is counting on that reaction, as well as an increased black turnout, focusing pre-election efforts on rallying African-American voters scattered through the small towns of the district’s 24 mostly rural counties. Mr. Davis, on the other hand, is counting on Mr. Cheney to help rally his base in DeSoto County, which has about 20 percent of the district’s population, abuts Memphis and is the fastest-growing in Mississippi.
Many voters here are already motivated.
“Folks in Mississippi just don’t want Obama in there,” a Davis supporter, Ken Franklin, said at a barbecue restaurant in Hernando, a Memphis exurb. “He’s too liberal.”
Referring to Mr. Childers and Mr. Obama, he added: “He can’t get rid of him. They’re hooked up together.”
Kitty Bennett contributed reporting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/us/politics/13mississippi.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
CK