Sometimes Even Mississippi Matters May 14, 2008
Posted by Matt in politics.Tags: Southaven, Mississippi, Travis Childers, Greg Davis, election, House of Representatives
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Amid the long, ongoing battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, the oft-maligned state in which I reside made headlines yesterday. No, it wasn’t for our rampant poverty or our low public education ranking, nor was it for the predominance of race among all other issues, rather, it was an event that could change the face of our north Mississippi district.
Yesterday, Travis Childers, a Democrat, won the House seat to represent our district in a special election.
Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District covers much of the northern part of the state and includes Southaven (where we live), Columbus, Grenada, Oxford, and Tupelo.
Childers’ opponent was Greg Davis, the mayor of Southaven and a staunch Republican in a district that George Bush won with over 70% of the vote. Our city is the largest in the district and our county is one of the most populous in the state, but even that was not enough to carry Davis to victory.
There is some well-deserved backlash on DeSoto county from the others in the district. Our country borders on Memphis and, that being the case, we are merely a suburb of the “big” city and far removed from the lives of the rural Mississippians who make up the rest of the district. We could and probably should be looked upon as carpetbaggers, moving into a land where others have lived for generations and, in a sense, trying to take over.
Davis’ legacy in Southaven is one of unrestrained growth in the name of capitalism and at the expense of the environment. His campaign consisted of ads linking Childers to Barack Obama and, by extension, Jeremiah Wright. This blatant bit of race-baiting backfired on the unscrupulous Davis, though, and, despite even bringing in Dick Cheney to speak on his behalf, his campaign is over…for now. You see, this was a special election to fill the now-vacated seat that had been held for the last 14 years by Republican Roger Wicker, and the two opponents are scheduled to face off again when the seat opens in November.
It will be an interesting year to say the least…
I saw this headline today and knew it had to be juicy with all the hoopla about West Virginia last night…and wham-o…here comes John Edwards to endorse Barack. This November is gonna be wild all of the country, I suspect. I must say, I was extremely pleased to see Edwards make his move as I respect him very much and he was just in our neck of the woods (Philly) yesterday continuing his main goal to eliminate poverty in our own country…not someone else’s.
I’m a big fan of Edwards, too, and I look forward to him working closely with an Obama administration. On MSNBC tonight they opined that he may be in line for Attorney General.