Jackson Free Press

Mississippi made national headlines May 6 when the state's first congressional district (MS-01) voted a new Democrat into office. Prentiss County Chancery Clerk Travis Childers defeated Southaven Mayor Greg Davis in a May 13 special election runoff with a 57 percent majority. The victory may be short-lived, as the two will face one another again in the November general election.

News of the win shook the national Republican Party to its foundation Wednesday, with GOPers acknowledging that the party has lost three special elections in relatively conservative districts this year. Davis now occupies a seat that Republican Roger Wicker held for 14 years before Republican Gov. Haley Barbour appointed Wicker to fill retiring U.S. Senator Trent Lott's seat.

The Republican panic was obvious in e-mails and press statements.

"The political atmosphere facing House Republicans this November is the worst since Watergate and is far more toxic than the fall of 2006, when we lost 30 seats (and our majority) and came within a couple of percentage points of losing another 15 seats," wrote Northern Virginia Republican Rep. Tom Davis (the former head of the National Republican Congressional Committee) in a 20-page memo circulated at politico.com.

Mississippi Republican Party Chairman Jim Herring said Davis suffered from hard feelings still lingering from a bruising Republican primary race.

"The wounds never fully healed in regard to that primary," Herring said. "Generally speaking, when you're totally united, Republicans win. When you get divided, you sometimes don't."

Herring added that Childers' pro-gun, anti-abortion philosophy also blurred the lines between Republican and Democrat, attracting many conservatives.

"The Democrats in Mississippi have a tendency to run to the right. ... We ought to clearly define what we stand for and not sail under false colors," Herring said.

Childers press secretary Terry Cassereino played down the national argument, saying voters' sentiment of the Republican Party had nothing to do with Childers' success.

"The whole key to this was the issues. Rep.-elect Childers has gone everywhere, talking about issues that really matter to voters: gas prices, rising food prices, education, health care, the war in Iraq. He's talked specifics with everyone, and his message obviously resonated. But we never saw the other guy take a stand on any issue," Cassereino said, explaining that the Republican candidate spent too much time trying to link Childers with Obama and his fiery former pastor.

"He never talked about gas prices. He never explained his 1997 vote as a representative to uphold Gov. Fordice's veto that would've killed the Mississippi Adequate Education Program. I just don't recall him taking on the issues," he said.

Both campaigns worked to connect their opponent with an undesirable element. Davis may have labored to link Childers with Obama, but the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee pushed blacks to get out the vote with leaflets proclaiming "Greg Davis wanted to honor the founder of the KKK with a statute in Southaven."

In truth, Obama's campaign did offer to help Childers (and many other down-ticket Democrats) with more foot soldiers, while Davis was quoted in Memphis' Commercial Appeal as offering to erect two controversial statues, one of KKK grand wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest and another of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Davis' campaign told The Hill that the language in the Commercial Appeal was too general, explaining that Davis only had an interest in the Jefferson Davis statue.

The Davis campaign could not be reached for comment on future campaign tactics, but if the Southaven Republican intends to change his method leading up to November, he may have to do it with significantly less cash than he had going into May 6.

Even though Republicans won't want to leave this virtual stab in the eye unchallenged, the NRCC is not in the best financial shape right now. The DCCC is generating big money with popular candidates on their ticket. They had enough extra cash lying around to spend more than $1.5 million on a blood-red, long-shot race like MS-01, while the NRCC invested only about $1 million. NRCC invested almost $3 million total trying to defend the three House seats it lost this year.

To make matters worse, Politico.com reports that their $3 million total is nearly half of all the cash on hand the committee reported at the end of last month.

Still, Childers beat Davis by only about 8,000 votes, and Cassereino said his candidate will have to make good on his campaign vows to prove his worth in November.

While he's in Washington, Davis will presumably be beating the bushes for cash for the November race.