Mississippi's 1st congressional district special election, 2008

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This is an article about the U.S. House seat formerly held by Roger Wicker. For the election article regarding the general U.S. House election in Mississippi, see United States House of Representatives elections in Mississippi, 2008.

The 2008 Mississippi 1st congressional district special election was a special election in the state of Mississippi to determine who would serve the remainder of former Representative Roger Wicker's term. After an April 22, 2008 ballot resulted in no candidate receiving a majority, Democratic Party candidate Travis Childers defeated Republican candidate Greg Davis in a runoff election on May 13, 2008.

Contents

[edit] Candidates

The race was nonpartisan, which in Mississippi means that the ballot does not list party affiliation.[1]

[edit] Democratic

[edit] Republican

[edit] Green Party

[edit] Independent

  • Wally Pang – a Batesville restaurant owner, Lost the April 22 special election.

[edit] Special election

On December 31, 2007, Mississippi governor Haley Barbour appointed Roger Wicker to the Senate seat vacated 13 days earlier by Sen. Trent Lott. At the time of his appointment, Wicker was already a U.S. Representative for Mississippi's District 1. As a result of Wicker's appointment to the Senate, his House seat became vacant, necessitating a special election to determine who would serve the remainder of Wicker's term.

Mississippi's 1st congressional district covers the northeastern part of the state, including the cities of Columbus, Grenada, Oxford, Southaven, and Tupelo. The district had been represented by Republican Roger Wicker since 1995. The district has demonstrated itself to be "reliably conservative" in past elections, with George Bush winning the district by 25 points in the 2004 presidential election.[6] Early speculation had Republicans Greg Davis, Glenn McCullough, and Randy Russell and Democrats Steve Holland and Jamie Franks as contenders[4][7]. All but Franks ended up as candidates.

The party primaries were held on March 11.[4] The primary runoff election was held on April 1, 2008.[2] According to Mississippi state election law, those who voted in the Democratic Primary on March 11 were only allowed to vote in the Democratic runoff on April 1st. Mississippi was one of the states where right wing commentators such as Rush Limbaugh suggested people cross party lines on March 11 in order to keep the competition alive between Democratic Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Several websites such as the Daily Kos[8] and politico.com [9] suggested that this is why the Republican primary runoff was so close between the more moderate McCullough and Davis as many of the more Conservative Republicans were not allowed to vote in that runoff. It is also believed that this has led to the final special election race involving a conservative Democrat (Childers) who has a better than usual chance to win the general election. Republicans were particularly concerned that a race between Childers and McCullough would've increased the Democrat's chances.[9]

The initial special election to fill the seat was held on April 22, 2008; no one received a majority of the vote so a runoff election was held between the two top vote getters: Democrat Travis Childers (who was the top vote getter with 49.4% of the vote) and Republican Greg Davis (who received 46.3% of the initial special election vote) on May 13, 2008.[10][11][12][13][14].

The National Republican Congressional Committee spent over $1.3 million in support of Davis' bid for the vacant seat. Freedom's Watch, a Republican-supporting advocacy group, purchased an additional $550,000 in advertising. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent $1.5 million in support of Childers.[6]

Despite the district's Republican leanings, Childers defeated Davis in the final round of the special election by a 54% to 46% margin.[15] Once sworn in, Childers will will serve through the end of the 110th Congress in January 2009.

Childers victory represents the 3rd time during the 110th Congress that a Democrat has been elected to a previously Republican-held seat in a special election. Childers victory is seen as a surprise upset for the Republican party as Mississippi's 1st district has been historically right leaning. It is believed that this sends "a clear signal of national problems ahead for Republicans in the fall"[16]. Negative campaign ads approved by Davis tried to link Childers with Presidential candidate Barack Obama and his controversial former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright.[17][18]

Childers and Davis will face each other again in the November general election.[19]

[edit] Results

Mississippi's 1st congressional district special election, 2008[20]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Democratic Travis Childers 57,276 53.74%
Republican Greg Davis 49,314 46.26%
Total votes 106,590 100%
Majority 7,962 7.48%
Turnout
Democratic gain from Republican Swing 20 points

[edit] Newspaper endorsements

Childers was endorsed by the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal[21], The Commercial Dispatch[22], and The Commercial Appeal[23].

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Campaigns' websites

[edit] References

  1. ^ See this official sample ballot from the runoff election.
  2. ^ a b Clarion Ledger: Election '08: Field set for congressional races
  3. ^ http://www.djournal.com/pages/election2008.asp djournal.com: 2008 SPECIAL ELECTION & RUNOFFS]
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i commercialappeal.com Southaven mayor hopes to represent First District in Congress, January 12, 2008
  5. ^ The Clarion-Ledger, February 27, 2008
  6. ^ a b A House Race Holds Clues for GOP, Susan Davis, The Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2008.
  7. ^ The Clarion-Ledger: "Wicker moves up; who moves in?", January 1, 2008
  8. '^ "DailyKos: Limbaugh's system-gaming could give us a new Democratic congressman
  9. ^ a b Politico.com: Primary shenanigans could backfire
  10. ^ Kapochunas, Rachel (February 21, 2008). Date Set for Mississippi Special Election. CQPolitics.com. Retrieved on 2008-02-21.
  11. ^ Clarion Ledger: Mississippi - County Vote Results, April 22, 2008
  12. ^ Clarion Ledger: Runoff needed in District 1 race
  13. ^ djournal.com
  14. ^ http://www.djournal.com/pages/election2008.asp djournal.com: 2008 SPECIAL ELECTION & RUNOFFS]
  15. ^ Miss. Democrat wins House seat in special election, Emily Waggster Pettus, Associated Press, May 13, 2008.
  16. ^ The New York Times: Democrat Wins House Seat in Mississippi, May 14, 2008
  17. ^ Mississippi election loss is GOP 'wakeup call' - CNN.com
  18. ^ Republicans use Obama as the bad guy in negative ads - CNN.com
  19. ^ Commercial Dispatch Online
  20. ^ 2008 Special Election Results
  21. ^ “EDITORIAL:Childers best choice”, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal: 4 (Section B), April 18, 2008, <http://www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=271891&pub=1&div=Opinion> 
  22. ^ “Childers for Congress”, The Commercial Dispatch, April 20, 2008, <http://cdispatch.com/articles/2008/04/20/opinion/opinion8730.txt> 
  23. ^ “Childers for Mississippi's 1st District”, The Commercial Appeal, May 11, 2008, <http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/may/11/editorial-childers-for-mississippis-1st/>