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Political activist shares insight
Taggart discussed Miss. elections, politics in Union
Aubra Whitten
Issue date: 2/1/08 Section: News
"Who would have thought that in a body with 122 members that you could have a round of elections and come out with exactly the same partisan split you started with but that's what happened," he said.
Taggart said the upcoming U.S. Senate race is a special election. In Mississippi special elections, there are no primaries. Officially, candidates cannot run by party, but they can put R or D next to their names on the ballot, he said.
Some significance of the special election is that the date has not yet been set due to disagreement between Gov. Haley Barbour and Attorney General Jim Hood. Taggart said he expects the Supreme Court's ruling on the issue to come soon.
Currently, Roger Wicker is the only Republican running for the Senate spot.
Taggart said he thinks Wicker is the favorite in the race partly because of the numbers favoring Republicans who run statewide.
"If you look at a chart, you would see over the last 25 years that statewide candidates running as Democrats average about 400,000 votes," Taggart said. "Good candidate, bad candidate, well-financed, poorly-financed, it just doesn't seem to matter very much. The problem for Democrats running statewide is that's rarely enough to win."
Senior civil engineering major Stuart Saulters said that statistic surprised him.
"I thought it was interesting to see how Mississippi politics has a trend," said Saulters, who serves as director of community and governmental relations for the Student Association.
Taggart said the conventional wisdom in Mississippi has been that a high voter turnout favors Democrats and a low voter turnout favors Republicans. However, the facts are exactly the opposite, he said.
Another race Taggart spoke about was that of the 1st Congressional District. Taggart said he thinks the Republican nominee will be the favored but there is no guarantee.
Currently, the 1st District does not have a congressman since Barbour moved Wicker, its former delegate, to fill the open Senate position.
Taggart said the upcoming U.S. Senate race is a special election. In Mississippi special elections, there are no primaries. Officially, candidates cannot run by party, but they can put R or D next to their names on the ballot, he said.
Some significance of the special election is that the date has not yet been set due to disagreement between Gov. Haley Barbour and Attorney General Jim Hood. Taggart said he expects the Supreme Court's ruling on the issue to come soon.
Currently, Roger Wicker is the only Republican running for the Senate spot.
Taggart said he thinks Wicker is the favorite in the race partly because of the numbers favoring Republicans who run statewide.
"If you look at a chart, you would see over the last 25 years that statewide candidates running as Democrats average about 400,000 votes," Taggart said. "Good candidate, bad candidate, well-financed, poorly-financed, it just doesn't seem to matter very much. The problem for Democrats running statewide is that's rarely enough to win."
Senior civil engineering major Stuart Saulters said that statistic surprised him.
"I thought it was interesting to see how Mississippi politics has a trend," said Saulters, who serves as director of community and governmental relations for the Student Association.
Taggart said the conventional wisdom in Mississippi has been that a high voter turnout favors Democrats and a low voter turnout favors Republicans. However, the facts are exactly the opposite, he said.
Another race Taggart spoke about was that of the 1st Congressional District. Taggart said he thinks the Republican nominee will be the favored but there is no guarantee.
Currently, the 1st District does not have a congressman since Barbour moved Wicker, its former delegate, to fill the open Senate position.
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P. Simms
posted 2/02/08 @ 1:18 PM CST
I am one of the few registered Republicans in the area... I'm not thrilled with my choices in the primary so I've been talking to a lot of Democrats about the upcoming vote -- and I've personally converted at least 4 Hillary supporters to Obama. (Continued…)
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