With Mississippi’s (my state of birth) primaries coming up on June 6th, I figured I would provide a round up of the various races. First up, the Senate race.
The Candidates:
(R) Trent Lott (Incumbent)
(D) Bill Bowlin
(D) Erik Fleming
(D) James O’Keefe
(D) Catherine Starr
(L) Harold Taylor
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott is looking for re-election to a fourth term and faces no opposition for the Republican nomination. He’ll face one of the four Democrats battling for their party’s nomination as well as a Libertarian.
There was much speculation several months ago on whether he would run for re-election or retire to venture into the private sector to earn some money after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home. He opted for another run since he believes that the state needs his clout in Washington due to Katrina.
Lott has generally amassed a conservative voting record (American Conservative Union lifetime rating of 93 out of 100), but really tends to be a Pork-a-saurus, and even brags about it:
“Lott recently told Roll Call that after 30 years as a U.S. senator, he has learned how to work around pesky do-gooders like Coburn. ‘I fold [pork projects] into bills where you can’t find them,” Lott boasted. ‘I’ve been around here long enough to know how to bury it.’”
And he sneered a few months ago in reference to Instapundit’s and N.Z. Bear’s “PorkBusters“:
“I’ll just say this about the so-called porkbusters. I’m getting damn tired of hearing from them. They have been nothing but trouble ever since Katrina. We in Mississippi have not asked for more than we deserve. We’ve been very reasonable.”
I don’t think that you could call a 700 million dollar federally funded plan to rip up a recently restored rail road line and move it to put in a highway in the Katrina devastated MS Gulf Coast “reasonable”.
It would have been nice for a real conservative to challenge Lott in a primary. At the very least, he would feel some heat for his free spending ways. But given Lott’s entrenchment in the state GOP and relative popularity in Mississippi, nobody who had a thought of having a future in the MS Republican Party entered.
Lott and all four Republican candidates for the four House seat are not facing any opposition for party nominations so there isn’t any Republican primaries going on. But it’s a different story for the Democrats.
Vying for the chance to face Lott in the general election are a quartet of Democrats: business consultant Bill Bowlin, State Representative Erik Fleming, business owner James O’Keefe, and peace activist Catherine Starr.
Bill Bowlin ran for the 1st Congressional District in 1990 as a Republican, but lost to incumbent Democrat Jamie Whitten. Now, he’s a bit of a rare bird in Mississippi politics in that he has switched from the Republican party to the Democrats. Among the reasons for the switch, Bowlin states “We certainly can do better as far as managing what’s taking place in our economy. We can also do better serving our elderly and disadvantaged by giving them programs that would serve their needs”. Bowlin’s site doesn’t have much on where he specifically stands on issues, other then general statements on public service and leadership.
Next in alphabetical order of the Democrat candidates is Erik Fleming. Representative Fleming gained some attention on the Internet after Politics1 highlighted Fleming’s very close ties to periennial presidential candidate and conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche. The post linked to a transcript on LaRouche’s site of Fleming’s introduction of the aforementioned candidate at a campaign rally. Plus, that post linked to this endorsement of LaRouche by Fleming which ends thusly:
“Lyndon LaRouche, right now, at this time, is the best candidate running for President of the United States of America. He is a man of great character and strong moral fiber. He is clearly the most prepared candidate for the position. I hope that the rest of the nation is afforded the chance that I have had in getting to know Lyn. I strongly believe that if allowed the same audience as the other candidates, the voters of America will come to the same conclusion I have. Oh, how exciting that possibility would be.”
After Politics1 published that post, Fleming responded with this letter (scroll down) where he states that he is own man, not a LaRouche flunkie, that voters should evaluate his characther, etc. But keep in mind that Fleming doesn’t apologize for his association with LaRouche, though he admits that it could hurt him in the campaign.
Ties to kooky political candidates aside, here’s some of his political stances. He’s against privativization of Social Security, Opposed to drilling in ANWR, but for it in the Mississippi Gulf Coast “as long as issues dealing with the natural habitat are not compromised.” And he’s opposed to school vouchers, but supports “tax credits for private school tuition, home schooling, and tutorial services.”
Continuing on, the next candidate is James O’Keefe. He’s been a pastor, entrepeteur, and he’s the son of former Biloxi mayor, Jerry O’Keefe. On the issues, he’s pro-life, anti-free trade, in favor of stricter border enforcement, and concerning Iraq, he says:
“Our President has budgeted and spent almost a half a trillion dollars on a war in Iraq that has destroyed thousands of lives. Saddam Hussein is out of business and it is time we get out of Iraq. We must leave these people to their own way of life and let them determine the kind of government they desire. Our country has been notorious for setting up puppet governments for financial gain and world domination. Our constitution does not support this style of rule, we are not to be the police of the world, and we are not to be the rulers of the earth. The Preamble to the United States Constitution plainly spells out our quest.”
The last Democrat in the race is peace activist Catherine Starr and there’s not much of anything that I can find out about her.
And finally, there’s Harold Taylor of the Libertarian Party. He spent twenty years in the US Air Force and is currently the manager of Knox Painting Company. Taylor ran in 2002 race in the 1st Congressional District and was recently the chairman of the state Libertarian Party. According to Project Vote Smart, he holds the standard Libertarian views.
Conclusion: I’m not a huge fan of Lott’s; for my taste, he’s too much a pork barrel spending establishmentarian with a huge sense of entitlement to the perks and power of his office. That said, given his popularity and lack of a prominent Democrat to oppose him, like former state AG Mike Moore or former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, he’ll probably easily win re-election.