By Sandra Knispel
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-929066.mp3
Oxford, MS – The race for Mississippi's First Congressional District seat is close, with a slight lead for the Republican challenger. Generally, incumbency in Mississippi has been gold, but as MPB's Sandra Knispel reports, Democratic Congressman Travis Childers has to fight hard to keep his seat.
Textbook Republican strategy for this midterm election has been to cast Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the bad guy, linking congressional Democratic candidates to her. That message is clearly resonating with voters.
Ronnie Williams, owner of a shop that sells and repairs lawn equipment in Oxford, voted for Senator John McCain in the last presidential election. While he says he still needs to educate himself more on the Republican challenger, Alan Nunnelee, the Democratic incumbent Travis Childers will definitely not get his vote.
"You know, how he leans with Nancy Pelosi and you know the liberal side And I'm not conservative, I'm not liberal. I kind of look at myself as being in the middle. But I see what's happened in the past hasn't worked, what's happening now is not working, so I'm just looking for some change of my own right now," Williams said.
Just across the four-way intersection at the gas station, Barry Wilson is getting a soda. He works at the local Caterpillar plant and has always voted Democratic.
"Have to. Because Republicans are only for big companies and for the rich. They are not for the poor," Wilson said.
When Democratic Congressman Childers was first elected two years ago, he profited like many other Democratic candidates from the enthusiasm generated by a black man on the presidential ticket. Many voted for the first time - setting a record for African American voter turnout. But with the Obama-draw missing from the ballot, it's going to be much harder for Childers to persuade minorities to go out and vote for him. Wilson, who is African American, says many of his friends won't bother.
"I tell 'em to vote. Because their vote will make sure Mississippi has a change," Wilson said.
Two years ago, Childers profited from infighting among conservatives after a particularly bruising Republican primary. This time around there's no such quarrel and the First District Republicans stand united behind state Senator Nunnelee from Tupelo. Mississippi's most influential political columnist Sid Salter recently dared to predict the outcome.
"Incumbency has been gold in Mississippi for decades. It's rare that an incumbent congressman ever loses. But I think the stars are in alignment for this to happen in the first district this time," Salter said.
At last night's debate at Ole Miss, Nunnelee promised his supporters to fight any plans to increase federal taxes or to let former President Bush's tax cuts expire.
"The absolute worst thing we could do is to impose an additional tax burden," Nunnelee said.
Childers, who supports keeping the current lower tax rates for another year, reminded the audience of the costs involved.
"The cost of the Bush tax cuts were one trillion dollars. I love tax cuts. I don't know anybody who don't love tax cuts," Childers said.
At one point, the tone got a tad sharp. Childers charged Nunnelee with hypocrisy for accepting federal stimulus money while chair of the appropriations committee of the Mississippi Senate.
"That bill helped him balance his budget. It helped the chairman balance his budget that he could not balance without the help of the federal government. So very hypocritical to cry out how bad this money is, wink, wink, nod, nod. But yet, just raking it in and rolling up thousand dollar bills, plugging every hole in the budget," Childers said.
But Nunnelee earned the most laughs with this one-liner -- when asked if he had any advice for his opponent. "Don't vote for Nancy Pelosi!"
Childers was quick to retort, "I can tell you he's going to need a lot more advice than one-line funny lines when he gets there, if he were to. I have no intention of him doing that."
In closing, Nunnelee drew a line in the sand.
"This is not a campaign of a man for an office. This is a crusade to save America. We can't afford another 22,000 lost jobs in the First Congressional District. We can't afford another 800 billion dollars of debt. So tonight we say no more," Nunnelee said.
North Mississippians have another 20 days to decide which one of the two is the right man to send to Washington.