By Sandra Knispel
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-931613.mp3
Oxford, MS – First Congressional District Race Remains Tight, Nunnelee Slightly Ahead The First Congressional District race in north Mississippi remains tight. But, as MPB's Sandra Knispel reports, Republican challenger Alan Nunnelee from Tupelo, continues to hold a slight lead over incumbent Democratic Congressman Travis Childers in the last set of polls.
It's not over till it's over. While the challenger, state Senator Nunnelee, leads the incumbent Childers by five points in the latest opinion poll - the race could go either way. Considering, that the margin of error alone amounts to plus/minus 4 percent, both candidates still have a fair shot at winning.
Statistically, Childers fares well among female and younger voters but needs to worry about the conservatives among his base. The Hill 2010 Midterm Election Poll, conducted in mid-October, found that 59 percent of First District voters described the Democratic leadership in Congress to the left of them - in other words, too liberal.
Earlier this month at Ole Miss, at the candidates' only public face-off, Nunnelle garnered a lot of laughs with this advice to Childers:
"Don't vote for Nancy Pelosi!"
A point taken, judging from recent ads by the Democrat in which he stresses that he voted against Speaker Pelosi 267 times. At the same time, the Booneville native incurred the wrath of more liberal Democrats, like unemployed Oxford public relations specialist Rick Hynum, when he voted against President Obama's healthcare bill. Hynum did vote for Childers two years ago when he cruised to victory with a ten-point lead.
"I did not realize that he was basically going to be a Republican in Democrat's clothing. And now that I've seen him in action and I've seen how he votes. To me there's really not a nickel's worth of difference between these two candidates. So, I'm not voting for either one of them," Hynum said.
Meanwhile, challenger Nunnelee is winning independent voters with 48 percent of their support, and polls well among male and older voters. Attorney Tom Lynch, a Boston transplant to Senatobia supports Nunnelee, despite some differences of opinion.
"I have a problem with the anti-gay aspect of GOP politics. I have a problem with some of the social issues that I tend to be more middle of the road on. But on issues of economics I'm a hard-line - balance the budget, stop spending so much, starve government, don't feed it, and take the money away from Washington and leave it here," Lynch said.
Party spending alone in this race has exceeded half a million on both sides. Either way, Tuesday might be a long vote-counting night.