Red Blue Blog

Andy Taggart and Jere Nash have some comments on the Third District race at the Clarion Ledger Red/Blue Blog.

Jere: "Name ID is the single most important factor in a campaign like this one, and Ross has much of it. Assume he gets into the runoff. The leaves David Landrum, Greg Harper and John Rounsaville to fight for the second slot. Since Harper’s website is “currently under construction” that might mean his campaign will be slow to get off the ground, which means he doesn’t make the runoff. That leaves Landrum and Rounsaville. Landrum is already on television and from reading his website and looking at his ad, one comes away with the impression that Landrum is more interested in telling the voters who he is rather than what he would do in Congress. First out of the box, Landrum is all about talking about himself. Rounsaville, on the other hand, makes clear why he wants to serve and what he would do if elected, and that’s more of a winning strategy in my book. But, the word on the street is that Landrum has more money. It’s too early to call this race. We’ll have to see if Rounsaville can raise the money, if the Republican leadership in the state takes sides, and if Harper gets off the ground, but my money would favor the candidate who gets in the runoff with Ross."

Andy: "Here's my take, entirely biased: Gregg Harper was my classmate and varsity debate partner at Mississippi College. He has worked for good government and conservative causes for most of his adult life, I'm for him and I'm going to try to help him. John Rounsaville is a bona-fide superstar, who will acquit himself very well in this race, might be able to put it all together, and will be a key player in Republican politics in this state for a long time whatever happens in the primary this March. Charlie Ross is a very smart fellow who demonstrated an ability to raise a lot of money in his bruising and aggressive primary campaign against Phil Bryant early this year. It remains to be seen the extent to which the scars from the last month of that campaign are remembered by those who strongly supported Bryant. And David Landrum has made a lot of money and has a lot of folks with a lot of money supporting him. No doubt he will wage an attractive and professionally packaged campaign."

UPDATE -- Jere Responds: "One of the many reasons worth living is to write something that causes my co-author to bow up. Apparently my commentary on the race to fill Chip Pickering's place in Congress did the trick. First, I didn't know Andy was supporting Greg Harper. Andy is a teck-savvy guy; perhaps the Harper campaign could enlist him to perfect their website. Second, I can't imagine why a Democrat would run for this seat. East Mississippi is the single most conservative area of the state, to the extent that I hardly ever will venture east of the Pearl River after dark. Third, Harper is no doubt a good guy, but hardly anyone outside of Rankin County knows him (or so I'm told). Fourth, we'll know a lot more about this race after the Jan. 31 FEC campaign finance reports are released. Even though this campaign is primarily about being able to raise money to finance TV commercials, it actually does matter what message is broadcast via those commercials. So far, the candidate whose campaign Andy assures us will be 'professionally packaged' may not be benefiting the candidate."