CQ on Mississippi 3

CQpolitics - Mississippi Primary to Fix GOP Favorites for Open House Seats - A total of seven Republicans will appear on Tuesday’s 3rd District ballot and will likely split the vote to such a degree that a runoff will be required.

David Landrum, a wealthy financial services businessman, is heavily self-financing his campaign. He passed the $1 million mark in total receipts last week when he put more than $500,000 in personal funds into his campaign treasury. Landrum’s big bankroll has enabled him to run a major advertising campaign in the district and increase his name ID. It has also made him a target. Landrum recently was in local headlines over his past political alliances. It was revealed that Landrum donated money during the 2003 race for governor to both Democrat Musgrove, then the incumbent and now Wicker’s Senate challenger, and Republican Barbour, who ended up winning the race. When pressed about how he voted that year, Landrum said he backed Barbour. His campaign then released documentation showing Landrum and his wife’s signatures in the voter sign-in books for that election. Later, Landrum said the signatures were not valid after their authenticity was called into question by the Clarion-Ledger, but Landrum maintains he and his wife did vote in that election.

Landrum is just one of several candidates whom local Republicans say make up the top tier of the field. He is joined by former state Sen. Charlie Ross, who has a statewide profile owing to his unsuccessful 2007 run for lieutenant governor. The Clarion Ledger endorsed Ross over the past weekend, noting his experience in the legislature as well as his military service during the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s. “Ross can be effective on the first day he goes to Washington,” said the endorsement.

Ross and Landrum, though, face strong competition from John Rounsaville, a former state rural development director for the U.S. Deparment of Agriculture and a former aide to both Barbour and Pickering, and Gregg Harper, the former GOP chairman in heavily Republican Rankin County in suburban Jackson.