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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
More on Mississippi: A phone call from Pelosi, and a rush into Elvis territory
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Rep. Cavin Smyre (D-Columbus) just called from Sacramento, Calif., where he witnessed the swearing-in of Karen Bass as the first black woman to be elected a state House speaker.
Smyre had seen this morning’s post on the importance of the congressional race in Mississippi to both Democrats and Republicans. He rang up to concur, and to provide eyewitness testimony as well.
Smyre is the former chairman of the Georgia Democratic party. This year, he’s president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. The current title has opened several doors. Smyre was on the south lawn of the White House to greet Pope Benedict XVI last month. He’s had conversations with both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi, in fact, called him personally to draw him into the Mississippi contest. The Democrat in the race, Travis Childers, had defeated two African-American candidates in preliminary rounds, and it was feared that black enthusiasm in the contest had cooled.
So, at Pelosi’s request, Smyre began a series of calls, and soon had African-American state lawmakers — from across Mississippi — pouring into the First District, right below Memphis. He figures his team hit 20 churches on Sunday.
But he doesn’t have any special news about what might happen tonight. “It’s a close race,” Smyre said.
Photo credit: Ben Gray/AJC
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On John Lewis and a Fifth District that’s not as African-American as it once was
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. John Lewis kicked off his first political campaign in eight years on Monday, promising to make himself a constant, even annoying presence in the Fifth District that he’s ruled since 1986.
“When I’m not in Washington voting, I’ll be out here campaigning,” Lewis said. “You’re going to be sick of me.”
Several analysts have looked at Lewis’s iconic status as a civil rights leader, and have pronounced this enough to beat back challenges from “Able” Mable Thomas and Markel Hutchins.
But Lewis has got more than reputation on his side. He’s got some favorable numbers.
U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Atlanta at his campaign kick-off Monday. Mikki K. Harris/AJC
First of all, assume that both Thomas and Hutchins, given their reputations as community activists, will draw their heaviest support among African-Americans, probably younger ones, on Atlanta’s south side and in Clayton County.
Further, assume that white voters in the district are the least likely to carry a grudge against Lewis for initially supporting Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary.
This is important, because — contrary to what many people think — the Fifth District is not majority black. Not in real numbers and not — at least in the past — in participating voters.
In terms of active voters, the Fifth District was 59 percent African-American in 2001. In 2002, the black vote was 53 percent. In 2005, the district was redrawn (yet again) to incorporate more of Buckhead, up to I-285, and a larger swath of west DeKalb. Both are areas with large white populations.
As of April 1 of this year, African-American voters made up 48 percent of the Fifth District. Another statistic: The Barack Obama enthusiasm factor may make this point moot, but in November 2006, white voters cast 51 percent of vote that gave Lewis his 10th term in Congress.
(In case you’re curious, Hank Johnson’s Fourth District has the highest black voting population, with David Scott’s 13th District coming in second.)
But here’s the killer question, no doubt one that Lewis’ campaign team is already pondering: Will Obama make an endorsement in the primary battle? And would he endorse Lewis?
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When Barr met Borat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Hill is having a little bit of fun with Bob Barr, now a Libertarian candidate for president. On its web site, the Washington newspaper has posted a 2006
Barr gives a dour, skeptical performance. Check it out here.
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The world watches West Virginia, but it’s Mississippi that matters
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tonight, forget about West Virginia. The contest there between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is fraught with as much tension as a soccer match with 4-year-olds.
They’re just kicking the ball around. Any goals will be meaningless, and even the loser gets a trophy at the end.
No, turn your eyes South. The real political hacks will be watching northern Mississippi, where Democrats will try to snatch a third U.S. House seat in a row from Republicans.
And Republicans will discover whether their third attempt to tie Obama — and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright — to the local Democrat is the charm.
The Mississippi combatants are Democrat Travis Childers and Republican Greg Davis. Both national parties and their 527 associates have been pouring money into the First District race. Here’s the Wright-Obama-Childers ad issued by Davis, as posted on YouTube.
The Obama link didn’t prove effective in Illinois or Louisiana, prompting Newt Gingrich to warn GOP leaders of a disaster in Congress come November. But today’s New York Times says the tactic may have found traction in this most Republican state:
In advertisements and speeches, Republicans have repeatedly associated Travis Childers, the white Democrat threatening to take the seat away from the Republican Party, with Mr. Obama.
Republicans say Mr. Obama’s liberal values are out of place in the district. But for many Democratic veterans here, the tactic is a throwback to the old and unwelcome politics of race, a standby in Mississippi campaigning.
Former Gov. William Winter, a Democrat, expressed shock at the current campaign. “I am appalled that this blatant appeal to racial prejudice is still being employed,” said Mr. Winter, who lost the 1967 governor’s race after his segregationist opponent circulated handbills showing blacks listening to one of his speeches. Mr. Winter went on to win the governor’s office 12 years later.
“I had thought we had gotten past that,” Mr. Winter said. “That was a tactic that was used against me in the 1960s.”
The risky nature of a political tactic can often be judged by whether the top brass in the party participate. And when Vice President Dick Cheney was in Mississippi on Monday, he made no mention of Obama.
According to the Washington Post:
Cheney … sought to tie Davis’s opponent, Travis Childers, to Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and other congressional Democrats.
“What we need in Washington is a strong conservative congressman from Mississippi, not another Democrat going to bat for Nancy Pelosi,” Cheney said to a crowd of several hundred at the DeSoto Civic Center here.
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Yes, borders are a federal matter, but…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Slightly wonkish here, but you’ll remember that, last July, Neil Warren in Cobb County became the first Georgia sheriff to join a federal program that allowed certain deputies to be trained to identify the illegal immigrants who peopled his jail.
“It’s been ‘catch and release, ‘” Warren said at the time. “That’s why I got into this. The federal government has not provided the resources. They have not done their job.”
Last October, Warren’s experimentation earned him a place at the side of then-Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson, on his first swing through Georgia.
Not quite a year later, Cobb County appears to have been at the front of a stampede by local law enforcement agencies across the country:
According to stateline.org, a kind of clearinghouse for state and local government issues:
At the start of 2007, only eight police agencies took part in the 287(g) program; now a total of 47 police agencies in 17 states participate, with 90 more waiting to sign up. To date, more than 50,000 people have been deported or have been marked for deportation under the 287(g) program, according to [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]. More than half of those were processed since October.
But ICE is short of money to expand the program, which reimburses local police agencies for holding prisoners, pays for a five-week training course for participating officers and provides the technology to allow those cops to access federal immigration databases.
In Georgia, sheriff’s departments in Hall and Whitfield counties joined the program this year.
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