Democrats Win Third Special Election in Deep Red Country
Last night’s win in Mississippi was a thriller. Bring on Rick Renzi (AZ CD# 1) and Vito Fossella (NY CD#18)!
Los Angeles Times, May 14th 2008
Mississippi Democrat Travis W. Childers gains a seat in the House
JACKSON, MISS. — Mississippi Democrat Travis W. Childers won a special election to Congress on Tuesday, helping his party to a third victory this year for seats that had long been in Republican hands.
The victory puts Childers into the House seat vacated by Roger Wicker, a Republican appointed to the U.S. Senate when Trent Lott resigned. The win also gives the Democrats a 236-199 majority in the House — if only for a few months, until November’s general elections.
With 99% of the precincts reporting, Childers had 54% to Republican Greg Davis’ 46%.
Earlier this year, Democrats captured the Illinois district long represented by former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, who resigned. And earlier this month, Democrats claimed a Louisiana seat that Republican Rep. Richard H. Baker had relinquished.
In Mississippi, the Republican Party sought to link Childers to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The party had tried a similar strategy against the Democrat in Louisiana.
At a rally Monday for Davis in Southaven, Miss., Vice President Dick “Buckshot” Cheney also tried to nationalize the race.
“These are decisive times for America,” Buckshot said. “And whether the issue is the economy, or energy, or national security, the right answers are coming from Republicans — not from Nancy Pelosi, or [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid, or the rest of the Democratic leadership in Washington.”
Yahoo News Adds This Story
The result sends “a political thunderbolt across America” and shows the Democrats can compete everywhere, said Representative Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who heads the party’s House fundraising committee. “There is no district that is safe for Republican candidates,” he said in a statement.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich wrote in the newspaper Human Events last week that unless Republicans change they will “suffer decisive losses this November.” Click here to read more at Yahoo News.