And here they come down the stretch!

Seems that everyone is laying down their chips. First up is the Senate race, which is attracting considerable amounts of national attention:

The Mississippi District 4 House race is between two coast guys so the hometown newspaper’s endorsement is huge. In this instance the challenger wins:

Let’s send Gene Taylor back to Congress ~ Sun Herald Editorial Board

The reasons they cite that make Gene the better Congressman are clear cut to all but the dumbest of the Fox News Kool Aid drinkers:

Accessibility – Gene was not an ivory tower guy, when he was at home he traveled the district to hear his people’s concerns first hand in town hall meetings.  He conducted those meeting even when those meetings were disrupted and turned natsy in 2009 and 2010, the “disrupted and nasty” part supported behind the scenes by GOPers like Phil Bryant. Steven Palazzo’s solution to the problem his political party created was to not have any town hall meetings in favor of more scripted events that mostly excludes the general public.

Staff Quality – Gene’s staff was and will again be a seasoned bunch that know how to navigate the byzantine maze that is our Federal Government to directly help the people in Mississippi 4.  Palazzo’s staff over these past 4 years?  Let’s review:

The Military – Gene won’t cut vital national defense programs out of his own home district just to make Speaker Boehner happy no siree.  Gene is his own man that has looking out for his people as his prime directive as a congressman.

Hurricane Katrina – Gene was just the guy we needed when this Nation’s worst natural disaster of all time hit the Mississippi Coast.  His staff worked tirelessly helping people in the recovery process by cutting through the red tape.  When Superstorm Sandy hit the Northeast, Steven Palazzo voted to deny those impacted access to the same federal programs designed to help areas impacted by natural disasters recover.

As an aside Gene’s staff even outshined Thad Cochran’s staff after Katrina, who were too busy with “Affaires d’États“, the American translation of which I literally heard a Cochran staffer say to a pro bono client of mine that contacted Cochran’s DC staff via telephone after Katrina looking for help with SBA and IRS problems after the storm.  Gene’s staff ultimately helped cut thorough the red tape with the IRS which enabled me to adequately represent the elderly couple in a tax dispute that literally spanned two decades.

These people were so impoverished their blue tarp was all they had that stood between them and the rain and the IRS made it impossible for them to fix their house.  I could not have helped them without Gene’s staff help and that is the bottom line.  As for “Affaires d’États”, I now take that to mean the Senator was too busy renewing the lease of his basement apartment up in DC to help out and this brings me back to the Senate race:

That’s right because Hancock and Pearl River Counties are part of the New Orleans media market, rightfully so despite the fact most of the Tee Vee Meteorologists treat us like red headed step children over here. I have an antenna in case I want to watch WXXV or WLOX but that urge is not great, especially when the newscasts have nothing but US Senate Ads from Thad and Chris playing Ad nauseam. Yeah, I’m trading that for the latest Senate ad featuring Mary Landrieu going all homepsun with her Dad Moon in a commercial that is reminiscent of Gilbert Hosebag and I like it that way. (I have something special coming on Mary later today)

Finally there is a new Thad ad out that evidently is asking cross over democrats for their vote. It is a sign he knows things are not going well with the GOP faithful here in Mississippi:

My State Representative was straight to the point on this:

And this brings me to the Harper Poll that was released late last week because I thought the analysis was very good (h/t Jackson Jambalaya):

On the positive side of the ledger for Senator Thad Cochran, he maintains a lead just beyond the margin of error, his image with Republican voters is a net +16%, and 89% of voters have heard about the incident involving the photographing of the Senator’s wife.

However, he is an incumbent under 50%, the photograph issue is not turning many voters against McDaniel who weren’t already there, and he is under performing his favorable image rating (52%) by 7% on the ballot (45%).

The McDaniel campaign has not persuaded voters to dislike Cochran, but the argument for a fresh start is proving compelling. Compelling enough for voters who are in fact fond of the 6-term Senator to give serious consideration to bringing him home.

Chris McDaniel is bloody and bruised but still standing. His image rating is approaching 1-to-1 and the flow of the campaign messages in the race is giving voters a worsening opinion of McDaniel (37% favorable to 50% unfavorable). But it appears that the mission for McDaniel is merely to stay viable as an alternative to the long-time incumbent.

The race appears to be a referendum not on any perceived misdeeds of Thad Cochran but rather a more general desire for change in leadership in Mississippi.

The problem is those in know question how reliable the polls numbers are given the sampling methodology they use.

So how is the senate race gonna turn out?  Looks to me like a dead heat.  I’m actually looking forward to the primary election on Tuesday so we can find out.

18 thoughts on “And here they come down the stretch!”

  1. You fail to credit Palazzo for dispatching one of his top Lootenants for the DMR/Frontier campaign, seconding him to Governor Phildo for as long as it takes until something else hits the fan or the money runs out.

    The strategy seems to be an attempt to have a Mr Fixit ameliorate the shocking messiness of Mr. jANUS and Scott Walker getting caught with their faces in the taxpayer’s till. Thus when the MS GOP is faced with deciding between clean government and looking good at all times while bragging about settling for pennies on the dollar, guys like Palazzo and Miller know just how to git-r-dun.

    May I suggest that you consider the use of “Lootenant” as a tag if the need for such a tag ever comes up? I think I have it spelled correctly, but maybe it should be Loottenant? I think you probably understand the usage here.

  2. I can also sense the adrenaline of the home stretch with the amount of phone calls I have been receiving the past week or so. Each time I pick up the phone with a 601 area code I am hoping to get real person on the phone so I can tell them what I think of the radical regime. But I just get a recording.

    The regime members (w/e of Palazzo) have left me with an extemely difficult choice for the upcoming elections. I believe I will simply settle with a write-in. Perhaps Bozo the Clown or Ron Jeremy.

    I have been a Taylor supporter since the beginning and have enjoyed months of comical and shallow flyers from Palazzo. Each week it seems as if I get a different flyer with the same information listed. Palazzo touts being a lifelong republican, how he is against Obama care, and exhibits conservative values. Blah. Blah. Blah. It’s the same shit different day.

    Besides being republican, pro life, having conservative values, being anti Obama, and hav

    1. Sorry. My dumb ass hit the post button before I was finished.

      Besides being republican, pro life, having so called conservative values, being anti Obama, and beinh so called fiscally conservative what else does the party have to offer? All I see are the same shallow, empty messages which have resulted in keeping this state last in just about everything. I would like to know if they have something that has some substance and originality behind it.

  3. Tomorrow’s elections are both too close for me to call.

    Vote for Thad and next year, the regime will appoint their selected candidate to replace him when Thad decides he wants to stay home with his family. Vote for McDaniel and his off the wall stands will result in nothing for or against Mississippi. Which is the lesser of the evil?

    Vote for Palazzo and we will have more of the same; loss of Ingall’s contracts which has happened, loss of squadron at KAFB which is in the works, and more photo ops. Take your choice!

  4. My Fellow Americans,

    For the benefit of Gene Taylor and others who are running against Palazzo, I would recommend passing the word about the “missing” campaign signs across the Gautier/Pascagoula causeway and up and down the Ingalls on/off ramps. The only thing left are Palazzo campaign signs. The closest Gene Taylor campaign sign going west was spotted all the way down at the 4 way stop in Gautier after the exiting causeway. I know personally there have been more than just Palazzo signs posted in this area. I am not sure what happened but I suppose the Palazzo signs could be rated for 50 MPH winds and survived the rain storms this weekend. 🙂

    To make matters more interesting, the Palazzo Regime had personnel on site this afternoon and has since flooded the area with more Palazzo campaign signs. It has the appearance that he is the only person running for anything in the area.

  5. I am really surprised that the Ingalls workers have not driven right over all of those Paahlaazo signs! They are all for Gene Taylor over there.

      1. I have a buddy working Gene’s sign team. Gene has a sign ground game across Mississippi 4. 🙂

  6. I realize that this is off topic but I just came across this on a blog and the lady (or gentleman – couldn’t tell because they used numbers and letters for their blog name) brought up some interesting issues and points. They are speaking about the Sun Herald finally getting access to the MDMR records. Just wanted to see what the slabbed bloggers think about this:

    “Would it matter if the Sun Herald saw all of the records and unredacted names? I doubt it. While their reporters are doing a good job, it’s apparent the one or more of the editorial staff participates in keeping relative information from the public and fails time and time again to thoroughly report and connect the ongoing corrupt individuals involved in the MDMR scandal. Case in point, no one has yet to report that the> indicted Joe Ziegler is Billy Hewes’ brother-in-law or that indicted Leslie Gollott is Commissioner’s Richard Gollott’s sister-in-law. Do you think MDEQ Exec. Dir. Trudy Fisher sudden resignation might have something to do with the fact that she steered MDEQ fine monies to the MDMR Foundation or spent millions paying private attorneys for BP claim work? The Sun Herald editorial board is not digging deep enough nor with diligence. It goes on and on: Billy Hewes was Bryant’s right-hand man in the Senate and slated to succeed him as Governor had he won the Lt. Governor’s race; Billy Hewes was Chairman of the Senate Committee on Marine Resources while most of the shenanagins were occurring; he was Chairman of the Senate Insurance Committee following Katrina and never let a single insurance reform bill see the light of day; Bryant, Walker & Fisher were the holy trinity following the BP disaster and have been doling out federal Katrina, BP and state tideland funds right and left, and what do we have to show for it – raw sewage running rampant into our waterways every time it rains; acidic air problems at Bayou Cassotte being kept from the public; etc., etc. Here are some questions that we all should be asking and hopefully some honest, investigators are pursuing? Where’s the missing Tidelands monies? Where is an accounting of all of the monies spent on the Foundation vessels and “fishing” trips? What funds will be used to pay the Sun Herald’s attorney fees, court costs and fines? Will it be taxpayer/budget monies or shouldn’t it come from the salary or pension for thoseuilty parties? What’s the difference between embezzlement and misappropriation of funds and to whom and how were the some odd $30,000 funds misappropriated by Ms Gollott? Why is it taking so long to name a Chief of Marine Enforcement? Regarding the bill to reorganize the MDMR and exempt it out from under the Personnel Board rules and procedures, why it’s necessary to remove the MDMR out from under the Personnel Board rules and procedures, and what is it, exactly, that needs to be done to re-organize the agency that conflicts with the Personnel Board rules and procedures? Who will hold Jim Hood and his staff of law-breaking attorneys, Stacey Pickering, John Dowdy, and the rest of the so-called law enforcement personnel accountable? If Billy Hewes and others really favor the One Coast concept, why would we expend funds to deepen the Gulfport Harbor and industrialize downtown Gulfport and Jones Park, when we have a designated, industrial port at Pascagoula and Bayou Cassotte with two, deep water channels both deeper than Gulfport, that would require less dredging and less industrial infrastructure development, such as rail lines and flyovers. Oh, wait, didn’t Thad Cochran, Wicker & Palazzo get us millions in federal funds to upgrade the rail lines to Bayou Cassotte and build a flyover? Hmmm? Why would we waste more at Gulfport? Why the hell are we paying for a seafood promotion department within the MDMR to promote Gulf seafood, when we are putting our commercial fishermen out of business and most of the seafood served locally is imported? Are any state agencies promoting your private business?”

    1. The factoids which make up the False Estate often pull punches, Cobra. After all, there’s incestuous relations between kleptocrats and lickspittles. That’s the new normal.

  7. Which blog did you read this on ? I too would like to see where the $30,000.+ Gollotte money was misused. Not a word about it anywhere.

    1. To my knowledge based on what I have been told by inside operators there are numerous and variable cases surrounding the DMR which involve misappropriated funds. Some involve employees not knowing or being told to make purchases that were not quite right, some just didn’t know and some involve blatant misuse. In each of these situations, some have been charged or directed to pay back monies, some not charged at all, or a mixture of all three. It’s actually a pretty fucked up situation. Based on what I have been told, the ones that I am concerned about are the ones that were not charged for blatant misuse where there is solid proof.

  8. As most may already know, there is a new story about the DMR records in the opinion section of the SH. I found one comment to be quite intriguing

    Dantelle DeGuise IV writes:

    “The Sun Herald still has been too cuckholded by the GOP to pursue further stories on the DMR, including the current culture of continued corruption, fear, and abuse. “

  9. Since I’m retired, reckon I could get a volunteer job of going through those DMR records? As a speed reader, it would not take me this long to hunt out the culprits. And I agree, someone is withholding names and numbers.

  10. I have wondered for some time now if the leaders at the Sunherald have given up on the pursuit of the DMR. Remember the article on the US Attorney? They were going to profile all of the key participants one at a time but only did him. How long have they been working on the records? Not a word printed about any or the lack of any findings. What about all of the inflated properties purchased with millions of taxpayer dollars by Bill Walker? Not a pursuit of any of the low hanging fruit there either.Hell I could do that one for them. They even cut out the reader’s comments unless you Facebook them when things got hot. Somebody in charge pulled the plug in most part. I think now that the judge finished the records case very little will be reported. Oh well, guess we will have to do our own investigative reporting over here at Slabbed while the Sunherald sends Anita to Ocean Springs so they can provide maximum coverage of the “Party Down South” segment.

    1. BB and Mr. Rodgers,

      For what it’s worth, my main point on the last post was the part about a culture of fear and abuse.

      To both your points about investigative reporting and fact finding. Its not over yet as a lot of the good stuff remains caught upstream in a dam which could bust loose at any time.

  11. Eye, let’s hope that no one’s there to stick their finger in the dam when it bursts. I am afraid that they have circled the wagon and pleading the 5th.
    BB, I tried to backtrack to find the blog again, but can’t seem to duplicate my tracks. Maybe it was on JJ, or topix, (but who knows what is going on with topix). I can’t seem to get through to the blogs again. Seems like someone doesn’t want people to see who they are going to vote for against Paahlasso??

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