Friday Roundup

Roll Call says Alan Nunnelee and Merle Flowers may be considering a challenge to Travis Childers in 2010.

Southaven Mayor Greg Davis (R), who lost to Childers in both the special election and in the November general election rematch, said last week that he has no interest in challenging Childers again in 2010. And now Magnolia State Republican insiders have turned their attention to GOP state Sens. Alan Nunnelee and Merle Flowers.

Nunnelee, who chairs the state Senate Appropriations Committee, acknowledged his interest in the 1st district race on Monday but said he probably won’t make a decision on a Congressional bid until after the state budgeting process is complete.

Nunnelee said his biggest concern with Childers is the Congressman’s ties to the more liberal leaders of his party. And while Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is currently “giving [Childers] free reign on the tough votes ... anytime she needs his vote it will be there.”

Flowers expressed similar concerns with Childers but said it is too early to talk about whether he’d challenge the Congressman in 2010. Nunnelee said that considering the close relationship that he and Flowers have, “I can’t see any scenario where Merle and I would run against each other” in a GOP primary.

Gene Taylor has a townhall meeting in D'Iberville on April 6.

When it comes to helping our deployed military, our country has "an abysmal record" says Gregg Harper.

Bennie Thompson is pleased at the selection of Ray Mabus as Secretary of Navy.

Davis Running Again....For Mayor

DeSotoTimes

Southaven Mayor Greg Davis made his bid for re-election official on Thursday, setting the stage for a three-way showdown for the city's top post.

Local businessman and Republican Mitch Wright qualified in early January to seek the mayor's seat and will appear with Davis on primary election ballots on May 5.

The winner of that race will then face recent college grad William Forrester, a Democrat, in the June 2 general election.

Turnbow: 2 Polls - Davis 47 Childers 46 & Childers 51 Davis 42

From Turnbow: "I saw two polls this morning from the north Mississippi congressional race between Travis Childers(D) and Greg Davis(R). One had Davis up by a 47-46 margin and the other one had Childers up 51-42."

Earmarks; NRA endores Childers

DeSoto Times Tribune - Davis: End federal earmarks, Childers says earmarks "not necessarily bad"

Davis said the time has come to end earmarks as a means of getting federal spending under control. "We would sign a bill that would ban earmarks," Davis said Friday, echoing comments he made in a televised debate with Childers at the University of Mississippi on Wednesday.

Childers said he does not want North Mississippi to miss out on federal funds for badly needed projects, and therefore is not inclined to categorically ban them. "If every member of Congress were willing to join a pact saying that they wouldn't take earmark appropriations, then I would be the first one to sign on. But if big states throughout the country continue to accept these funds, I'm not going to sit idly by while North Mississippi falls behind. There are legitimate projects in this district that need funding, and I'm going to fight for what's best for this district."

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Commercial Appeal - NRA endorses Rep. Childers

Daily Journal - Few watching the House race

DeSoto Times Tribune - Southaven to host Veterans Day luncheon

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Just for kicks. Clarion Ledger - Custom of civility goes missing in Senate race

Debate

Daily Journal - Davis and Childers go head to head - But according to Davis, Childers voted 95 percent of the time along party lines, while Childers countered that he holds the second-most independent voting record in the Democratic party. Davis also insisted Childers voted a majority of the time against offshore drilling, while Childers defended his record, saying he voted only against those bills that also authorized other measures he didn't agree with. And Davis attacked Childers for receiving a large campaign contribution from a former board member of Planned Parenthood, which is a pro-choice organization. Childers said that at least Davis was being honest during the debate that the contribution came from a former board member and not the organization itself, which was a claim being made by the Davis campaign, Childers said.

Commercial Appeal - Childers, Davis debate economy - But Davis chided Childers for also voting to bail out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Childers responded by saying that if that bailout plan had not been approved, the home values of residents would have “been deflated and devalued.”

DeSoto Times - Childers, Davis pledge to end negative ads - Davis drew cheers from the crowd when he said if elected his first vote would be against the re-election of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Childers said his votes in Congress since he was elected in May's special election have differed from the Democratic leadership.

Clarion Ledger - 1st District debate not marred by attacks - The bailout is one vote Davis and Childers agree on, but Davis disagreed with Childers' vote to support the government's $200 billion bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. "He's taken contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," Davis said. "It bailed out the Chinese government - not our own." Childers said bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac "is different than the $850 billion bailout. They have over half the mortgages in the country. If we didn't do that, every single one of our homes would have deflated - (the bailout) will pay itself back."

Union Bosses and a Debate

Bobby Harrison - State elections more competitive than usual for Democrats - The Web site lists the race between 1st District U.S. Rep. Travis Childers, a Democrat, and Republican Southaven Mayor Greg Davis as competitive, but leaning toward the incumbent.

DeSoto Times - Childers courts union workers - Although Mississippi’s First Congressional District is not a heavily-unionized region like its neighbor to the north, U.S. Rep. Travis Childers is courting union workers who live in DeSoto County but work in Memphis. Clay Davis of Hernando, a retired electrical worker and a member of Local No. 474 in Memphis, said his electrical workers union is staunchly behind Childers. Davis, no relation to Childers’ Republican opponent Greg Davis, is a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. “I just got a letter from 474 plugging for Travis and Ronnie (Musgrove),” Clay Davis, a Childers supporter, said Monday. “Travis Childers is strictly for organized labor.” His big support comes from trial lawyers and unions,” Greg Davis said. “Our campaign would never court people that we don’t philosophically agree with.”

Commercial Appeal - House candidates Childers, Davis set to debate today - Rep. Travis Childers, D-Miss., and Republican opponent Greg Davis, the Southaven mayor, meet in Oxford this afternoon for a debate that both candidates say will focus on the issues and not personal attacks. But in saying they intend to stick to the high road, each candidate blamed the other for starting negative campaigning.

On Again

North Miss. congressional race is on again - Associated Press

Like many other members of the fiscally conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats in the House, Childers recently voted against a $700 billion bailout for the financial sector. "It was unfair to ask north Mississippians who didn't do one thing to cause that problem, to ask them to tack on another $2,800 worth of debt on every man, woman, boy and girl to bail out Wall Street," Childers, 50, said by phone between campaign stops late last week. In a separate interview, Davis said that if he had been in Congress, he also would've voted against the financial bailout. He said he would've gone a couple of steps further than Childers, by opposing procedural moves that allowed the bill to come up for votes in the first place. "That's a huge difference there," said Davis, 42.

Childers sponsored a bill seeking to make the District of Columbia expand the rights of its residents to buy and own firearms, including semiautomatic weapons. The bill was backed by the National Rifle Association and opposed by the District's only delegate to Congress. It passed the House 266-152 in September, but is unlikely to be considered by the Senate before this session ends. "We just felt like if they could stop the law-abiding people in D.C. from having a gun, then they could do it in Tupelo, Mississippi - or Batesville, Mississippi, where I am today," Childers said Friday. "We just felt like that D.C. was thumbing their nose at the Supreme Court." Davis said he wonders if the legislation is just "a political game." "Kind of strange, I think," Davis said. "Why are we doing city-specific legislation? If we are going to protect gun owners as a whole, then we should've made the same rules apply nationwide."

Childers - Davis Debate

Childers, Davis set for Oxford showdown - DeSoto Times

Childers, Davis meet on campus for Oct. 15 debate - Daily Mississippian

Congressional Candidates to Discuss Issues at Oct. 15 Overby Center Forum - UM Newsdesk

Travis Childers Kicks Off Campaign throughout MS01 - Y'all Politics

Davis: Country Needs Some Dave Ramsey

Davis: Country needs Dave Ramsey - Daily Journal - Republican congressional candidate Greg Davis addressed the nation's economic crisis Thursday during an appearance at the Tupelo Luncheon Civitan Club. "Washington has lost touch. In my opinion, it's time America and Congress do a little Dave Ramsey and cut up our credit cards to other countries. Something needs to be done, but not at the taxpayers' expense. We need to make sure the CEOs and investors (of these companies) are not rewarded."

Childers Fundraising Up; Davis On Hold

Clarion Ledger - 1st District candidate putting off fundraising - Republican Greg Davis has taken a break from fundraising. The latest filings with the Federal Election Commission show Davis, the mayor of Southaven, has raised only $6,644 since he was defeated by Childers in a special election in May. Davis said he has put his fundraising on hold "to spend some time with the family and regroup." He also said he's changing campaign managers. Former manager Ted Prill has left the campaign, and his replacement will be announced soon, Davis said. Davis ended the reporting period with about $54,000 in cash on hand, close to the $55,000 he lent his campaign. But the mayor said he resumed fundraising efforts after July 4 and plans to stay in what he considers a competitive race. Childers reported raising about $169,000 since his May 13 election. Contributors included Delta Pride Catfish owner Bill Allen, who donated $500; the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, who donated $1,000; and former Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore.

Daily Journal - Childers' campaign money numbers go up after win

Davis for 'smart growth'

Mayor Davis works to create 610-acre mixed-use development in Southaven

Commercial Appeal - Southaven plans 'smart growth' community

Too Long

A long, long, long post on the "The Story and Lessons of Travis Childers and MS-01" by TrumantoLong

Davis, GOP change strategy on MS-1

Campaigns and Elections - Davis Says Running Against Obama Won't Work - The incumbent candidate in Mississippi's 1st district congressional race is a pro-gun, pro-life, fiscal conservative-and he's the Democrat. Therein lies the challenge for Republican Greg Davis, who is running again this fall in a re-match of the most highly publicized special election that the GOP lost this spring. In May, Democrat Travis Childers beat Davis in a district where George Bush won 62 percent of the vote in 2004. That defeat, says Davis, provides a valuable strategic lesson. "We're going to spend more time going out there and meeting with voters and letting them know who I am, and less on the contrast ads which just didn't work," Davis says, referring to ads that tried to link Childers to presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

Both Davis and the Mississippi GOP say they realize the negative ads linking Childers to Obama and the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright didn't do the trick for conservative voters in northern Mississippi. "The campaign this time around has to be about what Davis is-not what Childers isn't," says Cory Adair, a spokesman for the Mississippi Republican Party. "They completely hijacked the Republican platform," he says, referring to Childers' successful marketing of himself as a conservative during the special election on such issues as the second amendment, abortion, and immigration.

Whatever the Republican strategy, Childers is going out of his way to not provide the GOP any opening to link him to the presumptive Democratic nominee. Rep. Childers says he will not even attend the party's national convention in Denver this August. "It's reflective of who he is, he's not a party guy," says John Rowley, a media consultant for the Childers campaign, who insists the decision not to attend the convention stemmed from the congressman's busy schedule and was not part of a campaign strategy to deliberately shy away from Obama.

Both sides agree that the race in Mississippi 1 will come down to who's better on the economy. Rowley says Childers will continue to hit home on his message of fiscal responsibility from the special election. Similarly, Davis says he'll put more emphasis on his economic record as mayor of Southaven, including the $5.2 million surplus he presided over there.

Davis for 4-day, 10-hour day work weeks

AP - Southaven mayor wants 4-day work week - Southaven Mayor Greg Davis wants city employees on a 4-day work week beginning Oct. 1. The board of aldermen have not set a date for consideration. Davis said clerical workers and other non-salaried employees would work a 4-day week with 10-hour days. He said department heads would be exempt. Davis said he envisions employees coming in at 7:30 a.m. and working until 6 p.m. with a 30-minute lunch break. In addition to weekends, their third day off would rotate. Davis said the police department already works 12-hour shifts, which works well for that department.

Davis in Southaven; Childers in Congress

Memphis Commercial Appeal - Audit reveals $5.2 million surplus for Southaven - Economic woes don't appear to be affecting the City of Southaven's bottom line so far. The city's annual audit shows a surplus of $5.2 million for fiscal 2007, about $2.2 million of which is already committed to ongoing projects. Mayor Greg Davis presented the financial report at Tuesday's Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting. The report was prepared by the accounting firm of Williams, Pitts and Beard of Hernando. Davis told aldermen the city is in good enough shape that it has used about $3.2 million in cash to fund its capital improvement projects rather than issuing bonds to finance them. The improvement projects include renovating the old M.R. Davis Library and performing upgrades at Snowden Grove Park. Major expenditures for the city included $14 million for public safety. Sales taxes remained the largest single revenue item at $11 million, and Southaven Towne Center was credited with the continued growth in sales tax revenue for the city.

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Sun Herald Washington Bureau - House bill breaks logjam on rebuilding public housing
Removes HUD, FEMA conflict - Just two weeks after a critical joint House committee hearing, the House on Wednesday approved a bill to break a federal impasse on rebuilding public housing after a disaster. The bill, which was done on a bipartisan basis and passed on a voice vote, removes a conflict between FEMA and the Housing and Urban Development Administration over funding. The Public Housing Disaster Relief Act, (H.R. 6276), would remove the HUD program to make way for the FEMA funding. Newly elected U.S. Rep. Travis Childers, R-Miss., who was a floor manager of the bill, said it represented "a common sense approach" to remove the barrier that "has stalled federal dollars" from being used to rebuild the Coast after Hurricane Katrina. House Financial Institutions Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said, "This is no special deal for Louisiana and Mississippi. This simply provides public housing's fair share."

Childers no underdog in fundraising

Daily Journal - Reports show Childers drew key late funds - Travis Childers of Booneville may have looked like the underdog going into a May 13 special congressional election against Southaven Mayor Greg Davis. But a surge in contributions from individuals, political action committees and his political party helped him win the 1st District congressional seat, Federal Election Commission reports filed this week show. In the end, Democrat Childers out-raised and out-spent Republican Davis. Thursday was the deadline for both campaigns to report their non-party special election spending. A look at the reports, covering finances from April 24 through June 2, shows where Childers got his help:

- He raised about $200,000 more from individuals than Davis.
- PACS favored him by more than a $320,000 margin.
- And the Democratic National Congressional Committee poured on $500,000 more cash than Davis' National Republican Congressional Committee.

For the Childers-Davis contest, national Democrats spent $1.84 million compared with national Republicans' $1.29 million. By the time that campaign was over, their campaigns were fairly even with money in the bank, even though Davis had out-raised and out-spent Childers nearly 2-1. The FEC reports show that while Davis out-raised Childers across a series of four elections, his finances slipped when he needed them most - the special election runoff to decide who would hold the House seat through 2008. Davis and Childers, who won their party nominations, face each other in the Nov. 4 general election to decide which will serve a complete two-year term. Both campaigns still have debt issues to deal with:

- Childers loaned himself $150,000.
- Davis borrowed $55,000 - most of it against his home.

Childers reported nearly $35,000 post-election contributions, while Davis reported zero.

The Hill: Some GOPers blame Lott

TheHill.com - Some blame Lott for tough GOP defeat in Mississippi - House GOP leaders have taken the blame for last week’s devastating loss in Mississippi, but in some Republican circles the real culprit is former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss). Lott created the House opening by opting to leave Congress late last year before tougher lobbying restrictions went into effect. After his departure, Rep. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) was appointed to serve out Lott’s unexpired term, which created the need for the special election to fill Wicker’s seat. Republicans were irked that Lott would retire early just to serve his own financial interests. Lott also bucked his own Mississippi congressional colleagues by supporting Greg Davis, the Southaven mayor and former state legislator who lost to Democrat Travis Childers. The rest of the delegation backed former Tupelo mayor and former Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Chairman Glenn McCullough Jr. The senior statesman’s decision to go against his delegation contributed to a bruising, hard-fought primary runoff that left Mississippi GOP voters divided — and, quite possibly, left the stronger general-election candidate on the sidelines. One GOP lobbyist on K Street also cited Lott’s $200,000 gift to his alma mater, the University of Mississippi, as contributing to the perception that he’s not doing everything he can to help House Republican reelection efforts. That money, the source said, would have been better spent on contributions to GOP campaigns across the country.

Rothenberg on Childers and Davis

Stuart Rothenberg - Mississippi Special: Why Childers Won and Why Davis Lost

Childers 54% - Davis 46%

Real Clear Politics - GOP Stunned By Loss in Mississippi

Associated Press - Democrat in Wicker's House seat

Daily Journal - Childers thanks God, family

Daily Journal - Davis resolute about winning in November

National Journal - Make That 236 For Dems

Daily Journal - It's Congressman Childers

The Hill - Childers victory gives Dems a third straight takeover

CQ - House Takeover in Mississippi Shows Good Things Come in Threes for Dems

Southern Political Report - Mississippi: Democrat Childers Wins Congressional Race

Clarion Ledger - Democrat wins congressional race

Human Events - Is Dem Win in Mississippi Shape of Things to Come?

Politico - Democrat Wins Mississippi Special Election

Davis on Veterans

Politico - Davis promised seat on Veterans' Affairs - Republicans have promised Greg Davis a spot on the Veterans' Affairs Committee should be win next Tuesday. Veterans' Affairs isn't always the most coveted committee on Capitol Hill, but the congressional district includes Columbus Air Force Base, and veterans account for nearly 12 percent of the population.