Still kicking

Still Kicking

Y’all Politics: “The wheels have fallen off.”  Majority in Mississippi: “The sky is falling.”  Apollo Creed: “There is no tomorrow.”  Add your hyperbolic statement to describe the state of the Mississippi Democratic Party here: ________________. 

As Republican bloggers from Jackson to Georgia scramble to pen the obituary for the Mississippi Democratic Party, we thought it might be a good idea to offer a little perspective before we drop that last clod of dirt to the gravesite. 

• Not a single member of the House who voted for the current leadership has switched parties.
• The Mississippi Republican Party website hasn’t been updated since Brad White was encouraging us all to come out to the April 2010 Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans.
• And of course, this little nugget: the Mississippi Democratic Party continues to be home to more Mississippi elected officials than its Republican counterpart.

 

To be fair, 2010 wasn’t a banner year for Democrats in Mississippi.  The loss of several locally elected Democrats to the Republican Party is disappointing and shouldn’t be ignored.  To stop this trend, Democrats in Mississippi will have to be more effective in messaging, organizing, fundraising, and just about every other thing it takes to win elections.  None of these things will come easy but there are host of Democrats running for office on the local and statewide level that lead us to believe the rumors of the death of Mississippi Dems might be a touch premature.