2015/05/13 – Mississippi Democratic leaders today are celebrating a Tuesday-night victory by Walter Zinn Jr. in the first round of the north Mississippi U.S. House race, in a district considered staunchly Republican.

They were also celebrating results of the Biloxi special mayoral runoff, where a former longtime Democrat – now Republican — beat out a candidate who had the backing of the state’s GOP leadership, including Gov. Phil Bryant.

Zinn led a field of 13 candidates in votes, taking 17 percent in unofficial results. He will face Republican Trent Kelly, who had 16 percent, in a June 2 runoff. Zinn was the lone Democrat in the race and most prognostications had him as a long shot. He was at the bottom of the pack in campaign financing, with many of the Republicans sinking lots of their own money into the race.

“That’s the funniest thing in the world to me, how people who are consistently wrong in their predictions, keep on making predictions,” said Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole. “… With the miniscule resources he had, Walter did a wonderful job in turning out his voters. Republicans did a poor job of turnout yesterday … I believe the election on June 2 will be right down to the wire.”

Cole said he was working the phone Wednesday, drumming up support and financing for Zinn from state and national party sources.

“I love a special election,” Cole said. “It’s like playing poker with aces, deuces and one-eyed jacks wild. We are going to support (Zinn’s) successful grass-roots efforts and expand on them.”

The third-runner in the race, Republican northern Transportation Commissioner Mike Tagert, has endorsed Kelly in the runoff as “a person of honor and integrity who will move the ball forward on our conservative principles in Congress ….”

In the Biloxi special election runoff to replace longtime Republican Mayor A.J. Holloway, FoFo Gilich took 60 percent of the vote to defeat Windy Swetman III.

The special election was nonpartisan, but Gilich, a former longtime Democrat, said he switched to Republican several years ago.

But Republicans Gov. Phil Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo endorsed Swetman. So, apparently, did state GOP Chairman Joe Nosef, in an e-mail on state party letterhead that included a photo of Gilich with former President Bill Clinton at a rally for Hillary Clinton for president.

It’s unusual for either state party to endorse one member of their party over another in a race for an open seat.

Gilich, who could not immediately be reached Wednesday, has shown political bona fides to the Sun Herald newspaper and others, including a membership card from the Harrison County Republican Club. Supporters have sent around an e-mail of a 2015 MSGOP membership drive letter to Gilich and his wife from Nosef thanking them for their “loyal support of the Mississippi Republican Party.”

But Gilich formerly ran unsuccessfully for mayor against Holloway as a Democrat, and is former chairman of the Harrison County Democratic Party. In Tuesday’s runoff, he was endorsed by the Democratic third-runner from the first election in April.

Bryant in a statement about his endorsement of Swetman said: “Looking more at all of the facts and differences between the two candidates, it just became increasingly clear that there’s only one Republican in the race, and that’s Windy Swetman. And a few days ago, the local Democrat Party endorsed (Gilich), which made the political ideology differences even clearer.”

Nosef, in Arizona for a Republican National Committee meeting on Wednesday, could not immediately respond but said he will shortly.

State House Democratic Leader Bobby Moak called Gilich’s victory despite the endorsement of state Republican leaders “a resounding message … Keep your partisan politics out of our ballot boxes.”

“Two years ago, the state’s leaders attempted to meddle in the mayoral races in Ocean Springs, Starkville, Tupelo, Oxford and Meridian,” Moak said. “In all five races, Mississippians chose the candidates who provided the best leadership for their future.”

In his victory speech Tuesday night, Gilich said, “Everybody knows when you push Biloxi, Biloxi pushes back.”

Source: The Clarion-Ledger 

Geoff Pender