Tuesday, June 19, 2007

It's time for the gloves to come off in the Lt. Governor's race

The Republicans get to choose between Charlie Ross and Phil Bryant this August, a mere 2 months away and it seems like this week the campaign has really kicked into full gear. Ross started running campaign ads this week and Bryant can't be far behind. We have seen some jabs back and forth but Bryant's association with the Partnership and several jabs at failed audits. I haven't seen as much out of Bryant to this point but he is ahead in most polling so he might be holding out for now. Both Ross and Bryant have over a half million dollars in the bank, I believe last reports were that Ross had over a Million in Cash on Hand, and in two months any left over will just be wasted for one of them so see things pick up in the near future.



For my money I bet Bryant will win the nomination simply because not enough Repubs know Charlie Ross despite the fact, IMO, Ross is the more polished, smarter and probably more effective candidate. At some point political races are just popularity contest when the 2 candidates run on almost all of the same issues which is what Ross and Bryant are doing. Additionally, Bryant has the endorsement of the Home Builders Association, Realators Association, Paul Gallo (who has a wide audience in the Republican households) and Don Wildman (far-right Tupelo religous advocate/zealot) and as silly as it sounds endorsements do mean something when they all pile up for one person.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I see this race as one of the most important. Ross is simply repugnant to me, but I'm a little concerned about the Bryant talk about Medicaid fraud. i know it's a campaign pander, but i'm curious how much he buys his own line.

Because Medicaid isn't a value commodity that you can pawn or cash in. it's health insurance. the fraud is committed by doctors. The AG's office has an entire division devoted to this problem. The notion that they'll further wrench down the requirements on poor kids out of some political posturing has me pretty uncomfortable.