The New York Times reports on how the racist element of the Mississippu Republican Party is using the possible nomination of Sen. Barrack Obama to help defeat a white Democratic candidate, Travis Childers, in a Congressional race.
The race is to fill the seat left open when Representative Roger Wicker, a Republican who was first elected in 1994, was appointed to succeed former Senator Trent Lott. (In the game “Six Degrees of Rick Outzen,” Wicker’s brother Tom was the editior of the college paper at Ole Miss when I was elected student body president).
The two parties have poured millions of dollars into the race, a potent indicator — like Mr. Cheney’s presence here — of its symbolism as a Republican bastion the Democrats could overrun. Mr. Childers came within 400 votes of winning the seat last month but was forced into a runoff because he received less than 50 percent, a near-victory that startled Republicans used to expecting an easy triumph in a district President Bush carried with 62 percent in 2004.