Former state Attorney General Mike Moore (D) and former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove (D) both released statements signaling their interest in the open seat of retiring Sen. Trent Lott last night. In both cases, decisions will be coming “soon”.
Former state Attorney General Mike Moore (D) released a statement Monday evening sure to give Democrats hope. “Like most Mississippians I was surprised by Trent Lott’s decision to resign from his Senate seat,” Moore said. “As for me, I appreciate all the calls I have received from friends, colleagues, and supporters today encouraging me to run. I will make my decision soon.”
Democrat Ronnie Musgrove – who served one term as governor before being defeated by Barbour in 2003 – said Monday he is “seriously considering” running for the Senate seat Lott is leaving.
Musgrove said in an interview that that even though the South has been largely Republican over the past several years, “people in the South are just as frustrated and concerned about Washington not doing anything about the spiraling cost of health care, the increased cost of gas, the shaky economy and the housing problem.”
Musgrove said he’ll make a decision in the next few days. He said running a Senate race would cost millions of dollars.
One guy go after Trent Loot’s seat now, the other guy go after Thadeus’s in November. That was easy.
Thadeus is a lock for re-election, so it isn’t that simple. Neither one of them (Moore or Musgrove) needs to be a sacrificial lamb, which is what they would be against Cochran.
Democrats can’t afford a primary either. I say go with Moore. I ASSUME he hasn’t lost statewide before, and he has always been the heir apparent when a vacancy arose.
Barbour’s solid win just two weeks ago shows the voters don’t have any ‘remorse’ for defeating Musgrove.
This is a winnable seat, but the Dems will need a lucky break or two (such as a divisive GOP primary) to have a real shot at it.
Mississippi is red and getting redder, but if the GOP image continues to suffer, and the Dem runs a GREAT campaign, it is possible to pull it out.
BTW, is there ANY chance of the Dems picking up either Wicker or Pickering’s seat with a vacancy?
I’m guessing Moore has less baggage and more of a positive image than Musgrove. However, if we get Musgrove instead of Moore, I don’t think anyone should be crying… He just hasn’t had the strong victories like Moore to give me as much confidence in him.
all the variables in a case like this make my head hurt but i’ll try to wade through-
are we sure there’s no primary? we’re well ahead of the election which could follow the regular schedule for federal ’08 elections (along with the house seats). i don’t seee the point in setting a different schedule for this – unless it’s to depress turnout or mess the election up.
if there’s no primary then it’s just as likely that one or two ambitious republicans run as well as pickering making it possible for a democrat to win with 40-45%. but that won’t happen.
primary or no primary, it’s pickering vs. moore (or musgrove) with either having to run a populist triangulation campaign against everyone in washington dc. moore seems well positioned to do it, though musgrove did a good job of laying out the issues.
and i don’t want to hear the hate from the progressives when moore/musgrove tries to define himself as a conservative democrat (ala harold ford or lloyd bentsen way back when).
Picking Musgrove instead of Moore to run would hand the seat to the Republican candidate on a silver platter, no matter how unknown he is. Despite 2002 being a bad year overall for Democrats, the real underlying reason behind Musgrove’s loss was his support for changing the state flag a year earlier. That still has a bad taste in the mouths of many Mississippi voters that are needed to cross the 50% threshold. No overall nationwide Democratic boost can change that fact. Moore has never lost a statewide race and has less baggage than Musgrove. Moore might lose too, but if I had to gamble my right arm, I’d go with Moore.
As much as I really like Eric Clark, I really think he’s screwing up this election and maybe even the law.
It’s going to be very, very tough for Musgrove/Moore to do well in November with all the Republicans turning out to keep Hillary out of the White House. There just aren’t enough Democrats around these days to keep the Republican numbers down.
A March election would have been much more preferable. It’ll still be one hell of an election. Don’t get me wrong. Musgrove/Moore are just going to have to haul ass to get the votes. They can do it. They’ve done it plenty of times before.
Moore may not be a progressive by national standards but he’s still pretty good, much like the first incarnation of John Edwards from what I’m told. He’s certainly the most popular Democrat in Miss and probably one of the state’s most popular contemporary figures, plus he established a pro-consumer record as attorney general by taking on big tobacco.
Here in east Arkansas, we have to suffer through the political ads coming out of Mississippi…99% of which are terrible. I remember the Musgrove/Barber election and how nasty it got, but I remember being distinctly unimpressed with Musgrove and irritated by a little bit of gay baiting he did over the gay adoption ban down there. Moore’s the better choice of the two, by far.