Anti-incumbent sentiment throws out some veterans

The Clarion-Ledger, 8/8/7

“Katrina appears to be claiming another victim,” said Joe Parker, political science professor at the University of Southern Mississippi. In the past, nine of 10 Mississippians wouldn’t know the insurance commissioner or what the commissioner did, he said. But Katrina changed all that, he said.

“Mississippians just don’t like change fundamentally, emotionally, ideologically,” said David Sansing, professor emeritus of history at the University of Mississippi. “Historically, our senators and congressmen never get defeated. The only time state officials get defeated is when they’re term-limited. It’s a longtime tradition in Mississippi that we just don’t change.”