Mississippi’s 2008 congressional campaigns launching today

The Clarion-Ledger Editorial, 11/7/7

While the popped balloons and confetti are still on the hotel ballroom floors from the state’s 2007 general election victory parties on Tuesday night, the sound you hear this morning is the state’s 2008 congressional campaigns launching.

That’s particularly true in the state’s 3rd Congressional District where veteran Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering of Flora is stepping down after six terms in office at the end of his current term. Pickering’s announcement that he would not seek another term based on the need to spend more time with his family set off shock waves in state politics in August and the jockeying for position in the Republican primary began almost the next day.