White also said he believes the state’s GOP candidates will win their congressional races, and that long-serving U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran will have an especially easy time with either Democrat, Shawn O’Hara or Rep. Erik Fleming, a former state representative from Clinton.
“Maybe Jesus Christ or Billy Graham could beat Thad Cochran, but I don’t think anybody else could beat him,” White said.
He also believes newly appointed Republican Sen. Roger Wicker will defeat former Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, who lost his re-election bid to Gov. Haley Barbour in 2003.
“I can’t believe the same people that fired the man (Musgrove) would want to rehire him to do the country what he did to the state,” Musgrove said.
White believes the key to GOP success is having the candidates tout traditional Republican values – something he said happened when Barbour, then Republican National Chairman, masterminded an election that gave the party control of both houses of Congress for the first time in several years in the mid ’90s.
“Traditionally, when the Republican Party has stayed true to our message, we’ve done well,” White said. “When we’ve forgotten what our message is, that’s when we’ve gotten into trouble.”
Sun Herald
3/8/8
