Ronnie Musgrove, after losing a long, drawn-out battle fought through political surrogate Attorney General Jim Hood about when the special election was to be held, has now decided the focus of his newest legal battle . . . ballot placement.
Since the race between Senator Roger Wicker and Ronnie Musgrove is a special election, state law and precedent stand pretty squarely on the side of the argument that says that special elections are listed at the end of the ballot. Fearing “ballot dropoff”, the Musgrove campaign has made an emotional appeal through surrogates in the press that opined that since this is a federal election, it deserves “top billing” alongside the other regularly scheduled race for US Senate.
On Tuesday, September 2, while most Mississippians were focused on avoiding the effects from Hurricane Gustav, the Ronnie Musgrove campaign sent out an email imploring “Call the Secretary of State: Tell him to put the Senate Race at the top of the Ballot.”
One week later, the State Elections Commission, composed by statute of the Governor, the Secretary of State and the Attorney General, found that state law held that that special elections did indeed belong on the end of the ballot. Both Governor Barbour and Secretary of State Hosemann quoted caselaw and the precedent of the actions of former Secretary of State Eric Clark.
From Hosemann’s release . . .
According to Miss. Code Ann § 23-15-511, State statute requires all general election candidates be “clearly distinguished” from special election candidates.
Subsequent legal action
As if on cue, just a couple of hours after the decision by the Election Commission, an Election Commissioner from Pike County, Trudy Berger, filed a lawsuit in Hinds County Circuit Court. The case was assigned to Judge Tomie Green, who immediately granted a temporary restraining order to prevent the sample ballot being sent out to the individual counties.
Ms. Berger certainly made an interesting choice of counsel and of venue. She chose none other than Sam Begley for her lawyer. Begley has long and documented ties to Ronnie Musgrove, DSCC, DAGA, Bennie Thompson, John Kerry, Al Gore, and the MS Democratic Party. In fact, he even incorporated the Party. Begley has been an Democratic Party election law attack dog in the past. He has been trodded out to keep Ralph Nader from getting on the ballot in MS in 2004 and was heavily involved in Harvey Johnson’s dismally failed mayoral race in 2005.
The brutal truth is that Trudy Berger (bless her heart) probably doesn’t have any idea what she’s signed up for or who she’s signed up with.
The judge assigned in Hinds County Circuit Court was Tomie Green. Ironically, Judge Green has had some involvement with Ronnie Musgrove having been a prior recipient of his campaign contribution largesse alongside US Rep. Bennie Thompson and the now jailed felon Dickie Scruggs. In fact, in May 2002, the three totaled $7500 for in-kind contributions to Green in one day. That would certainly beg the question of whether or not Judge Green should have recused herself from this case.
To say this whole situation doesn’t pass the straight face test is an understatement.
Why die on this hill?
Why would Ronnie Musgrove seemed poised to die on this particular hill of “ballot placement”? Who really cares about this? For a candidate that wanted to talk about earmarks and the price of gasoline, his campaign has now irrevocably shifted the news cycle for at least the next 14 days over legal wranglings over ballot placement. Musgrove, by and through a local election commissioner just coincidentally represented by a major campaign contributor, will be fighting a sitting Governor that has already stomped him at the ballot box and in court and a brilliant Republican Secretary of State who is all to willing to fight. This will almost certainly wind up in front of the MS Supreme Court where Jim Hood (who will likely get involved) hasn’t been experiencing much success representing Democrats in election fights. To make matters worse, MSSC judges will be able to gently use this as a litmus test on whether they are conservative or liberal just before a non-partisan judicial election for several sitting Court members. That’s certainly not the ideal, but it is a political reality.
Compouding the problem for Musgrove at the MSSC is the fact that Judge Tomie Green has been overturned more times than a pancake at an IHOP. Now, everyone is dug in and the fight will be on.
If I were Musgrove (and I thank God I am not), I’d be trying to make this race about the economy or the mortgage crisis and trying to draft off of the coattails of his party’s presidential nominee, Barack Obama. I wouldn’t be fighting over something like ballot placement. A conspiracy theorist might argue that this is Musgrove’s way of giving up. Being down in the polls already and facing a double digit McCain victory in Mississippi, Musgrove may be setting up the argument of “blaming it on the man”.
Like it or not, Musgrove has picked a fight. It is a fight that even if he wins, he loses. It will cost him earned media on real issues in the news cycle and even in the best case scenario, it will likely not net him more than just a few thousand votes. Being down in the polls at last count by a solid 4-5% (pre-Sarah Palin), in my opinion, it was a pretty stupid fight to pick. We’ll see how it works out.
By way of regular and repeated disclosure, I have personally made a reportable contribution to Roger Wicker’s campaign. Deal with it.
Magnolia Tribune
