This is why I do this site.
Yesterday, the Ronnie Musgrove campaign went into uncontrollable hysteria over a sample ballot that was allegedly distributed by guys in Wicker hats in west Jackson that endorsed showed marks for Barack Obama, Roger Wicker and the rest of a Democratic slate. The Musgrove campaign called this “dirty tricks”. Various left leaning sites are willingly circulating the “dirty trick” meme. The Sun Herald even quotes Rep. Jim Evans as describing this “incident”.
Evans said he was in his car Monday evening when he saw two black people, including a man in a Wicker hat, handing out copies of the sample ballot in a predominantly black part of Jackson.
Evans, by the way, is way involved in the AFL-CIO, that has come out in a panicked way for Ronnie Musgrove.
I’d be very interested to know a few things from Rep. Evans. (1) Where was he when he got this handout? (2) What time of day did he get this and was anyone else around? (3) What color was this alleged Wicker hat (as I have not seen ANY Wicker hats . . . ever)? (3) Has ANYONE else owned up to receiving this other than Rep. Evans? It just seems like if this were distributed in ANY significant number whatsoever that you would have dozens of people bringing attention to it. So far, it has been Rep. Evans and the Musgrove campaign. Both would seem to have an angle to play.
At 11:00 a.m, I stopped by the old Manhattan YMCA, now a church, and got the following sample ballot. Notice that the fonts, layout and everything are identical except for three things . . . the heading at the top, the pick in the Musgrove/Wicker race (emphasis added is mine), and the “paid for by Wicker for Senate” cutout on the bottom.
Blown up for emphasis, it’s pretty obvious that this was Photoshopped from something else.
Now what’s more plausible.
Scenario A
Roger Wicker, leading every poll for the last six months decides the day before the election to manufacture a scheme that might net him 1000 votes . . . maybe . . . and horribly embarass him publicly by creating some ballot confusion. In so doing, you would have to believe that an expert someone spent the time to create an exact fake of the Hinds County Democratic Sample ballot that I picked up myself with pictures, layouts and fonts identical.
OR
Scenario B
The Democratic Party in Hinds County, desperate for a Musgrove victory after the DSCC campaign dropped about $7 million on Musgrove to win, creates the flyer and manufactures the crisis for precisely the fawning lemming-like coverage that it would get. Furthermore in this scenario, you would take into account that Musgrove is behind in every poll, and that the likelihood of getting caught is close to zero. In other words, the Hinds County Democrats had everything to gain and nothing to lose. Musgrove is at the ready with a press release crying fowl, and the crisis is thus generated.
I’m thinkin’ B. Having busted this little scheme wide open, I will make this available to Daily Kos, TPM, the Hill, the Sun Herald and others to let them get this out there, but you can pretty much count on the fact that you will only see this here.
By the way, on my sample ballot run, I found another good one. This one was on Northside Drive, just west of West Street. Bennie Thompson’s sample ballot has NO PICK IN THE WICKER/MUSGROVE race, nor in the Supreme Court race. I am no political scientist, but that tells me a whole lot right there about his thoughts on this election. Thompson has a serious political machine and his insticts are usually right. Not choosing here in these two close and critical races is a big deal.
Magnolia Tribune
