PASCAGOULA, Miss. — The two candidates in Mississippi’s Fourth Congressional District agree on a number of things, like the need for the health care overhaul to be repealed and for Nancy Pelosi to step down as speaker. But perhaps most remarkably, they finally agreed to hold a debate.
After weeks of negotiations on topics like the site, the date, whether to have an audience and the advisability of having a moderator who had announced on his radio show that Democrats are socialists, the honor of holding the race’s sole debate on Friday night fell to a local family-owned station with an upgraded news studio to show off.
The Republican candidate, Steven Palazzo, a boyish-looking state legislator, arrived at WKFK Channel 7’s studio early and in cheerful spirits. Like many Republicans running in conservative districts this year, Mr. Palazzo has had a pretty straightforward case to make. He has galvanized support merely by pledging to adhere to his party’s platform and pointing out that his opponent belongs to the other party.
“You can almost treat this race like a Republican primary,” observed Hunter Lipscomb, Mr. Palazzo’s communications director.
New York Times
10/31/10
