Sun Herald elections observations and analysis
Some notes on the Tuesday gubernatorial and lieutenant governor primaries.
Governor
The Democratic primary ending in a runoff between Johnny DuPree (43 percent) and Bill Luckett (39 percent) surprised many observers. Most had expected one of these two to win it outright. Some possible causes for the runoff result:
n Dark-horse candidate William Compton did surprisingly well (10 percent).
n Even more unlikely candidate Guy Shaw drew 7 percent.
n Relatively low vote turnout for Democratic primary.
While Phil Bryant (59 percent) had long been the presumptive frontrunner for GOP gubernatorial nominee, challenger Dave Dennis had hoped others in the race, including Ron Williams of Moss Point, would pull enough votes to force a runoff. However:
n Williams only drew about 9 percent of the vote, Hudson Holliday only 5 percent, even though both had spent hundreds of thousands of their own dollars and campaigned hard statewide.
Sun Herald
8/3/11
Magnolia Tribune
