Pender – Cole, Nosef square off … politely

Cole, Nosef square off … politely

The chairs of the state Democratic and Republican parties squared off at the MEC Hobnob today, but it was rather more a polite discussion than a fiery debate between Rickey Cole (D) and Joe Nosef (R).

Nosef said the GOP takeover of state government happened because: “We had excellent candidates …. (and) The national Democratic Party put Mississippians in a tough position. You can either be a conservative, or you can be a Democrat, not both.”

Cole said: “We’ve given away a lot of elections because we haven’t been structured and organized enough to deal with the Haley Barbour machine … To use a football analogy, we are in a rebuilding phase.”

Geoff Pender
Clarion Ledger
10/31/12