Miss. Gov Seeks Black Votes for 2nd Term
Gov. Haley Barbour says the message he’s taking to Mississippi voters is for everyone, black or white. But as he seeks a second term, Barbour is striving to win 20 percent of the black vote, and blacks figure prominently in his ads and campaign literature.
Barbour, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee who helped engineer the GOP’s 1994 takeover of Congress, broadcast a re-election ad that showed a black physician praising the governor for pushing tort-reform legislation to curb malpractice lawsuits. The same physician stood alongside the governor during a news conference last month.
And in a recent brochure, Barbour was endorsed by the former president of the historically black Jackson State University. Barbour also has a campaign staffer assigned to minority outreach.
“Haley’s running as if it’s the toughest campaign that he’s ever run in his life,” said Marty Wiseman, director of the Stennis Institute for Government at Mississippi State University.
In a state with a black population of 37 percent, Barbour was elected in 2003 with 6 percent to 8 percent of the black vote. Wiseman said it would be to his advantage to shore up those numbers on Nov. 6.
AP
10/19/7
Magnolia Tribune
