Political activist and author Andy Taggart spoke to students and faculty Wednesday about the upcoming state elections. Taggart, a lawyer in Madison, served as chief of staff to former Gov. Kirk Fordice from 1991 to 1994. In 1984, he served as the executive director of the Mississippi Republican Party and was its political director in 1980 and 1981.
He started his own law practice in 2002 and was the president and CEO of the Mississippi Technology Alliance from 2002 to 2005.
In 2006, Taggart and campaign veteran Jere Nash co-wrote “Mississippi Politics: The Struggle for Power, 1976-2006,” which discusses political campaigns and state Legislature struggles.
Taggart said he and Nash wrote the book because there had not been work written on the last 30 years of Mississippi politics.
“We felt like someone ought to capture the most recent era of Mississippi politics,” Taggart said.
His primary focus during the MSU address was on the unusual nature of some of the state races.
“We went from thinking we were going to have no new races, that all the incumbents would run and be re-elected … to having two Congressional races and a U.S. Senate race going on all at the same time in addition to other [races],” Taggart said.
After the 2007 elections, for the first time since Reconstruction, Republicans hold seven out of Mississippi’s eight statewide elected offices, he said.
“That’s really an extraordinary thing because as recently as the term between 1999 and 2003, one of the eight was a Republican,” Taggart said.
He said it was remarkable that the power shift occurred rapidly over a short cycle of several election periods.
The same power shift did not occur in the Legislature, Taggart said. The Senate is split almost in half with 27 Democrats and 25 Republicans, while the House contains 75 Democrats and 47 Republicans.
The House numbers have not changed since before the 2007 election, he said.
“Who would have thought that in a body with 122 members that you could have a round of elections and come out with exactly the same partisan split you started with but that’s what happened,” he said.
Taggart said the upcoming U.S. Senate race is a special election. In Mississippi special elections, there are no primaries. Officially, candidates cannot run by party, but they can put R or D next to their names on the ballot, he said.
Some significance of the special election is that the date has not yet been set due to disagreement between Gov. Haley Barbour and Attorney General Jim Hood. Taggart said he expects the Supreme Court’s ruling on the issue to come soon.
Currently, Roger Wicker is the only Republican running for the Senate spot.
Taggart said he thinks Wicker is the favorite in the race partly because of the numbers favoring Republicans who run statewide.
“If you look at a chart, you would see over the last 25 years that statewide candidates running as Democrats average about 400,000 votes,” Taggart said. “Good candidate, bad candidate, well-financed, poorly-financed, it just doesn’t seem to matter very much. The problem for Democrats running statewide is that’s rarely enough to win.”
Senior civil engineering major Stuart Saulters said that statistic surprised him.
“I thought it was interesting to see how Mississippi politics has a trend,” said Saulters, who serves as director of community and governmental relations for the Student Association.
Taggart said the conventional wisdom in Mississippi has been that a high voter turnout favors Democrats and a low voter turnout favors Republicans. However, the facts are exactly the opposite, he said.
Another race Taggart spoke about was that of the 1st Congressional District. Taggart said he thinks the Republican nominee will be the favored but there is no guarantee.
Currently, the 1st District does not have a congressman since Barbour moved Wicker, its former delegate, to fill the open Senate position.
Taggart also discussed the 3rd Congressional District race, which includes Mississippi State University. He said the Republican nominee in this particular district would be elected.
Throughout the races, voters will have to consider what they want: a new face or someone experienced, Taggart said.
After speaking about the upcoming races and giving his input on the possible outcomes, Taggart answered a few questions from the audience, including one about the tone of the legislative body for this year.
Phillip Bass, senior microbiology and political science major, said he came to hear Taggart because he is knowledgeable about Mississippi politics.
“I appreciate his analysis of how each individual race would shake out come November,” Bass said.
Sean Galligan, junior risk management, insurance and financial planning major, said Taggart’s breakdown of each candidate was helpful.
“I appreciate that Mr. Taggart explained each candidate for each section and kind of gave his view on who would be great in this year’s race,” Galligan said.
Saulters said he asked Taggart to speak because he feels that students are apathetic when it comes to politics.
“Mississippi State is a huge part of the 3rd District,” Saulters said. “I don’t think students realize how important it is to have a congressman on your side.”
Saulters said he hopes that students will get involved in politics by voting or helping with a campaign, but he primarily wants students to understand Mississippi’s political situation.
“I just want people to be aware of what’s going on around them,” he said.