Primary shenanigans could backfire By: Josh Kraushaar

[Demeter]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/9291.html

Could Rush Limbaugh be responsible for tipping the election outcome in a key Republican primary to fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Roger Wicker in Mississippi? That’s what some Republican operatives in the state are suggesting. As part of his self-described “Operation Chaos,” the conservative talk-show host urged his listeners to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primary in order to draw out the presidential nomination process as long as possible.

But in Mississippi, those party-switchers may not have realized the implications of their decision: The Republicans who voted in last month’s Democratic primary now are not allowed to cast ballots in Tuesday’s hotly contested runoff between Glenn McCullough, the former chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority, and Greg Davis, mayor of one of the fastest-growing towns in the state’s 1st Congressional District. And given how close the race could end up being, the fact that those ticket-splitters must stay on the sidelines could mean the difference between a McCullough and a Davis victory.



An unusually high number of Republicans voted in the Democratic primary in DeSoto County, where President Bush won 72 percent of the vote in 2004. Polling places in the Republican stronghold ran out of Democratic ballots by mid-morning of the primary.

In the first round of balloting, Davis trailed McCullough by 927 votes — 39 percent to 37 percent — and more than half of Davis’ total votes came from DeSoto County, his home base. Both campaigns believe that Davis was particularly hurt by the party-switchers, estimating that at least 3,000 Republicans in Davis’ home county alone switched sides to vote in the Democratic presidential primary.
The winner of the primary runoff will be favored to succeed Wicker, who is now serving in the Senate to fill former Sen. Trent Lott’s vacancy and will seek a full term in November. There will be a separate, all-party special election in the 1st District on April 22 to fill the remainder of Wicker’s term. The winner of the GOP runoff will be favored to win the right to fill the seat the rest of the year.