Ellis Says He Never Made Comment About White Conservatives

Rep. Bobby Shows (R-Ellisville) made headlines yesterday not just by switching parties, but by stating that House Majority Leader Tyrone Ellis (D-Starkville) told him that there is no room in the Democratic Party for white conservatives, which is why Shows would go on to say that he will be a white conservative Republican.

Ellis denied those charges and told WAPT that he “would never say such a thing.” He added, “not only are there white conservatives in the Democratic Party, there are black conservatives.”

Here is what Haley Barbour said on the subject: “We welcome all people from the Democratic Party. You know, white conservatives, black conservatives, yellow conservatives, brown conservatives, red conservatives and moderates.”

** Over the past two days I have said that Republicans now have 26 members in the Senate and 51 in the House. Actually, they have 25 and 50 at this time with the vacancies left open by Alan Nunnelee and Steven Palazzo. We expect Republicans to hold those seats, but that person likely won’t be seated until February.

Brian Perry to work for Dave Dennis. In his weekly column, Brian Perry announced that it would be in his last column as he will be working for Dave Dennis’ gubernatorial campaign.

Perry closed with this: “I have been able to write on politics and issues without conflict among my public affairs firm’s clients, newspaper publishers, and the trust of the readers. But there needs to be a clear separation of when I speak for myself and when I speak for the Dennis Campaign, and so for now, I thank you for reading, for writing to me, and I hope you’ve found my thoughts at least reasonably right.”

Perry has had a couple stints with the Madison County Journal dating back to 1997.

Mississippi RNC members behind Reince Priebus. National Journal has a running whip count of the RNC chairman’s race with Wisconsin GOP Chairman Reince Priebus leading the pack right now.

Priebus has the backing of national committee members Henry Barbour and Jeanne Luckey, along with state GOP chairman Brad White.

** Haley Barbour is perceived to be backing Priebus, but has denied rumors that he is running a behind-the-scenes campaign for him and said he won’t be endorsing anyone.

Downplaying their Democratic ties. As we have mentioned, the special elections on January 11 will be non-partisan. A candidate will, however, have to declare a party for the general election and run in its primary (unless they run as an independent). And while no party will be on the ballot next to a candidate’s name they can certainly play up their party; as Republican John Caldwell is doing.

Or you can go in a different direction. In a Daily Journal piece, Rep. Warner McBride (D-Courtland), who is running for Transportation Commissioner, said he “is not declaring a party label for the special election.” Ray Minor, who is running to fill the position left open by his brother’s passing, declined to say which party he would affiliate with adding, “we will cross that bridge when we get there.” His brother was a Democrat.

Treasurer’s Race: In and Out. ** Lucien Smith, who currently serves as counsel to Haley Barbour is stepping down from that position at the end of the month to explore a run for treasurer. *** Russ Latino, an attorney as well as a conservative commentator who has spoken at Tea Party events and been a frequent guest on SuperTalk, has opted against a run and will not be a candidate.

January 11 special election notes. Remember you can find a listing of the candidates for the three special election races here; and we also have links to their website and their party ID if available. ** In the HD116 race, Jim Atchison received the endorsement of the REALTORS Political Action Committee right before Christmas. *** In that same race, Jess Hogue recently launched her campaign website. **** In the SD6 race, Doug Wright has released three campaign spots which can be found on his YouTube page here. ***** Here is a campaign spot from Nancy Collins in the same race. ****** In the Transportation Commish race, Dennis Grisham has a campaign commercial you can view on his website.