Rundown Of Yesterday’s Special Election

Here are a couple points on the three elections yesterday:

Northern District Transportation Commissioner. It looks like it will be John Caldwell and Mike Tagert in a runoff in three weeks. As it stands right now, Caldwell received 10,660 votes and 10,373 went for Tagert. The third place finisher- State Rep. Warner McBride- just missed the runoff with 9,983. One precinct is still outstanding as well as absentee/ affidavit votes, but it would be a tall task for McBride to net about 400 votes.

This was just a fascinating race to watch on election night. Early on, it looked like McBride as well as Tippah County Supervisor Dennis Grisham were the class of the race thanks to strong early showings from their home bases. Of course, that was before the northwest part of the district came in big for Caldwell and the Golden Triangle for Tagert.

The two runoff candidates will have their home bases locked up and ready to turnout. It will be interesting to see what the rest of the district does, and who can get those votes. I’d look at Lee county in three weeks. It has the most votes that I would consider undecided, plenty of them traditional Republican.

Which brings me to this point…both men in the runoff are Republicans so no matter the result there will be a Republican Northern district Transportation Commissioner when either Tagert or Caldwell is sworn in. As you may know, Bill Minor, a Democrat, previously held this seat. Whoever wins will be up for election again in November, with a traditional primary and election. It will be interesting to see if or which Democrats that ran yesterday try for the seat again. Is McBride going to give up his House seat for another shot?

Senate District Six. As we were watching the numbers last night, the main drama was if Nancy Collins could stay above the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff. It looks like she did that. As of right now, she is barely above that mark. She has 3,282 votes to 3,260 for the rest of the field. Doug Wright finished second, and would join her in a runoff if a few votes changed ways, and he has yet to formally concede.

Collins and Wright are both Republicans.

House District 116. The drama in this race was who would join Casey Eure in a runoff. Eure led the field with 34 percent yesterday. Finishing second was Jim Atchison who received 461 votes. Chuck Stein just missed the runoff receiving 423 votes.

Similar to North Mississippi, this will be an all Republican runoff.

Note: I have updated my January 11 special election list to reflect the remaining candidates for the runoff. You can check it out here; now under the title: February 1 Special Election Runoff.