Chuck Espy To Resign House Seat
Speaking at a meeting held by the Mississippi Educators Association last week, Rep. Chuck Espy confirmed that he will be resigning his House seat after the upcoming legislative concludes in the spring. Espy was recently elected to another four year term without opposition.
Espy is leaving his seat so he can run for mayor in his hometown of Clarksdale. His father, Henry Espy, will not be running for another term after serving in that role for two decades. The older Espy will, however, finish out his term. There were some rumors that he would be resigning office early to set up a special election- the Espy’s say that isn’t the case.
The younger Espy says he has already spoken with the governor and secretary of state about a special election and a smooth transition. The upcoming session will end in April, and we may or may not have a special session following that point. If things proceed normally, you’d expect a special election sometime in the summer but it will be up to Phil Bryant to set the specific date when that time comes.
I doubt that the special election can wait until redistricting is precleared by DOJ, but even with new lines it’s fairly certain this will remain a Democrat seat. Espy has been a pretty level headed representative when compared to other Democrats, especially in the Delta. Hope someone with good sense succeeds him, and I wish him luck in the mayoral race.
Chuck Espy is a good guy and I believe will be elected Mayor of Clarksdale…but as our friend Lee Corso says on ESPN…not so fast my friend!! Yazoo County native (gotta get that part in) Chuck Jordan won the Mayor’s race in Greenville tonight with 59% of the vote against a pretty well liked black city councilman. Greenville has somewhere in the ballpark of a 75% BVAP….hmmmm