McCOMB - When Mississippi Republican Party Chairman Jim Herring came to town a couple of weeks ago, some of us old-timers were reminded of the 1979 governor's race.
Herring, as he mentioned in his speech to the local Rotary Club, was a candidate in the Democratic primary that year. It was later, after he had been appointed to the state Democratic Executive Committee, that he decided to switch parties.
But back to 1979. What a lineup we had in the governor's race. It makes you wish we could have as many good choices next year. My guess is we won't.
Herring, an articulate former district attorney from Canton, had substantial financial support, but he ran fourth in the Democratic primary, just behind attorney and former state legislator John Arthur Eaves who, by design or not, sounded a lot like Alabama Gov. George Wallace.
Fifth in the race was state Rep. Charles Deaton of Greenwood. Deaton, who married a Pike County native, has since served with distinction on the state Board of Education.
Running sixth and last, as he should have, was right-wing zealot Richard Barrett, who sounded in 1979 much as he has since.
Leading the ticket in the first primary was Lt. Gov. Evelyn Gandy, then 58, a veteran of state government and the first woman to win statewide election in Mississippi. She had also won election and served as state treasurer.
Running second was William Winter, then 56, also a former state treasurer and a former lieutenant governor.
Winter had lost the governor's race four years earlier in a Democratic runoff with Cliff Finch. Back in the 1960s, he had lost the governor's race to John Bell Williams.
But 1979 was Winter's summer, and he beat Gandy in the runoff for the nomination.
It was a hard choice for some voters who would have been satisfied with either candidate.
Gandy's gender may have had something to do with her losing. I recall that the mild-mannered Winter, an Army veteran of World War II, had some of his television commercials show him riding around in a National Guard tank - the implication being that Miss Gandy would be less qualified to handle such chores if the governor was ever called upon to mobilize the military forces of the state.
On the Republican side there was a primary race between Leon Bramlett of Clarksdale and Gil Carmichael of Meridian, both well-known in GOP circles back then.
Carmichael won, but lost to Winter in the November general election.
That was before governors could succeed themselves for a second term, and the incumbent, Cliff Finch, took no part in the election, but he was an issue.
An Associated Press story in August said, "With federal investigations checking finances of several executive agencies, the candidates promised to 'clean up the mess in Jackson.'"
That refrain is one that is oft-repeated and likely will be echoed next year: "Clean up the mess in Jackson."
