STARKVILLE – In the 2011 Democratic gubernatorial primary, the other shoe finally dropped as Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree and Clarksdale attorney Bill Luckett fight it out for their party’s nomination.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Bolton, the senior Democratic official in the state’s congressional delegation – and in this session, the only one – on Tuesday made public his endorsement of DuPree in their party’s primary. While not totally unexpected, the endorsement is a plum for Dupree and a blow to Luckett’s chances at winning the nomination.
In making the endorsement, Thompson said in part: “I have traveled throughout Mississippi and have encountered Mississippians of all walks of life. I have met citizens who are struggling to find work, are dissatisfied with the state of our failing educational system, and are concerned about the future of healthcare and Medicaid. Mississippians are in need of a capable leader to move Mississippi into a posture for progressive change. Mayor Johnny DuPree is the competent candidate able to bring about this change.”
Thompson’s endorsement joins those of Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman, Philadelphia Mayor James Young and other municipal and county government officials, white and black, along with highly respected House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Percy Watson.
The question for Luckett is just how much Bennie Thompson’s endorsement matters — and the answer is that it matters a great deal in a Democratic primary. Not only is Thompson the state’s only Democratic congressman, he’s a congressman with the ear of the White House. The current path to federal patronage jobs in Mississippi leads through Thompson’s office as the ranking Democrat and former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee.
What was Thompson’s endorsement of a fellow African-American candidate worth in 2008? Thompson’s support at the grassroots level was critical in helping Obama attain a Mississippi Democratic primary win over his chief rival, Hillary Clinton. A record 434,152 voters cast ballots in Mississippi’s 2008 Democratic primary. Election returns from that primary show that Obama won 20 delegates from the state while Clinton won 13.
Obama won the primary with 265,502 votes, or 61.2 percent. Clinton placed second with 159,221 votes, or 36.7 percent. Democratic contenders who had already suspended their campaigns prior to the primary split the remaining 2.1 percent.
Thompson’s longevity, his growing seniority in Congress and his mastery of the local politics in the 2nd District – the state’s most vote-rich congressional district for Democrats – catapults him to the kind of political kingmaking status that white politicians like Big Jim Eastland once enjoyed. No one bats an eye as Republican politicians scramble to invoke Haley Barbour’s name as often as possible, so should there be any real surprise that Democrats seeking statewide office court and need Thompson’s support as well?
Thompson is a shrewd and canny politician. He is also not afraid to play hardball with white Democrats who court the state’s African-American vote but then fail to reciprocate that support when African-American candidates are standing for election.
Conservatives make Thompson their whipping boy in Mississippi politics, and Thompson is an unabashed liberal. But in terms of partisan politics, Thompson plays the game exactly as white politicians have played it for decades in both the Democrat and Republican parties – he helps those who help him and he plays to win.
Luckett has superior resources in his race against DuPree. But in a Democratic primary in Mississippi, the follow-the-money rule doesn’t always apply.
• Sid Salter is journalist-in-residence at Mississippi State University. Contact him at ssalter@library.msstate.edu.
