JACKSON — Incumbent Republican Gov. Haley Barbour is using his campaign war chest on television commercials that talk about his record on job creation, work force training and his leadership in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
When Barbour's TV ads aren't talking about those topics, the ads focus on reminding people that Democratic challenger John Arthur Eaves Jr. is a wealthy, successful personal injury lawyer who has taken case for plaintiffs who sued the U.S. military or the federal government.
Eaves is spending a lot of money on television ads, too. In those ads, Eaves is using his commercials to talk about expanding public health care, school prayer and religious teaching in the public schools and about Barbour “serving” a group Eaves calls “the moneychangers” both as a wealthy, successful Washington lobbyist and later as governor.
In his most recent TV spot, Eaves actually holds a Bible and accuses Barbour of “making millions” lobbying for “big oil, big tobacco and big insurance” companies.
By contrast, Eaves says in the spot, he serves “regular Mississippians” as a trial lawyer. “It's a question of who you serve,” Eaves says.
Republicans and Barbour loyalists are quick to dismiss Eaves' proselytizing as the campaign of the emotional appeals of one who has no substantive policy initiatives to offer the voters.
But Democrats and Eaves loyalists say the Madison lawyer's message, coupled with his refusal to accept donations from casinos, is gaining ground among some white conservative voters who are normally predisposed to vote Republican.
So, do voters really want some of that old-time religion mixed in with their politics?
In a 2006 poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, roughly half of Americans (51 percent) said they think churches and other houses of worship should express their views on day-to-day social and political questions, while 46 percent believe these organizations should stay out of political matters.
One unusual development in the 2007 Mississippi gubernatorial campaign is that many of the state's more liberal Democrats are blasting Eaves for pandering because of his religious stances.
Eaves' personal religious beliefs are what they are and they're not for a newspaper columnist to define. But the “moneychangers” image is a powerful one for Eaves to choose to throw around in a political campaign — and one that could indeed bite him in the backside.
Jesus driving the moneychangers from the temple, as described in Matthew 21, was an act of the Lord's rage at his house being turned into a “den of thieves” by those who attempted to profit from those who came to worship.
Specifically, the “moneychangers” were engaging in currency exchange for people who journeyed to the temple to worship and keeping a percentage of the transaction for themselves.
Certainly, a discerning voter might be convinced if he sees enough TV commercials to believe that lobbying equates with “money- changing.” But it's just as likely that if the same discerning voter sees enough TV commercials about how trial lawyers earn their money - that is, keeping a percentage of the transaction for themselves - the Biblical references could cut both ways.
The good Lord asks believers for a tithe, or 10 percent of their earnings. To be sure, both lobbyists and trial lawyers often ask for considerably higher percentages from their clients.
I'm not sure what faith and religion have to do with either vocation. In my experience, not much.
Eaves' father ran two gubernatorial bids that had an almost evangelical fervor to them, and he lost both times. But the younger Eaves is running a smarter, more effective campaign than did his father.
