Video: State GOP Leaders Have Small Influence In Tuesday’s Municipal Elections

[bitsontherun MaLsJ0ZH]

NORTHEAST Miss. (WCBI)- From North to South, State GOP leaders came out endorsing several mayoral candidates in this year’s election.

Political Analyst Marty Wiseman, whose son won re-election in Starkville Tuesday says considering the voting history of city elections, it’s unusual for the Republican Party to make that move.

“They concentrated on Ocean Springs, Meridian, Starkville. In Tupelo, gosh, it was Governor Bryant, Tate Reeves, Senator Cochran, Senator Wicker. It might have been ill-advised for the Republican Party to invest so much. Municipal elections are a little different from elections anywhere else. Citizens are concerned about services, police and fire recreation, water and sewer. All of those things and the quality of those services are what stayed on the voters mind in a municipal election. You can’t cut that by party very well, ” said Wiseman.

But Republican Senator Terry Brown says leaders were simply standing by members of their party, and the fact that so many GOP candidates ran for office in traditional Democratic cities, speaks volumes.

“We wouldn’t have even had many Republicans on the ballot 10 years ago so we’ve come a long way and we didn’t do as well as we may have wanted to, but we’re still way light years away from where we were 10, 15 years ago,” said Senator Brown.

Brown believes despite the democratic victories, in the end, people will stick to their parties in state-wide and national elections.

“Just because some of the locals won some Democrats it doesn’t mean it’s going to be a big massive deal of everybody swinging to the left or right. Everybody’s got their philosophy and they’re going to hold the line on that,” said Brown.

Leaders from Mississippi’s Democratic Party released this statement,

“Our major victories in Starkville, Tupelo and all around the state share several commonalities. All our candidates ran strong grassroots “ground game” campaigns, making extensive use of local volunteers to inform and mobilize voters. All our candidates focused on the local issues that matter most in municipal elections. All our candidates made effective use of social networking and the other online resources essential to modern campaigns. And all our candidates proved that grassroots support is far more important than are endorsements from Republican power brokers. Yesterday the voters proved that the real power brokers are not Phil Bryant, Tate Reeves, Greg Harper or Alan Nunnelee. The ultimate political power in Mississippi belongs to the people themselves,”

We reached out to the Mississippi Republican Party Headquarters as well. They have yet to comment.