Busy day so far, and it's not even 2 PM

IBEW business manager Paul Shaffer with County Commission candidate Norma Lester at her kickoff today, held in the IBEW hall.

After inexplicably waking up at 0630, I got going about 9, went out for breakfast, then attended the campaign kickoff for Norma Lester, who is seeking to fill the County Commission seat being vacated by term-limited (and County Mayor candidate) Deidre Malone.

The event was well-attended; joining your Cracker at the kickoff were activists like Germantown Democratic Club president Dick Klenz, local Teamsters leader and SCDP member Nate Jackson, City Councilor Jim Strickland, former SCDP Chair (and current DNC member from Tennessee) Gale Jones Carson, activist and SCDP member Danny Kail (who is considering a run for Probate Court Clerk; I will support that run if he goes for it), and SCDP Chair Van Turner, who spoke briefly.

I have worked with Norma on the SCDP for many years, and believe she is the right person to follow Commissioner Malone on the Commission. No one will outwork her, and her heart and mind are in the right place to make this run. She gave a good speech thanking everyone; as more campaign information becomes available, you will read it here.

Before I got to the IBEW, I heard a fascinating story about MS-01 rookie Congressman Travis Childers. Apparently, he had promised to vote for the Employee Free Choice Act, which is critical for union organization in the US. Then, last week, he stunned his labor supporters with a renege of that promise, stating he could not vote for it.

This led to a come-to-Eugene-Victor-Debs meeting yesterday in Memphis with the Memphis and North Mississippi Labor Councils, who made their dissatisfaction known in no uncertain terms. It apparently got quite heated, I have been told.

Well, while we can somewhat sympathize with a rookie who has a high R+ constituency, Rep. Childers needs to learn the lesson of business guru Tom Peters: Always under-promise and over-deliver. If Childers thought he could not have voted for EFCA, he should never have made that commitment. All those labor guys who put your signs up throughout MS-01 last year might just find something else to do in the fall of 2010, knowwhutImean?

Rule 1 - never piss off your base, they can and will go somewhere else. I know your bidness-people are begging you to vote no on EFCA, your base (who PUT you there) are telling you to vote yes. Paybacks can be hell, sir.

And a side note to my source: this was a labor-only meeting; no Democratic Party people from either state were told of this meeting or invited.

I have work to do on my house, so I have had to pass on the Millington fundraiser for County Trustee Paul Mattila, who has continued to amaze us all with his powerful recovery from cancer, he looks stronger than ever.

Ok, back to work on the house!

They're partying in North Mississippi tonight!!!!

Bill Foster in my old IL-14? Check. Don Cazayoux in LA-06? Check. Travis Childers in MS-01?
Check, baby!

For the THIRD time this year, Democrats captured an open Republican seat in a special election, despite Beelzebub himself making a last minute visit to the DeSoto Civic Center on behalf of Gooper Greg Davis on Monday.

Davis carried only four counties in the 23-county First District, and only ONE (Webster) east of I-55. Childers won by just under 8,000 votes, 57,276 to 49,314; when you consider that Davis carried DeSoto by almost TEN THOUSAND VOTES (14,976 to Childers' 5,015), you realize just what a country ass-whoopin' this election was.

This despite the fact that the NRCC and "independent" 527 Freedom's Watch spent untold sums trying to hang Barack Obama around Childers' neck; however, this backfired AGAIN as it had in LA-06 a few days ago. If the Republicans can't win with the race card in the Deep South, what possible chance does John McCain (or their congressional candidates, for that matter) have in November?

It's still a long way off and a million miles ahead, but it feels mighty good to be a Mid-South Democrat tonight. Oh, and go over to Cotton Mouth Blog and congratulate them; they helped Childers like a lot of us helped Cohen in 2006 (and will again!)

UPDATE: The Great Orange Satan his ownself weighs in on the glorious victory!

We're picking up a Congressional district on May 13!

I moved this to the top, since the election is Tuesday, May 13!

UPDATE 5/9: Our friend Mr. Turnbow reports that GOP officials are learning of internal polls from the Greg Davis campaign that shows him losing 5-10 points to Travis Childers IN THE LAST WEEK!

Please help Travis, this is an UNBELIEVABLE pick up opportunity, this is an R+10 DISTRICT!!!
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The wonderful Matt Stoller at OpenLeft notes that MS-01, the CD immediately to our south, is an R+10 District. However, that didn't stop the voters of North Mississippi from voting by 49% for Democrat Travis Childers, who leads going into the May 13 runoff with Republican (and Southaven Mayor) Greg Davis.

Here are the results from MS-01:

MS-01 (Wicker-Open) Precincts Reporting - 99% 462 of 462

Greg Davis (R) - 46%
Votes: 31,066

Travis Childers (D) - 49%
Votes: 33,138

Non-Active Candidates:
Steve Holland (D) - 1%
Glenn McCullough (R) - 1%

When you figure in the votes of the non-active candidates, you come to the conclusion that in this R+10 District, Democrats received over 50% of the vote, which does not bode well for Davis, who did not fare well outside his DeSoto County base. to win back this district would be SWEET, knowing that all those people who ran crying to DeSoto County because they hated those evil liberals and well, you know, are going to be represented in Congress by a DEMOCRAT.

I love it, and want more.

Pennsylvania? Who cares? For a 10-point victory, she only won THREE more delegates at last count. You need only look below to see what it would take for her to win the nomination. Her campaign is deader than a week-old-fish, and smells about the same at this point.

Let's celebrate REAL victory tonight, and remember to help out Childers if you have time, he's already running runoff ads on the 10 PM local news here. Heh.

Oh, and one last thing; here's Matt's closing comment:

No one likes Republicans, even in R+10 districts.

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It's time for some MISSIONARY work, my Democratic brothers and sisters

Now, I know what you're thinking, here, folks, Travis Childers is likely to be a Blue Dog and not as progressive as we like. Well, for a R+10 district, he does right fine, supporting FAIR Trade rather than Free Trade, which equates to giving our jobs away for nothing.

Face it, folks, we have the opportunity to steal one away from the Goopers IN NORTH MISSISSIPPI!!!!! HEL-LOOO! Not only that, this will help Childers retain the seat in the fall and help the Senatorial campaign of Ronnie Musgrove as well. Anything that makes Haley Barbour soil himself is something I can support!

I know he's not likely to be on ActBlue (and, sadly, it might hurt him in the short-term if he WERE), so, can ya help a brother out here? Do you REALLY want Greg Davis working in Congress against everything we stand for? Or would you rather have a guy who will be with us more often than not? We report, you decide!