District vote set; contender may quit

Democrat says he's "been through enough" in disputed Senate race
By Julie Goodman
jgoodman@clarionledger.com

The state Senate voted Tuesday to hold a new election in Hinds County District 29, but the Democratic contender says he is financially and emotionally drained and is considering pulling out of the race.

In a 35-13 vote, lawmakers agreed to throw out the results of the Senate race between Democrat Dewayne Thomas and Republican Richard White. A new election was set for Feb. 10.

Thomas, who watched the proceedings from the floor, said he would decide by the end of the week whether he will stay in the race. If he pulls out, White could be sworn in immediately.

"We've already been through enough, and I don't know if I want to go through any more of this," Thomas said. "They should have went ahead and seated him (White). That's apparently what they wanted."

Thomas' 19-year-old son, Ryan, who had helped him campaign, was killed in an automobile accident two months before the Nov. 4 election. Also, Thomas said he's put nearly $100,000 of his own money into the race, relying heavily on credit extended to him by his bank.

White said he's not well-off financially, either.

"Some of the things that I've done caused him to spend money and some of the things that he's done have caused me to spend money," he said.

But he said he'd gone too far and was looking forward to hitting the campaign trail again.

"I don't want to be a whiner, I'm not a sore loser, but if they had gone by state law ... I would have been the winner to start with. Give me a break here," he said.

During several hours of floor debate, Democrats railed against holding a second election, calling it a "terrible" precedent that will shake the Senate's integrity while disenfranchising voters.

The discussion primarily focused on whether a revote should be held in the whole 22-precinct district or be limited to the one precinct where most of the problems occurred.

"You don't go whipping the whole class because one child misbehaved," Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, said.

A special legislative committee had recommended throwing out last year's election in which Thomas was certified the winner by 135 votes over White. White, the incumbent, appealed to the Senate after irregularities were discovered.

Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, unsuccessfully offered an amendment to limit the revote to precinct 94, where 565 paper ballots were not initialed as required by law. Of those votes, 66 were for White and 487 for Thomas.

"Why on earth do we not restrict the remedy to precinct 94? I fear that what the Senate is about to do is going to set a terrible, terrible precedent," he said to his colleagues. "Are you going to feel comfortable four years from now when your opponent can ... find some flaw in your election and come down here and file a complaint with the Senate?"

But Sen. Terry Burton, R-Newton, chairman of the special panel, said uninitialed ballots were reported at eight other precincts, and the only way to fix the problems is to hold a district-wide election.

"If people running the election are doing it wrong in violation of state law, that's not your fault, it's not my fault, it's not the voters' fault," he said.

Beverly Anderson, 44, a White supporter who has been at the Capitol to watch the committee hearings, said the Senate vote was fair.

It was not fair, however, for Democrats to push to throw out votes in one precinct when there were reports of irregularities at eight other precincts, she said.

"To me, that was a little hypocritical," said Anderson, a stay-at-home mother in Byram.

Angie Pope, also of Byram, said that although she plans to vote again for Thomas, other voters may not be so eager.

"I think that they've just gotten apathetic toward it because of the way it's been handled," said Pope, 44, a cosmetics saleswoman. "They're probably going to think, 'Well, I voted one time, that should be sufficient.'"

Hinds County Election Commissioner Connie Cochran said she thought the election would cost about $7,500.