Election Revisited

In addition to the state judicial elections what may be next most important regarding the election for readers of this blog are presidential appointments. The Clarion Ledger printed a story this morning that has a good recap of some of the impact a President Obama will have on appointments in Mississippi regarding federal judges and federal district attorneys.

the election post script

After giving it a week to soak in I wanted to reflect on the Mississippi elections of last week. The winners were:

Sen: Thad Cochran
Sen: Roger Wicker
HR: Travis Childers
HR: Bennie Thompson
HR: Gregg Harper
HR: Gene Taylor
and John McCain carried MS with 56% of the vote

None of these can really be said to be upsets with perhaps the width of the Wicker victory over Musgrove by 10% and it was slightly surprising the ease at which Childers defeated Davis considering how close the special election was less than a year before.

What was surprising in the election was the races for the Mississippi Supreme Court as 3 of the 4 challengers were successful in their bids to the State's highest judicial offices.

Justice Ann Lamar successfully held her seat as Chief Justice Jim Smith lost to Jim Kitchens, Justice Chuck Easley was defeated by Court of Appeals Judge David Chandler, and Justice Oliver Diaz was defeated by Chancellor Bubba Pierce. While this may not cause seismic shifts on the court (Pierce is probably more conservative than Diaz and Kitchens is less conservative than Smith while Chandler and Easley often rule in civil cases similarly) this could be an interesting new court as 1/3 of the highest court in Mississippi is infused with new blood.