Local political watchers are saying “it’ll never happen,” but Bill Marcy, a conservative, black Republican with strong Tea Party support, is poised to upset the 16-year-incumbent Democrat Bennie Thompson, who also is black, in Mississippi’s 2nd district — so says the first poll taken in this district in more than a decade.

As of Sept. 17, polling data showed Thompson with 35 percent, Marcy with 34 percent and 31 percent undecided. In this “majority minority district,” which has been gerrymandered repeatedly to maintain a substantial black majority and has continued to be the poorest district in the U.S., Marcy is chasing the incumbent to the finish line. With total funds of less than $50,000 to date against Thompson’s fat $2 million-plus war chest, Marcy has become a familiar name to conservative whites and blacks of the district. Thompson has been virtually absent on the campaign trail and is probably putting his faith in the strong Democrat machine in the district that runs most polling places and rivals the tactics of the boys in Chicago.

With recent endorsements from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Republican Congressman John Linder of Georgia, Marcy is making a serious run at the powerful Chairman of Homeland Security.

While the national pundits’ growing attention to the races in Mississippi’s 1st and 4th districts, where two other Democrat seats are in grave jeopardy, is well-deserved, why nobody is watching the 2nd is hard to understand.

A win by a conservative in the 2nd would “rock the foundations of Mississippi politics.” Marcy has the votes to win, but Thompson owns the people who run the polls.

Alan Ramsay

Yazoo City