Deadlock Helps Democrats in Mississippi

The Democrats seemed headed for victory in Mississippi’s race for governor Wednesday, after a deadlock between the top two candidates made it almost certain the contest would be decided with an unprecedented vote in the statehouse.

When the 122 legislators--86 of them Democrats--convene in January, they may have to do what 750,000 voters couldn’t: settle the contest between Democratic Lt. Gov. Ronnie Musgrove and former Republican Rep. Mike Parker.

A victory for Musgrove would be a big win for the Democrats, who took Southern governorships from the GOP last year in Alabama and South Carolina. They lost Mississippi to Gov. Kirk Fordice in 1991, when he became the first Republican to hold the office since Reconstruction.

Musgrove received about 6,500 more votes in Tuesday’s election than Parker. But Musgrove fell short of the 50%-plus required for outright victory. An independent and a Reform Party candidate split 14,000 votes that would have made the difference.

Elsewhere around the country, Democrats captured several key races Tuesday, including mayoral elections in the traditional GOP strongholds of Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio, and in Philadelphia, where a Republican fell just short of breaking the Democrats’ 47-year hold on the office. Democrat Paul Patton cruised to reelection as Kentucky’s governor.

“We had a very positive day on the electoral front as far as Democrats were concerned,” White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said. President Clinton called several victorious Democrats to congratulate them, including Musgrove, Lockhart said.

The GOP was happy about its historic sweep of Virginia’s General Assembly and businessman Sam Katz’s near-upset in Philadelphia, where Republicans are outnumbered nearly 4 to 1. They also held on to a key seat in Washington state that prevented a Democratic sweep there.

“I won’t pretend that there’s any clear national partisan message to be drawn from the various results around the country,” Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson said. “We can point to Virginia--and we will.”

If absentee ballots don’t break the stalemate, the state Constitution calls for the election to be decided in the House. And that prospect troubles Republicans far more than Democrats.

“It looks like we have the key to the governor’s mansion. All we have to do is push open the door and go in,” said state Rep. George Flaggs, a Democrat.

The Constitution requires a winning candidate to have a majority of not just the popular vote but also of the electoral vote. That means carrying a majority of the 122 legislative districts. Election officials were working to analyze the returns to determine how those districts voted.

Only one other state, Vermont, has the same process, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.