In any other election year, he’d be called a conservative

Just days before the election, U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) rattled off his virtues to a room full of college students here: Endorsements from the National Rifle Assn. and National Right to Life Committee; his opposition to the healthcare bill, to the bank bailouts, and to altering the Pentagon’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. He praised John McCain and distanced himself from Nancy Pelosi.

Finally, Jaclyn Northrup couldn’t take it anymore. She raised her hand. “You say you’re a Democrat,” she began.

“You don’t sound convinced,” deadpanned Taylor, who has represented south Mississippi in the House for more than 20 years.

Northrup, 22, then asked the obvious question. “Why don’t you just go ahead and do it?” Meaning switch parties, become a Republican.

“As of yet, I have not seen the reason,” Taylor responded.

But the reason, this year, may be as clear as a Gulf Coast autumn day: Taylor appears to be facing possible defeat largely because he has a “D” affixed to his name.

Taylor hasn’t faced a fight like this one for his seat in more than a decade. In his previous six elections, he won with an average of 71% of the vote, a remarkable feat in a heavily conservative and religious district that hasn’t supported a Democratic presidential candidate since Adlai Stevenson.

But Taylor’s high-wire act is looking ever shakier.

He has responded to the challenge from Republican Steven Palazzo by emphasizing his rightward credentials like never before, going so far as to reveal that he voted for McCain for president in 2008. And Friday, it sounded like he still believes the wrong man won.

“People shouldn’t go berserk about that,” Taylor said. “It comes down to who do you like? Who do you trust? Who do you think is going to do the best job?”

In an election year in which Democratic incumbents have been blistered for supporting the healthcare overhaul, or the cap-and-trade climate bill, or the economic stimulus, Taylor has given his foe almost nothing to work with. He voted against all of those measures. The Wall Street bailout? That too.

“I voted no,” he told the students Friday, “but if there was a ‘Hell No’ button, I would have hit it.”

Palazzo, aided by money from outside groups, has tied Taylor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D- San Francisco) and the Democratic agenda at every turn. Taylor voted for Pelosi for speaker, but has said he wouldn’t do so again.

“He’s got a bad habit of trying to be a conservative in south Mississippi and a liberal in D.C.,” Palazzo said Friday before a debate in Pascagoula.

It has helped Palazzo. The two are close in the polls and Taylor concedes he’s in trouble.

A former Coast Guard reservist and member of the fiscally conservative “Blue Dog” caucus, Taylor, 57, chairs the House Armed Services subcommittee on sea power. In the debate, Taylor boasted of helping to secure $45 billion in shipbuilding contracts for the region.

Taylor’s re-election bid saw an unexpected boost last week when Joe Tegerdine, who ran for the GOP nomination here as a “tea party” candidate, endorsed the Democrat.

“If you say he’s a raving liberal, it’s not fair,” Tegerdine said. “He has a solid conservative record.”

Even Northrup, the frustrated young Democrat in Hattiesburg, admitted she could not, in the end, support Palazzo. “I’ve said I’m voting for Gene Taylor and I probably will,” she sighed. “When I calm down.”

Joliphant@latimes.com