Watch CBS News

Racial Politics In Miss. Special Election

In the run-up to today's hotly-contested special election in Mississippi's First District, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has targeted the African-American community with several fliers accusing the Republican party and its nominee, Greg Davis, of racial insensitivity.

The latest direct mail piece accuses Davis, the mayor of the Memphis suburb of Southaven, of attempting to honor Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest with a statue of him in his hometown -- a charge that the Davis campaign vigorously disputes.

And on Sunday, Democratic officials distributed DCCC fliers at African-American churches in the district that accuse Republicans of making it "harder for us to vote - fake phone calls, calls with the wrong election date, uniformed guards at the polls, even people inside the polls challenging each and every vote."

"You've seen the TV ads attacking Barack Obama - trying to use race and religion to divide us," the flier reads. "We've worked too long and too hard to let this happen….Don't let them divide Mississippi with their dirty tricks."

Republicans cried foul on the fliers, calling them a "premeditated effort to insert race into the campaign."
Continue reading post...

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.