Max Phillips (R) vs. Cindy Hyde-Smith (D) for Mississippi Agriculture Commissioner
**Update 7/28** Max Phillips was endorsed by the Clarion Ledger: READ HERE
The Neshoba County fair coverage seemed to be uneventful with all candidates staying civil AP COVERAGE HERE
Alan Lange the very accurate and respected handicapper at YallPolitics picked Max Phillips to win in a close race with Cindy Hyde-Smith running second READ HERE
Cindy Hyde-Smith was endorsed by outgoing Ag Commissioner Lester Spell
There are 2 active campaigns, Max Phillips and Cindy Hyde-Smith who look ready to duke it out for the Republican nod on August 2nd.
The amount of emails and traffic from our original post on this race received leads us to believe that there is a lot more interest in this race than most political insiders might think.
A breakdown of where the race stands right now:
Campaign finance numbers have pulled close to equal with Max Phillips continuing to hold a slight edge.
After exhaustive conversations with everyone who would speak to us off the record about the race (GOP county officers, local officials, Tea Party reps, Republican hacks and a couple lobbyists) our notes revealed common themes and phrases, the most common of those are as follows:
Cindy Hyde-Smith: is actually somewhat despised by the grass-roots because they resent the fact that she changed parties only to run for this office, she is essentially a Democrat in a Republican primary, but was an early Jackson Lobbyist favorite who was fading fast until she infused her campaign with $40,000 personal contribution and pulled in some money from Labor Unions. Hyde-Smith seems to have the support of Democrats, Lobbyists and Labor Unions but we don’t see any Republican groups supporting her right now and have a hard time imagining any Conservative backing someone who was in the same party as Barack Obama only 6 months ago, has only been in elected office as a Democrat and voted for the beef plant.
Although Hyde-Smith did get a nice article from Sid Salter comparing her to Geraldine Ferraro here
***Updated*** Cindy Hyde-Smith released her ad today 7/15/11
not too shabby really, for a normal Commissioner of Ag candidate it’s par for the course, it does some tricks to hide the fact that Cindy was not born on a farm, says “born in a Christian household” and that her daughter will be “a 5th generation farmer” and she calls herself a Republican which is a recent development but we digress.
***Updated Again*** After further review we feel that Cindy Hyde-Smith should be chastised for this screen shot, it it blatantly misleading, her father was a truck driver and not a farmer, this is trying to be too cute and this screen shot is a lie, decide for yourself:
The above statement is false and misleading
ROM Overall Grade D- for attempting to mislead voters into thinking she is a farmer.
****ANOTHER UPDATE****
This video was emailed to us from a well known Mississippi politico apparently someone is not too happy about Cindy Hyde-Smith and her resume inflation, so much so that they made a little video about it.
Max Phillips: Grassroots favorite and Tea-Party backed candidate who’s campaign stumbled and failed to gain momentum out of the gate has apparently righted the ship has put some money in the bank and has been quickly gaining establishment backing and winning back early Hyde-Smith backers.
And in the biggest news out of this race in cycles Max Phillips has just released his first campaign advertisement. (you heard it right folks a real TV ad in an Ag Commissioners race) We did not expect to see anything substantial out of either campaign until the last week or so.
It can be viewed here:
The ad is surprising if not shocking in how good it is for Ag commissioner candidate, it’s very funny, has great visuals, real talking points and even has a subtle highlight of the difference between the candidates (Cindy Hyde-Smith does not seem like the type to get her boots dirty). It looks to be as well produced as anything around the state right now.
If Max Phillips can raise enough money to keep this on the air he may be able to win this without a runoff. If nothing else this is going to force Cindy’s hand. We will see what she can come back with. (*update* we have seen and it is posted above… Yawn)
ROM Overall Grade: A+
This race should be an easy one to call although it’s far from over, electing a Democrat who is funded by labor union money in Republican primary to this office would truly be an embarrassment to Conservatives across the state. ROM pulls the trigger in it’s first race of the year and officially endorses Max Phillips for Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce in the August 2nd Republican Primary.
-ROM
***Updated*** Dr. Dannie Reed is still around, we had not seen a sign or an ad or a piece of mail or a strong fundraising report so we mistakenly assumed that he was not pursuing the race with real vigor he dropped by and added a comment so we felt obliged to include it in the post out of equal time/fairness or whatever.
From Rep Dannie Reed: “That (sic) is Dr. Dannie Reed, Doctorate of Agriculture Real Experience (sic) , servicing and developing farmers and Ag. as a County Agent. Elected Twice as a Republican, never lost, unoposed (sic) second race. But worked every day and not a lobbyist . The people will see who is the best,”
Explore posts in the same categories: Campaigns, Candidate Research, Cindy Hyde Smith, Commissioner of Agriculture, Dannie Reed, Democrats, Endorsements, Fundraising, Max Phillips, Mississippi 2011, Mississippi Campaign Finance Reports, Mississippi Elections 2011, Money in Politics, Republicans, Rumors, TV Advertising, Uncategorized, You Tube
Right of Mississippi 
July 12, 2011 at 12:33 am
Max Phillips ad showes that he isn’t afraid to get his boots dirty to help farmers. This is the person that we need as Agriculture Commissioner. Max is the best person for the job.
July 12, 2011 at 10:58 am
If everyone doesnt know, I sure do that this site and blog is just pro
Max. Dannie Reed got in this race first and will be there to win.
That is Dr. Dannie Reed, Doctorate of Agriculture
Real Experience , servicing and developing farmers and Ag. as a County Agent. Elected Twice as a Republican, never lost, unoposed second race.
And by the way,, not on disability, but worked every day and not a lobbyist . The people will see who is the best, not you political money makers and paid for bloggers.
July 12, 2011 at 9:43 pm
Well hey Mr. Reed, we take real offense to this, we work hard on this blog and don’t get a dime for it. We had not heard from you, will update the post.
July 14, 2011 at 8:27 am
Dannie Reed For Commissioner of AG & Commerce!
Dannie may not have a TV add out, but he’s on the ground meeting people where it counts. Don’t be fooled into thinking that Max has all of the TEA Party support. Dannie has been working at this for a while. I believe him to be THE qualified CONSERVATIVE candidate in this race. Most TEA Party groups have decided to not endorse candidates, but understand that informed and educated voters will decide. In the last election, some TEA Party groups learned a valuable lesson that slick TV adds do not make a candidate a conservative… and are not so quick to fall for the same thing again.
Sometimes a candidate will compromise principals to gain campaign funds. GOBRs (Good Ole Boy Republicans) and the establishment Republicans like to gain influence along with their support. Who wouldn’t? I’ll bet that Dannie is getting support from those who are in the fight to preserve our freedom and way of life. According to his web site, Max was impaired from an injury enough so that he couldn’t teach and I’m glad hat he’s better and can forgo his recommended disability retirement so he can go back to work IF he’s elected to serve.
Dannie has been in the field helping to develop commerce and production for farmers and businesses for 20 years as County Agent and then representing D35 in the legislature. Dannie is well equipped with education and experience to continue his service as Commissioner of Ag. & Commerce. Danny won’t have to give up a retirement to serve, or compromise his principals because of the special interests’ support. Dannie will protect the interest of Mississippians who do not want to be forced to yield to the socialist agenda to control all of the property and means of industrial and food production.
This statewide office will be much more important in the years to come. You may have noticed the June 9th release of the executive order of President Obama which establishes the “White House Rural Council”. It’s billed purpose is to “Strengthen Rural Communities”. This plan fits nicely into the UN’s agenda for the 21st century, referred to as “Agenda 21”. We’ll need an Ag Commissioner who can protect MS from this power grab and structure for the NEW World Order. Dannie Reed is the one who can recognize this for what it is and help protect MS from succumbing to the dictates of the UN. Are the other two candidates accepting of this plan, or are way behind the learning curve.
Dannie is prepared. Ready to serve.
Thank you for your tireless work to make this blog available. You do great work.
July 15, 2011 at 2:37 am
Gary, we were absolutely not aware of any of this, please explain how the UN is planning to attack Mississippi Agriculture through the Rural Council? sincere apologies but you are speaking over our heads. What can Dannie do to stop the advancing socialist New World Order as Ag Commissioner?
July 15, 2011 at 10:49 pm
Ole Dr. Dannie has resorted negative gossipy attacks over the place about Max. It does nothing but make him look desperate.
I have yet to see Max go down that road and that is one reason he has my vote.
July 18, 2011 at 8:41 am
The year was 1965 a paper dollar was the same as a silver dollar. A farmer was paid a silver dollar for producing 3 pounds of beef.
Fast forward to 2011 and 46 years of borrow & spend a farmer has to produce 25 pounds of beef to get that same silver dollar.
This is our problem, our leaders are in collusion with the Federal Reserve Banking Cartel stealing our labor & production with fiat paper.
Farmers in the State of Mississippi have lost over $90,000,000,000.00 of purchasing power due to loss in the value of our currency received for crops & livestock by farmers since 1969.
This is at the foundation of our State & Nation’s fiscal problems.
Max is well aware of this problem and is ready and able to start on the road to lead the recovery of our family farms & rural communties that have been devastated by this plunder of our state’s wealth.
July 23, 2011 at 3:49 am
The official position of both the MS Tea Party (a MS non-profit corp.) and of the Central MS Tea Party is that neither organization has or will endorse any candidate in the primary elections.
The MSTP and the CMTP will each selectively endorse candidates after the primary.
Any endorsement will not be based upon party affiliation (Republican or Democrat), but rather will be grounded solely upon a candidate’s adherence to the tea party core principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and constitutionally limited goverment.
Mark Mayfield
Board Member of MSTP and CMTP