By Emelie Rutherford
As Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) faces one of his toughest reelection battles during his 21 years in Congress, he is receiving ample financial support from the defense industry and touting his military-related work to voters.
Taylor, the chairman of the House Armed Services Seapower and Expeditionary Forces subcommittee, is ahead of his Republican opponent, Mississippi state representative Steven Palazzo, in polls, some of which reportedly show only a slim lead.
Taylor said two of his campaign’s internal polls of voters show him with an 8-point lead over his GOP challenger. Palazzo, however, has told reporters a late September poll shows him leading Taylor by only four points, which would put the two in a statistical dead head.
The Cook Political Report, meanwhile, has labeled the race for Mississippi’s 4th congressional district a “toss up.” The National Republican Congressional Committee has pumped significant funds into Palazzo’s coffers, and the Republican easily outraised Taylor in campaign donations from July through September.
Taylor, in an interview with Defense Daily, said his race is “closer than usual,” but expressed confidence that he will win. Palazzo’s campaign did not return requests for comment.
Taylor is leading Palazzo in fundraising overall, with $615,000 raised to the Republican’s $534,000 as of Sept. 30, according to reports they filed in mid-October with the Federal Election Commission.
Taylor has received far more from military interests; a Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) analysis of campaign contributions shows “sea transport” to be the top industry contributing to Taylor, and “defense aerospace” coming in as his No. 3 industry contributor. Neither group donated significantly to Palazzo, who previously served in the Marine Corps Reserves and now is in the Mississippi National Guard.
Employees of General Dynamics [GD], Northrop Grumman [NOC], and L-3 Communications [LLL] are among Taylor’s top donors, while CRP data on Palazzo shows no contributions from such large defense contractor’s employees. Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls shipyard is in Taylor’s district.
The incumbent congressman said some of his hardest-working campaign workers hail from smaller shipyards in the district that work on Pentagon contracts. Northrop Grumman, he said, is sitting on billions of dollars worth of unsigned contracts that he helped deliver to the company.
Military matters and defense contracting have arisen in the Taylor-Palazzo race.
“I do remind people that there are approximately 38,000 defense-related jobs down here,” Taylor said, “and that I have worked very hard to protect those jobs and to make sure that they continue to provide meaningful work for our nation.”
Taylor is running a radio advertisement touting his efforts to prod the Pentagon to buy blast-deflecting Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAPs) for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said he also has talked about his support for buying up-armored Humvees, and explosive jammers, as well as his support for the Pentagon’s new plan to put missile defenses on Navy destroyers around Europe.
“That ship is a DDG-51, and that DDG-51 is built in Pascagoula, Miss.,” Taylor said. “I am reminding people of all of those things.”
Voters across the country will decide on Nov. 3 if the Democrats will keep control of the House or if Republicans will take over. If the GOP prevails–as some observers predict it will– Republicans will gain control of committees and subcommittees, including the Seapower subpanel Taylor now chairs. Its ranking Republican member is Rep. Todd Akin (D-Mo.), an outspoken advocate of aircraft made by Boeing [BA], a major employer in his district.
Taylor argues: “A vote for me is a vote to have someone who emphasizes shipbuilding running the Seapower subcommittee.”
“A vote for my Republican competitor (Palazzo) is a vote to have a guy (Akin) who wants to build airplanes running the Seapower subcommittee,” Taylor maintained; that’s because the determination of which party will have control of the House could be decided by just a few elections.
“We are from shipbuilding country down here,” Taylor added.
Taylor also has been advocating for making House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) speaker of the House, if Democrats remain in control of the House. Palazzo has slammed Taylor for supporting current Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the past.
Palazzo and Taylor are scheduled to debate on Oct. 29.