Uncertainty Reigns as MS-01 Special Approaches

With less than two weeks to go until the May 12 special election , the free-for-all to fill the seat of late GOP Rep. Alan Nunnelee is heating up. Just about the only certainties here are that the race will go to a June 2 runoff and that a Republican will win. Most insiders have long believed Northern District Transportation Commissioner Mike Tagert and Tupelo prosecutor Trent Kelly would make the runoff, but with the field split 13 ways, that's far from assured. In fact, Starner Jones, a Tea Party physician who has most recently practiced in Memphis and loaned his campaign $350,000 and ridicules "Obama's Welfare Wagon" in his ads has the potential to take advantage of the split field and upend an otherwise sleepy special election. Many recent special elections in safe GOP seats have become negative, high-spending, highly ideological arms races. But until now, this northern Mississippi contest has been a largely positive, friends-and-neighbors affair. That's understandable, given that there are two runoff slots available and no one sees it as wise or a necessity to "go