DCCC links Davis to KKK founder’s statue

National Democrats distributed a racially charged flier on the eve of Mississippi’s special House election, tying the Republican candidate in the race to the Ku Klux Klan in a last-minute effort to win the crucial contest Tuesday.

Republicans immediately decried the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) flier as desperate and said the charges are untrue. They also noted that Democrats never brought up the issue for a full airing, instead waiting until the last minute, when it couldn’t be examined fully by voters.

Polls were set to close on the special election after press time Tuesday. Results will be posted at digital-staging.thehill.com.

The document, posted Monday by a right-leaning political blog in Mississippi, states that GOP candidate Greg Davis “wanted to honor the founder of the KKK with a statue in Southaven,” where Davis serves as mayor.

“Davis supported moving the statue of the founder of the Ku Klux Klan and first Grand Wizard from Memphis to Southaven after civil rights leaders tried to have it taken down,” says the flier, which features pictures of two African-Americans with stern looks on their faces.

The article cited on the flier never makes a direct link between Davis and the statue, of Ku Klux Klan organizer Nathan Bedford Forrest, but the language is ambiguous enough for Democrats to defend their case.

Davis was locked in what looked to be a tight battle with Prentiss County Chancery Clerk Travis Childers (D) for the former House seat of appointed Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). Childers beat Davis, 49 percent to 46, three weeks ago, but the race headed to a runoff since neither candidate got a majority.

Davis campaign spokesman Ted Prill said the flier is “a complete falsehood and a lie,” and maintained that Davis never said that he would have taken the Forrest statue from Memphis, where it had become controversial. He did express interest in accepting a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Prill said.

“They called and asked Mayor Davis if he had any interest in any of the statues … and Mayor Davis basically said, ‘You know, I’d take the statue of Jefferson Davis, because it’s part of history,’ ” Prill said. “The mayor next door in Horn Lake said, ‘Yeah, I’ll take ’em all.’ One of those happened to be [Forrest].

“It’s completely untrue to say that Greg Davis wanted the [Forrest] statue in Southaven.”

The Memphis Commercial Appeal, which is cited in the flier, reported in 2005 that Greg Davis and Horn Lake Mayor Nat Baker “said they would gladly accept the statues here in DeSoto (County) if Memphis didn’t want them.”

The story mentions both statues, but does not elaborate on who agreed to take which.

In a previous story, the Commercial Appeal specifically said Greg Davis would be willing to display the Jefferson Davis statue near City Hall in Southaven and that Baker said he would take the Forrest statue “in a heartbeat.”

The later story does make reference to Greg Davis’s offer to accept “the statues” — plural — but it never specifically says he wanted the Forrest statue. The Jefferson Davis and Forrest statues are the only statues mentioned in the story.

Greg Davis is quoted as saying, “We were just placing ourselves as an alternative for if the city wanted to move the statues,” but it’s not clear to whom the pronoun “we” refers — the city of Southaven or himself and Baker.

The Jefferson Davis statue was also considered controversial, though the Confederate leader is not known for ties to the KKK.

A 2005 New York Times story, which was not cited in the flier, does make a direct link between Greg Davis and the Forrest statue.

“Last week, the mayor of Southaven, Miss. … said he would be happy to have the Forrest equestrian statue in Southaven,” the Times reported several days after the Commercial Appeal articles, without citing a source.

Mississippi’s 1st district is about one-quarter black, meaning black voters make up a significant portion of the Democratic base.

The DCCC stood by the flier.

“The flier is factual, a part of the public record, and has been in the press many times — voters deserve to know Davis’s record,” DCCC spokeswoman Jennifer Crider said in a statement.

Republicans, however, blasted the campaign strategy.

“This is a despicable move, even for the DCCC,” said Ken Spain, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). “False accusations and race-baiting politics have no place in our public discourse, and if Democrats want to continue to pursue this line of attack, then it will backfire in November.”

Childers spokesman Terry R. Cassreino distanced the campaign from the mailer: “It’s not from our campaign, and we know nothing about it. We are totally focused today on reminding as many voters as possible to get out and vote.”