Dems wonder what happened in governor primary

State Democratic Party leaders and politicos on Wednesday were still trying to figure out what the !@#$ happened Tuesday night, when an unknown candidate with no financial or political backing won the party’s nomination for governor, handily dousing the assumed frontrunner.

They’re also wondering what it means for the party — already flagging as the state turns more red — in the long term and for down-ticket candidates this year in the short term.

“I’m calling every political consultant, anthropologist and witch doctor in the Southeast to help me understand what happened yesterday,” said Brandon Jones, director of the Mississippi Democratic Trust. “… Anybody who offers a clear-cut formula for yesterday is probably a little ahead of their skis right now.”

Political science professor and longtime observer of state politics Marty Wiseman said, “It’s the freakiest thing I’ve ever seen. … It’s a low point for the Democratic Party, which doesn’t need any more low points. You’d like to think it’s a perfectly pulled off conspiracy by the Republicans, but that’s too far a stretch.”

Terry truck driver and first-time candidate Robert Gray, who goes by “Silent Knight” as his CB handle, carried 79 of 82 counties in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. He pulled more than 147,000 votes, or 51 percent, to presumed frontrunner Vicki Slater’s 87,000 votes, or 30 percent, in a three-way race.

Slater, a politically active attorney, raised more than $235,000 for her campaign and pumped in thousands of her own money. Gray raised and spent zero. He bought no advertising. No yard signs. He made only a couple of public appearances. His own family didn’t know he was running, and he didn’t vote for himself.

Wiseman said on Wednesday night he was picturing Gray, whom he has never met, “on a long haul somewhere between Abilene and Phoenix, having to call in and say, ‘I’m going to have to have some time off. I’ve just received the nomination for governor back home.’ ”

State Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole said, “Unlike most people, I have met Mr. Gray. I found him to be a sincere and genuine person. … The voters have a right to pick their nominee. That’s why we have primaries rather than nominate by convention. The people made their choice.”

But Cole did speculate, “this was a low-information election.”

“You hear people talk about low-information voters or elections,” Cole said. “I think this may have been one of those.”

Cole said he suspects neither Slater, nor candidate Dr. Valerie Short, had created any name ID or brand. He said he suspects most Democratic voters were anxious to get to contested local races on their ballots, so they checked the first name under governor – Gray’s – then “scrolled down.”

Slater would not comment Wednesday, but many of her supporters were blaming the state party for failing to drum up support for her.

Cole said the party does not, and cannot, endorse a candidate in a contested primary with no incumbent, “unless one of the candidates in that primary is really obnoxious to our basic principles.”

Cole was planning to meet with Gray on Wednesday afternoon and offer the party’s help in campaigning for the November general election against incumbent Republican Gov. Phil Bryant. Cole said, “We are at his disposal.”

Cole pooh-poohed questions of whether Gray atop the ticket could hurt voter turnout and Democratic candidates down-ticket.

Jones said the Democratic Trust has been focused on trying to win back a Democratic majority in the state Legislature and that he doesn’t believe Gray’s nomination will hinder those efforts. But he said the Democratic Party does need to “look moments like (Tuesday) squarely in the face” and analyze what happened.

“We’re going to push toward the goal we set when we started this campaign. We still have our eyes set on taking back the Legislature,” Jones said.

But Wiseman said, “you’ve got to wonder” if it will hurt the party in November and beyond.

“This guy can be a wonderful fellow,” Wiseman said. “It’s not that. But when someone who does no more than get his name on the ballot then fades back into the woodwork carries more than 70 counties and gets that many votes, it just tells you the Democratic Party is totally irrelevant. That’s not something you want to hear if you’re a Democrat.”

State Republican Party Chairman Joe Nosef said Gray’s nomination “shows the Democrat (sic) Party is in chaos.” He said he believes the top-ticket meltdown will help Republicans make gains in legislative seats and help Republican candidate Mike Hurst in his challenge of Attorney General Jim Hood, the lone statewide elected Democrat.

“For the second time in a row, their self-anointed candidate for governor gets beaten,” Nosef said. “… On the other side, our candidate (Bryant) gets 92 percent of the vote. And they talk about us not being unified?

“I think to me, this has got to hurt their morale,” Nosef said. “The Democrat Party that was once the party of William Winter now is in a situation where literally they have nominated someone for governor who they don’t know. They don’t know who he is.”

Gray said he plans to stay in the race, and Cole said the party will back him as the nominee. But Nosef wondered Wednesday if that will come to pass.

Nosef said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to pull some Jedi mind trick on us and have this guy withdraw from the race.”

Contact Geoff Pender at (601) 961-7266 or gpender@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @GeoffPender on Twitter.