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| Yvonne R. Brown For Congress |
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With so much going on around the world, it is refreshing to see a honest and "For The People" person running for congress. Yvonne Brown is just such a person. As a second term Mayor of Tchula, Mississippi, Yvonne is challenging the 13 year incumbent, Benny Thompson for the District 2 House Seat. Why is the Chittlin Circuit so concerned about this race? Well, one of Ms. Brown's platforms is that music education should be funded and taught in the public schools. "Music helps children learn" explains Ms. Brown. Donald V. Adderton, an assistant city editor of the Herald News, in New Jersey wrote an excellent opinion piece, Auguest 20, 2006 which you can read here
New Jersey Herald News Sunday, August 20, 2006 With hostilities bubbling in southern Lebanon, enhanced terrorist threats to air travel and out-of-control Jersey property taxes in the fore, other issues can slip quietly under the radar. Such is the case in the 2nd District, which covers the Mississippi Delta, and is one of the poorest and misunderstood areas in the nation. For 14 years, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson has presided over a region of poverty, welfare, illiteracy, teenage pregnancy, spiraling unemployment and a steady erosion of industry. Yet the rotund Thompson boasts of what he has done for this overwhelming Democratic and African-American district. The 58-year-old Thompson never misses an opportunity to make note of his strident civil rights stance, having been one of the lead plaintiffs in the landmark 1975 Jake Ayers case, which eventually forced the state of Mississippi to have greater equity in funding its historically black colleges and traditionally white universities. But from my vantage point Thompson has been selective in addressing the concerns of his constituency, especially when they do not look like him. To many whites in the 2nd District, the seven-term congressman has been MIA. Thompson, the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, has only faced one serious challenge and appears to see Tchula Mayor Yvonne Brown's candidacy as a slight political speed bump on the way to an eighth term. Perhaps it was Thompson's obvious insouciance that prompted Brown to seek the Republican nomination for the congressional seat. You see, the 53-year-old two-term mayor of the tiny Mississippi Delta hamlet in Holmes County got tired of being sick and tired of enduring Thompson's brand of race-based politics. When Brown took office in 2001, she became the first black female Republican to be elected in Mississippi. And her political star has ascended all the way to the White House. But Brown still has an uphill battle against the well-financed Thompson, who displayed his political prowess earlier this year in dispatching popular state Rep. Chuck Espy of Clarksdale in the Democratic primary. "She has no chance of winning," said Tim Kalich, editor and publisher of the Greenwood (Miss) Commonwealth, and long-time observer of Mississippi politics. "I think it's pretty indicative of the incumbency of Bennie Thompson." In the early going, Brown has encountered difficulty attracting campaign money, which is odd in a state that boasts two high-profile senators in Trent Lott and Thad Cochran, and whose governor is Haley Barbour, former chairman of Republican National Committee. "I have been singing," Brown acknowledged, "but the choir is not behind me. But if (GOP) want to win this election they need to get busy." But it appears the so-called smart money has not shown a political inkling or appetite for Brown's congressional candidacy. "You have to put money where you think you can win," Kalich said. "The Republicans are putting the money where they think they can win." In the meantime, the attractive congressional candidate is running on a platform of access to information, inclusion and participation, accountability and local organizational capacity. She wants 2nd District residents to have "freedom of choice and action, which enables them to better influence the course of their decisions affecting them." Dismayed at what she sees as a region of the nation that was once an agricultural hub, Brown says Thompson's incumbency has done little for the economically and socially-challenged Mississippi Delta. "Before I became mayor the incumbent spent a lot of time in Tchula," Brown said with a trace irritation creeping into her voice. "If my constituents are your constituents, then why do you keep standing on my neck?" There are so many resources that could improve Mississippi Delta life that go untapped, Brown said. "I want to bring rural America venture opportunity," she said. "The incumbent could have used his influence – but he has not -- to bring together business and commerce, which is the backbone of America." To initiate a true social and economic metamorphosis, you have to be seated at the table engaged in the human dialogue, something Brown said Thompson has not done consistently. "If you do not have the dialogue, the people do not profit, because they are not empowered," she said. While the two have engaged in brief political repartee, so far Thompson has not shown an inclination to debate Brown on the issues affecting the 2nd District. Heading into the campaign home stretch, Brown said she is faced with transforming an entrenched political mindset that blacks continue to harbor serious reservations about supporting GOP candidates -- even though the so-called tent of inclusion has been widened. "The challenge lies in getting the swing voters – those who voted for Chuck Espy," Brown said. "I think African-Americans are conservative and share those values." But Brown said she intends to push on and stump for the vote Thompson has taken for granted for so many years. "It is about responsibility and access," Brown said. Donald V. Adderton is an assistant city editor of the Herald News. He can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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