Cindy is correct that Mike is outraising her (though to win, Mike needs enough funds for a GOTV operation to reach MS Democratic voters who became inactive voters since 2008 and to improve his margin of white voters by a hair). 2/
The Front Row PAC produced an independent ad opposing Cindy too. 6/
Also relevant, the Mississippians for Compassionate Care PAC raised nearly $2.6 million to support Initiative 65 (medical marijuana), a ballot measure Cindy vehemently opposes. See cfportal.sos.ms.gov/online/portal/… 7/
A second ballot measure—whether to adopt the In God We Trust flag as Mississippi's state flag instead of Mississippi's 1894 flag (which contains the Confederate flag)—is also expected to increase turnout supporting Espy. 8/ mississippitoday.org/2020/09/02/in-…
The Confederate-style 1894 flag, now retired, is shown in this @ProjectLincoln ad. My sense here in Mississippi is that Mississippi's moderate and liberal voters are overwhelmingly excited to vote on the new flag to ensure the 1894 flag stays retired. 9/
A third ballot measure—whether to remove from the MS Constitution a Jim Crow provision designed to ensure that our statewide-elected state gov't officials are white—is expected to increase turnout supporting Espy even further. 10/ mississippitoday.org/2020/06/29/vot…
As Mike pointed out Saturday, Cindy is lying about her record. Since Cindy refuses to debate Mike, refuses almost all media, and holds no town halls, her campaign is limited to its ability to produce and fund disinformation. 11/
Incidentally, Cindy still has nearly $200,000 she keeps in a state campaign fund that she segregated before Mississippi's campaign finance ethics reform took effect in 2018. 12/
Political candidates in Mississippi could use campaign funds for personal expenses or even disburse campaign funds to themselves as personal income before 2018.
Mississippi's ethics reform law does not apply to donations made before 2018 kept in a segregated account, such as the ~$200,000 of her donors' money that Cindy keeps in her own segregated account. 14/
Cindy could use that ~$200,000 to support her current campaign instead of keeping it in a segregated, pre-ethics reform account so that she can disburse it to herself as personal income at any time.
Instead, Cindy asks for MORE donations. 15/
Meanwhile, Cindy's donors are still waiting for at least $50,000 worth of refunds they demanded in 2018 when Cindy said "I'd be on the front row" for a public hanging and "it's a great idea" to make voting difficult. 16/ abcnews.go.com/Politics/repub…
After being introduced by the host, Naresh Vissa, Vissa asked Cindy about what she had done for Hindu Americans, and Cindy responded that she had hired Umesh Sanjanwala as her chief aide when she became MS agriculture commissioner.
THREAD—Three GOP 5th Circuit judges revived a TX lawsuit for an order requiring voters to wear masks.
The 5th Circuit has jurisdiction over MS as well as TX, and its implicit holding that states can require voters to wear masks rebukes @MississippiSOS. 1/ foxnews.com/politics/coron…
The TX lawsuit sought many items of relief, all of which the district court and 5th Circuit rejected EXCEPT for the plaintiffs' claim under the Voting Rights Act for a mask mandate at polling places.
The VRA claim is that failure to mandate masks unduly burdens Texans' of color right to vote because it unduly exposes voters to COVID-19, a disease that disproportionately affects people of color. 3/