Democrats Hope to Defy Odds in Mississippi

From The New York Times:

Mississippi has not elected a Democrat to an open Senate seat since 1947, but that is not stopping the Democratic Party from heavily financing a major effort here, one of a handful of states — including North Carolina, Minnesota and possibly Oregon — it thinks it can pull from Republicans this fall in a reach for the filibuster-proof 60-vote majority.

More than $3 million has been spent by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to support [Former Mississippi Governor Ronnie] Musgrove; turn on a television here and the candidates can be found flailing at each other’s ethics, morals and probity in what local analysts say is a never-seen-before barrage of negative advertisements.

Mr. Musgrove has inched up in the polls and one recent survey showed him statistically even with the Republican incumbent, Roger Wicker, a former congressman appointed in December to fill the Senate seat vacated by Trent Lott.

The odds for a Democratic pickup, however, out of all the states in play, may be longest in Mississippi.