Republicans drew the short straw Friday in Mississippi.
To break a tie from a Nov. 3 State House election, 20-year Democratic incumbent Bo Eaton and Republican challenger Mark Tullos met in the Governor's crowded conference room on the 19th floor of a State office building to carry out the archaic procedure prescribed in state law, they drew straws.
Eaton, listed first on the ballot, reached into a red canvas bag and pulled out one of two silver-plated business card boxes engraved with the word "Mississippi." Tullos pulled out the other padded box, and the two men opened them.
Eaton's box held the winner, a 3-inch green plastic straw. Tullos' had a 2-inch red straw.
With his victory, Eaton blocks the GOP from having a supermajority in the House, a three-fifths margin that would have allowed Republicans, in theory, to make multimillion-dollar decisions about taxes without seeking help from Democrats.
The fight isn't over. Tullos, an attorney from Raleigh, said before the drawing that if he lost, he intended to ask the House to seat him in January as the winner because he questions whether votes were counted fairly. He had already filed an appeal by Friday.
Certified returns show each candidate received 4,589 votes in the district in south central Mississippi, a part of the state known for oil wells and watermelon fields.
A Tullos victory would have given Republicans 74 seats in the 122-member House. They already have a supermajority in the 52-member State Senate, and Gov. Phil Bryant is Republican. Democrats in the current term have blocked Republicans' efforts to pass hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of tax cuts, arguing instead that Mississippi needs to put more money into chronically underfunded schools. Without a supermajority, Republicans will at least need to court a few Democrats to make changes to tax laws.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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