Pike County’s Republican and Democratic party chairs talked about elections at civic club meetings in January.
Democratic Chair Etta Taplin talked about elections and good candidates in general, while GOP Chair Bobby McDaniel focused on McComb elections, including those coming up on May 1 and 15 and June 19, specifically.
Those addresses caused some concern for Vernell Simmons, McComb’s Democratic Executive Committee chair, and committee member Mickel Sandifer.
“We have no argument with anything they said,” Sandifer said. “We just don’t want there to be any confusion in the public.”
Sandifer and Simmons noted that the city’s party executive committees hold the primary elections and runoffs for city offices, not the county parties or executive committees.
The primary elections in McComb are May 1, with runoffs on May 15. The city election commission will conduct the general election on June 19.
Anyone seeking information or wanting to volunteer for the primary elections would need to contact the city-level party officials.
“We have duly elected officials for the city of McComb,” Simmons said.
“I respect both of (the county party chairs) as servants of the community who are doing their best for their parties, but we are elected for the city of McComb.
“I don’t want to diminish their opinion, but they’re speaking on issues concerning the city.”
“There’s nothing wrong with what they said,” Sandifer added. “It just should have come from the McComb executive committee.”
Martha Fender, the GOP municipal executive chair, said she took no issue with the county chairs’ remarks and declined further comment.
