MNpublius.com

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a scandal in Mississippi involving Scott Fischbach, the husband of Minnesota State Senator Michelle Fischbach. Apparently Mr. Fischbach is a major player in pro-life politics in Mississippi (as well as the Exec Director of MCCL up here in Minnesota) and he appears to have put the endorsement of Mississippi Right to Life up for sale.

In the race for Lt. Gov, Mississippi Right to Life endorsed State Sen. Charlie Ross despite the fact that all the candidates were adamently Pro-Life. The organization admitted as much in a statement:

“All three candidates are pro-life. That will be on our Web site along with the information on all the other candidates that we sent questionnaires to. Jamie Franks and Charlie Ross both have pro-life voting records for these last four years. Phil Bryant did in the past when he was in the Legislature. All three of them have been endorsed by the PAC. This makes them all equal.”

That’s dandy, except they weren’t all equal. Ross had a secret weapon in Scott Fischbach, who was called “the backbone of our organization” by Mississippi Right to Life’s spokesman. Ross, you see, was also a client of Fischbach’s consulting firm. He was not, however, Fischbach’s first choice…

But a March 10, 2007, memo from Fischbach to Bryant paints a different picture. In that memo, which Fischbach confirmed, he said: “This race is going to be decided in the next 120 days and I want to do my part to ensure your victory.” Bryant didn’t hire him.

Well, turns out Bryant made the right decision - he just crushed Ross in the Lt. Gov primary 57%-43%. So the question is: was Ross hurt by this mini-scandal or was Fischbach’s consulting work just really bad?