Miss.: No Immediate Ruling Expected on Dale’s Candidacy

Attorneys for both sides have given a judge their written arguments about whether Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale should be allowed to seek re-election this year as a Democrat.

It could be several days, however, before Circuit Judge Henry T. Lackey hands down a ruling in the case.

Lackey is based in Calhoun County, but is presiding over a court term in another part of his circuit court district this week.

The state Supreme Court appointed Lackey to decide Dale’s status as a candidate after the state Democratic Executive Committee, on a split vote, decided in mid-March that Dale should not be allowed to run under the party label because he publicly supported President Bush in 2004. The committee vote came about two weeks after candidates’ March 1 qualifying deadline.

Dale took office in January 1976 and has always run as a Democrat. He is arguing now that he should be allowed to run as an independent because the Democratic committee’s actions hurt his candidacy. But the state Elections Commission argues in its legal briefs that Dale’s request to run as an independent “exceeds the jurisdiction and remedial authority of a circuit court.”

Democrats and Republicans paid a fee and filed qualifying papers with their parties by March 1. Independents had to submit 1,000 signatures from qualified voters supporting them.

Dale told The Associated Press last week that he intends to be on ballots this year, regardless of whether it’s as a Democrat or as an independent.

Mississippi voters this year are electing all eight statewide officials and a long list of regional and local officials. Party primaries are Aug. 7 and the general election is Nov. 6.