On January 14, a Mississippi Circuit judge ruled that the state must hold a special election to fill Trent Lott’s U.S. Senate seat before March 19, 2008. The ruling came after 5 pm. The case is State ex rel Hood v Barbour, 251-08-02-cv, Hinds County.
The lawsuit involved an interpretation of Mississippi law regarding vacancies in the U.S. Senate. Lott resigned in December 2007. The law’s intent seems to be that special elections for U.S. Senate should be held within 90 days of the vacancy, unless the state is about to hold a regularly-scheduled statewide election. The legislator who wrote the law didn’t seem to think about what would happen if the vacancy occurred in November or December of an election year. 2007 was a statewide election year in Mississippi; all state offices were up then.
The case will almost certainly be appealed very quickly to the State Supreme Court. Democrats tend to want an election soon; Republicans tend to hope that there will be no special election until November 2008. That is because Governor Barbour, a Republican, appointed Roger Wicker to the seat, and both Barbour and Wicker would prefer that there be no election for ten months. Thanks to Steve Rankin for this news.